Pulse? What Pulse?

Why I Gave Up Fear And Learned To Love My Metronome

Pulse is the most important element in music. "Pulse" and "tempo" are often taken for the same thing. They are not. They are related but not the same concept.  Music is experienced in perceptual time. "Pulse" is the perceptual framework that allows us to experience music.  "Tempo" is the objectification of "pulse".

Well, is that clear as mud?? Of course not, mud is much more transparent that the preceding paragraph! Let me try to clarify, "tempo" is a term that describes pulse.  We say that the tempo is "fast", "slow", 120 beats per minute, and so forth.  "Pulse", on the other hand is the regular recurring heart beat that allows us to manipulate the experience of listeners. A performance that ignores pulse is much like a novel or short story that ignores plot.

Pulse is related to "time".  We, as humans, experience everything against a ground that we call "time". We speak of "time flying by" or "dragging on forever". That is an indication that time, as we experience it, is inconsistent. Since human experience is not an adequate judge of time, we have invented clocks and metronomes to keep us honest. Time, as measured by clocks and metronomes is called "real-time".

Music, at it's essence, exists in real-time but is a manipulation of experiential time. The emotion that music creates comes about through this manipulation of experiential time. "Pulse" is the underlying real-time ground, or frame of reference that makes it possible to manipulate experiential time.

A primary, yet difficult to master, skill for the musician is to be able to maintain a consistent pulse. Why is it difficult for the musician to judge real-time? It is because, musicians are human and they can began to be effected by their own manipulations. Couple that with the physical aspects of performance and it is all too easy for the musician to loose track of real-time.

Without a consistent "ground"of pulse, manipulations of tempo are meaningless to the audience. Audience members like to believe that the musician is "carried away" by the music. Creating that belief  may be good showmanship, but actually getting lost in your own manipulations is not good musicianship. The musician must be in control of the music, not vice versa. That is why consistent practice with a metronome is a fundamental in developing musicianship.

Musicians can manipulate tempo to create emotional response for the audience. Speeding up or slowing down can create excitement, tension, release, etc., but only if there is an established pulse to give the tempo modifications a standard of judgement. Consistent practice with a metronome is the best way to build technique and pulse control.