Duration refers to the lengths of sounds and silences in music and includes the aspects of beat, rhythm, metre, tempo, pulse rates and absence of pulse.
Students should be able to discuss the following aspects of duration as relevant to the music studied:
• beat: the underlying pulse in music
• rhythm: patterns of long and short sounds and silences found in music
• tempo: the speed of the beat. Music may be relatively fast or slow and may become faster or slower
• metre: the grouping of beats. Beats can be grouped in any combination including 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and so on.
Students should understand and apply the following (where appropriate to the musical context):
• regular and irregular metres
• metric groupings
• tempo
• rhythmic devices such as syncopation, augmentation and diminution
• methods of notating duration, both traditional and graphic.