Tempo & Rhythm Part 2: Influence

[This article is part of a series about how to craft an intentional life using ideas and tools from Constantin Stanislavski’s acting system for working on our inner motive forces. Previous article: Tempo & Rhythm Part 1: Awareness]


In the previous article, I described movement as a sensory activity. For Stanislavski, tempo-rhythm is the mechanism through which movement affects our emotions. He considered it to have a direct effect on our feelings and vice versa. He showed that we have both external tempo-rhythms, relating to the movement of our limbs and the quality of our interactions, and internal tempo-rhythms, which relate to the agitation of our feelings and thoughts. The observation exercise described in that article is about increasing our awareness of our own inner and outer tempo-rhythms, and those of others. The breathing exercise showed how just changing the tempo-rhythm of breathing could effect one’s emotional state.

In this article, I describe a few exercises taken from Stanislavski’s writings in Building a Character. They are a continuation of the breathing exercise, showing different ways that we can affect our feelings and our imagination through playing with tempo-rhythm.

Exercise: clapping hands

“To-day we are going to play at tempo-rhythm... We will clap our hands as little children do.” (Constantin Stanislavski, Building a character)

So Stanislavski introduces a series of experiments in tempo-rhythm through the simple act of clapping hands in time to a beat.

• Start a metronome on the slowest tick, perhaps 40 beats per minute (BPM). You can easily find a free digital metronome online.
• Clap your hands on each beat, counting to four, with an accent on the first beat:
• One…two…three…four
• Repeat this for a minute or two
• Add an accent on the third beat as well:
• One…two…three…four
• Repeat for a minute or two
• Add an accent on all four beats and repeat.
• Add two claps for every quarter beat of the metronome, so you have eight notes. Place the accent on the quarter beat of the metronome:
• One, and…two, and…three, and…four
• Repeat
• Continue to play with the rhythms, seeing how many beats you can clap between each slow tick of the metronome. Change the accents to change the rhythmic pattern.
• Increase the tempo of the metronome and repeat the above, until you are beating time at a rapid pace. Online metronomes tend to cap out at just over 200 BPM. At this tempo, you are unlikely to be able to clap beats between each tick.
• Use different parts of your body to clap the beats and change the accents as you will.
• Perform each pattern for at least a minute or two before switching to the next, so your body becomes used to it.

When you have played at this exercise long enough to feel the effect of different tempos and rhythms on your body, consider the following questions to examine how tempo-rhythm affects your emotional state:

• What was your experience of the various tempos? Did you feel your body and mind engage in a tempo-rhythm while you were clapping?
• How did your body feel at the beginning, middle and end of the exercise?
• Did any thoughts or images enter your mind during the exercise? Did the different tempo-rhythms suggest different mental images?
• How did your mood at the beginning of the exercise compare with at the end?

Here is Stanislavski’s description of the experience of clapping experiments:

“For a minute or two we went on clapping the first beat. In unison we beat each one with a loud clap of our palms together. But it turned out to be not much fun. In fact it was more conducive to drowsiness. It created a mood of boredom, monotony, laziness…

When [he] pushed us up to doing sixteenth and thirty-second notes with the same accent on the first note in each quarter of the measure our energy was in full swing. But [he] did not stop there. He gradually increased the time of the metronome... We really wanted to keep up in tempo and rhythm with the count. Perspiration broke out on some of us, our faces flushed, we beat our palms sore, we used our feet, our bodies, our mouths; we groaned…

‘See what a magician am—I control not only your muscles but your emotions, your moods. According to my wish I can put you to sleep, I can raise you to the highest pitch of excitement, put you into a fine lather.’” (Ibid)

How did your experience compare with this description?

Exercise: A train journey

In the clapping hands exercise, images may have come involuntarily to mind based on the rhythms that were being created. Here, we begin with a set of given circumstances and set a tempo-rhythm to them.

“‘Quickly, without reflecting, take this baton and beat out the tempo-rhythm of a traveller setting out on a journey by train.’ For my part I saw in my mind’s eye a corner of a station, the ticket window, the long line of prospective passengers. The ticket window was still closed. Then it was opened. The ticket buyers pushed ahead slowly, boringly, step by step, until the ticket was purchased, the change counted. Next I went through the emotional fuss of arranging for my hand luggage. In between I had the mental picture of looking over the newspapers and magazines on the stands...After getting settled and casting a glance around at my fellow travellers, I opened a paper, began to read, and so on…

‘Now repeat exactly the same thing except for the condition that you have reached the station only a short time before the train time…now you have much less, yet you must attend to just as many things…Now conduct for me the tempo rhythm of your departure.’ That was enough to make my heart thump, especially as I am always nervous when I travel. This was, of course, reflected in the tempo and rhythm, whose previous measured beat was now replaced by one full of agitation and hurry....” (Ibid)

Copy the actions in the extract above, but make the details your own, based on your own experience. Imagine embarking on a train journey and beat a tempo-rhythm that corresponds to what is happening in your head.

Then try beating out other events. For example, a stroll on the beach, a funeral procession, a storm with thunder and lightening, a reunion with a loved one. These can be memories or imagined, but try to fill them with details of all the steps and moments that you go through in these experiences.

• Note how the tempo-rhythms that you create change.
• How does it feel to add beats to your imaginings or memories? Is it difficult or easy? How does it change the internal experience? Are some experiences easier to add tempo-rhythm than others? If so, why do you think this is?
• How does your mood change?

Exercise: Objects on a tray

This exercise extends the previous one by adding a simple physical activity to the creation of tempo-rhythm.

• Place several objects on a tray and set a metronome beating.
• To the beat of the metronome, carry the tray and distribute the objects around the room.
• Imagine circumstances which justify your tempo-rhythm and actions, e.g. principle distributing prizes at school, waiter handing out canapes or champagne, waiter trying to serve in dining car of train before next station, clowning around.
• Increase the tempo of the metronome, and see how the increased speed affects the actions. Repeat this a few times, each time noting how your rhythm and imagination responds to the increased tempo.
• Try the actions while imagining a different inner tempo-rhythm to the outer one and see how that changes things.
• Find another simple physical activity. Set the metronome at varying speeds. From acting out the actions and different tempo-rhythms, what images, sensations and emotions come to you? How do they differ with each set of circumstances?

What is the point?

“Do you remember how we clapped hands to stimulate a mood in which feelings would correspond to the rhythm?...Do you remember the various tempos suggested by the departure of a train and all the real excitement felt by the passenger?...Then there was the exercise with the tray...In all these sketches and exercises in action it was the tempo-rhythm in each case which created the mood and stimulated the corresponding emotional experiences…In all these exercises which I have enumerated there is one result which emerges, in greater or lesser degree. A state of inner experience, of inner sensation is created. This makes it possible for us to accept the fact that tempo-rhythm, whether mechanically, intuitively or consciously created, does act on our inner life, on our feelings, on our inner experiences.” (Ibid)

When I am feeling sad, I often feel that I have no energy to act, whereas when I am happy I am often full of energy. These exercises have shown that we can work purposefully to achieve these effects. By introducing mechanical tempos and responding with internal rhythms, we can influence our feelings and energy levels. We can induce different moods by inducing different tempo-rhythms within ourselves.

Remember that the reason we have engaged in these physical exercises is to explore how tempo-rhythm and feelings affect each other. We have explored the connection between tempo-rhythm and emotions (as we did previously with senses and memories) so that we can begin working on shaping our emotions to serve our purposes and spur intentional action.

In the next chapter, I turn to the second motive force of Stanislavski’s triumvirate of consciousness, Intellect.