We are all rhythmic beings: our heart has its own beat, when we speak we lay our words at a precise rate, and our thoughts are enunciated over periods which could be translated into measures and hypermeasures.

While rhythm is an integral part of our life, itself divided into time slots and periods which we perceive differently depending on our age and our activities, its meaning changed over time. Thus, in the thought of Democritus, the word rhythm defined the shape of atoms in motion. It is with Plato and Aristotle that this word stood for the idea of spatialized time in poetry and music, whereas in the Alexandrine period, rhythm was specifically related to speech and text declamation (prosody).

As a distribution of notes over time, rhythm has always been a part of music. It is implicitly related to the melodic and harmonic discourse. For a very long time, rhythm execution used to be flexible; its function was to hold the melody up and initiate a musical syntax or simply to assist in the understanding of a text.

In the 11th century, after a lengthy evolution, Guido of Arezzo came up with the modern staff notation. While note pitches were more accurately represented, rhythmic notation had yet to be finalized. It was only in the 16th century that bar lines were introduced, establishing the idea to group the beats together into regular sets. Gradually, musical notation helped stabilize the meter.

In order to play a rhythm effectively, it is necessary to have a foundation of knowledge about the basics of rhythm and to be able to intuitively feel the rhythm as you play it.