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I am working on harmonic rhythm and indicating when chords change. I am doing a pulse graph for each audio example but am stumped if I am doing it right. The instruction tells me to show at least two levels of pulse for each excerpt.

Here is one of the audio examples: https://streamable.com/shio89

I have included an image of what I came up with. The arrows indicate the chord changes. But I am not sure how to indicate the levels of the enter image description herepulse.

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  • Are you asking if the writing concept is correct, or if your result is? Because from your example, there are two changes for each bar (on the first and third beat), except for the fourth, which is as you did. – musicamante Mar 18 at 17:51
  • @musicamante so, I should have an arrow on the first and third beat for each measure except the last one? How do I indicate the levels of pulse? – Dylan Cataldo Mar 18 at 17:54
  • 1) yes 2) I'm not sure about that, as that depends on how you were instructed about it: if the concept is about the tempo, then it's either quarters/eights (assuming the piano is playing eights) or halfs/quarters; about the way to indicate them, if no specific indication is given, it's up to you: you could put the accent mark ( > ) for the "main" level and leave the vertical lines for the rest. – musicamante Mar 18 at 17:59
  • @musicamante this is what the book shows for the pulse graph: ibb.co/4YrF9HS – Dylan Cataldo Mar 18 at 18:02
  • That example seems exactly like what you linked. – musicamante Mar 18 at 18:06
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I'm not really sure what "pulse graph" means, but I have seen stacked dots used to indicate the theoretical strength of pulses for meters. More dots means stronger pulses/beats.

4/4 might be like...

| .          | .          |
| .     .    | .     .    |
| .  .  .  . | .  .  .  . |

3/4 like...

| .       | .       |
| .       | .       |
| .  .  . | .  .  . |

The 4/4 example as three levels of pulse, the 3/4 has two level.

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