10 Musical Patterns You Need to Know - Blog | Splice (2024)

Music is often referred to as a universal language.

A major reason for this is because music across genres, geographies, and generations regularly share universal patterns. In the tutorial video above, Nick Chen breaks down ten rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic musical patterns that every music creator needs to know.

See the list of patterns below, as well as timecodes for where they’re discussed in the video. With each topic, Nick also shares examples from both popular music and actual productions in the DAW so we can better understand how they’re applied in context.

10 musical patterns you need to know:

If you enjoyed any of the samples that were featured in the video and want to use them in your own productions, you can download them via this Collection.

Which patterns were most interesting to you? What other musical patterns are also key that we didn’t cover above? Let us know in the comments section of the video, and subscribe to the Splice YouTube channel for more tips, tutorials, and insights.

College students, educators, and other Splice users who register using a valid .edu email address are now eligible for a discounted monthly price on our Sounds+ plan:

September 5, 2023

10 Musical Patterns You Need to Know - Blog | Splice (1)

Harrison Shimazu

Harrison Shimazu is a composer, content strategist, and writer who’s passionate about democratizing music creation and education. He leads the Splice blog and produces vocaloid music as Namaboku.

10 Musical Patterns You Need to Know - Blog | Splice (2024)

FAQs

10 Musical Patterns You Need to Know - Blog | Splice? ›

Classical examples include Aria, Madrigal, Sonata, Cantata, and Serenata. Contemporary song forms are commonly broken down into 3 major components: Verse, Bridge, and Chorus.

What are examples of musical patterns? ›

Classical examples include Aria, Madrigal, Sonata, Cantata, and Serenata. Contemporary song forms are commonly broken down into 3 major components: Verse, Bridge, and Chorus.

What are the 8 types of rhythm? ›

After listening to it, and when you are ready, press play again and either play along (note E) or clap the rhythm.
  • Semibreve/Whole Note Rhythm. ...
  • Minim/ Half Note Rhythm. ...
  • Crotchet/ Quarter Note Rhythm. ...
  • Quaver/Eighth Note Rhythm. ...
  • Semiquaver/Sixteenth Note Rhythm. ...
  • Triplet Rhythm. ...
  • One Eighth Note and Two Sixteenth Notes Rhythm.
Jan 3, 2020

What is the pattern of music? ›

A pattern is anything whose form repeats. It's hard to talk about nearly anthing in music without a pattern being involved. Meter itself is a pattern, so if you are dealing with metered music - which is a lot of music - it's patterned. A more obvious example is a harmonic pattern.

What is the tresillo pattern? ›

The tresillo is the most fundamental rhythmic pattern in Sub-Saharan African music as well as Latin American music. The term translates to “triplet”—that said, it's important to note that even though there are three notes in the rhythm, it's a duple-based pattern (meaning we divide the beat with even numbers).

What are patterns examples? ›

We see patterns everywhere in the world of shapes. A quilt is often made up of many shapes arranged in a pattern. Tiles on the floor or walls usually form a pattern too. Patterns that are made of geometric shapes and don't overlap are called tessellations.

What are short musical patterns? ›

A short melodic idea may also be called a motif, a motive, a cell, or a figure. These small pieces of melody will appear again and again in a piece of music, sometimes exactly the same and sometimes changed.

What are 5 examples of rhythm? ›

Rhythm is the pattern of beats made up of stressed and unstressed syllables resulting in the rising and falling of the voice. There are five types of rhythmic feet that are commonly used in poetry: iamb, trochee, spondee, dactyl, and anapest.

What are the 7 elements of rhythm? ›

To understand rhythm are seven basic concepts or elements of rhythm to know:
  • Beats and notes.
  • Measures and time signatures.
  • Strong and Weak Beats.
  • Meter.
  • Syncopation.
  • Accents.
  • Tempo.
Aug 3, 2023

What are the five different types of rhythm and pattern? ›

They are regular rhythm, alternating rhythm, progressive rhythm, flowing rhythm, and random rhythm.

What is a musical pattern called? ›

“Classical” musicians use the word OSTINATO when talking about repeated musical patterns, but the words OSTINATO and RIFF mean much the same thing. RIFFS are often used by jazz musicians as a repeated phrase that a soloist improvises over.

Is music just patterns? ›

Music is made up of rhythmic patterns and can be structured to make the patterning simple or complex, depend- ing on the activity. Zentner and Eerola (2010) suggest that infants and toddlers have an innate capability to not only see patterns but also hear them in music.

What are rhythmic patterns in music? ›

In music theory, rhythm refers to the recurrence of notes and rests (silences) in time. When a series of notes and rests repeats, it forms a rhythmic pattern. In addition to indicating when notes are played, musical rhythm also stipulates how long they are played and with what intensity.

What are ostinato patterns? ›

ostinato, in music, short melodic phrase repeated throughout a composition, sometimes slightly varied or transposed to a different pitch. A rhythmic ostinato is a short, constantly repeated rhythmic pattern.

What is a syncopated pattern? ›

Syncopation in music is the concept of playing rhythms that accent or emphasize the offbeats. It shifts or displaces a standard rhythm by stressing beats generally not stressed. The time signature of a piece of music identifies a consistent pattern of strong and weak beats.

What is the most popular rhythm in the world? ›

The most popular rhythm in music is 4/4 time. This is the classic pop beat and is often referred to as common time. This rhythm is used in many popular songs, from “Happy” by Pharrell Williams to “All Star” by Smash Mouth.

What are the types of melodic patterns? ›

5 MELODY Patterns Every Music Producer NEEDS to Know!
  • Melody note lengths. First thing's first! ...
  • Chord progression. ...
  • Melody template. ...
  • Leap-wise and step-wise. ...
  • Repetition and simplicity in melodies. ...
  • Arpeggio melody. ...
  • The repeating motif. ...
  • The bass melody.

What are the different rhythmic patterns in music? ›

The two basic beat patterns or meters in music are duple and triple. An example of duple meter is a march, where the LEFT – right – LEFT – right, is best represented by STRONG – weak, STRONG – weak.

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