Subdivision
What is subdivision in rhythm? Slice the beat into eighth and sixteenth notes on a step grid and hear the groove change density.
One beat can hold more than one note. The kick below is locked onto the four beats — your hats will slice each beat into pieces.
Press play. The hats sit on every other column: eighth notes, two per beat. Now click in a hat on every single column and play again — sixteenth notes, four per beat. Hear the density double. Then delete some and find your own balance.
The grid IS subdivision
Each orange column is a beat — a quarter note. Every column in between splits that beat into equal slices: this 16-column grid cuts one bar of 4 beats into 16 sixteenth notes. Subdivision just means slicing the beat.
Quarters, eighths, sixteenths
- Quarter notes: 1 per beat — the pulse itself.
- Eighth notes: 2 per beat — count "one and two and".
- Sixteenth notes: 4 per beat — count "one-e-and-a".
Same tempo, more slices, busier feel. Now judge subdivision by ear.
Listen to the hats. How many fit into each beat?