3. The Rhythm Tree

The notation of rhythm can be organized through a chart known as a “rhythm tree”. A rhythm tree could be explained through the analogy of a car driving through a rainstorm that is progressively getting stronger and stronger. As the car is first entering the edges of the rainstorm, the windshield wipers are slow to reflect the slow rain sprinkling. As the car drives deeper into the storm, the rain turns from sprinkle to drizzle, then to showers, heavy rain, and finally to torrential rain. The windshield wipers of the car would continue speeding up based on the intensity of the rain. We can think of each of these storm phases to be twice as intense as the preceding phase, which means that the car windshield wipers would also need to increase to twice the speed or the previous wiper setting.

The more intense the precipitation, the faster the wiper blades need to cycle. This is a good analogy for rhythm.

Consider the above weather intensity phases and attach them to a note value that mirrors its speed value. A rhythm tree works the same way.

The windshield wiper analogy in action.

The rhythm tree takes the initial whole note and splits it up into two equal parts, and then takes each of those parts and splits them up even further into two equal parts, and even further into two equal parts. When we get to the bottom of the rhythm tree, everything displayed at the bottom is contained within the one note displayed at the top of the rhythm tree.

The rhythm tree diagrams for notes values and rest values

In the end, what we are really trying to do with music notation is to convey meaning; to pass on information to somebody else who may not be present. To this end we have created symbols, and each of these symbols are attached to meaning. In the case of music, the symbols can get more and more complex and complicated, but that complexity has its basis on the organization of the rhythm tree.