# Rhythm

Before beginning the mapping process, there are a few mapping concepts and terminology that you should familiarize yourself with.

The first major topic in mapping is rhythm.

Before we discuss what rhythm is, it is important to note what maps consist of in the first place. Maps consist of circles, sliders, and spinners.

There are also two types of rhythms that exist.

# Types of Rhythm

There are also two types of rhythm that exist in osu!: active and passive rhythm.

Active rhythm are objects that you can click (e.g. circles and sliderheads).

Passive rhythm are objects that you can't click (e.g. slidertails and slider reverses).

The only exception to this are spinners; they fall into a gray area where they aren't necessarily active or passive because you need to spin to clear it. That being said, spinners will not be used frequently enough in a map to require a classification.

Now that we know what maps are made of, we can now define what rhythm is in a map.

# Definition

Rhythm can be defined as: an arrangement of circles, sliders, and spinners that represents the song.

Since this definition is extremely broad, you must be open-minded to the fact that every mapper will interpret the same song differently, and that means that the rhythm of a song in a map will vary from mapper to mapper. Simpler songs like tephe - Neppa feat. Butter means that there is less room for interpretation, and so the variability between mappers for songs like these will most likely be not different at all. In contrast, songs like Yooh - RPG have a vast amount of instrumentals in its composition, leaving room for a wide range of interpretation.

# What is Good Rhythm?

I can understand that you might ask: What kind of rhythm best represents the song? The answer to that is not as clear-cut as it should be. In fact, due to the fact that interpretations of songs vary, there is no definitive answer for the best rhythm for each song. The only rhythm that matters is one that you think best represents the song.

Generally speaking though, a good rhythm is an arrangement of objects that follows a well-defined melody or layer within the song consistently.

Let's break down the definition of a "good rhythm."

What does "well-defined melody or layer" mean? It's a layer of the song that stands out to you while listening. In many cases, including our song, the vocalist will stand out the most as it is the sound that you will hear over all the other instruments present in the song. For a song like Undead Corporation - Everything will freeze, the layer that stands out to most people will be the percussions. Every song will have a distinct layer that stands out the most to every listener.

Why should a map's rhythm be consistent? The simple reasoning is that often switching between the layers that you want to prioritize will confuse the player (since they don't know which layer within the song you're focusing on) and it complements ideas and concepts introduced within the map to enhance the quality of the map. At the same time, you shouldn't be too focused on making sure every single object follows the rhythm that you choose. New introductions of melody and instruments will be constantly introduced, so achieving a completely consistent rhythm will also produce the effect of mis-representing the song.

In other words, pick a layer to focus on throughout the map, but adapt to the song; establish some core ideas that you want present in your map.