Stop Cutting to the Beat. That’s Lazy Editing.
The classic approach: placing a song in first, adding beat markers, and placing in your clips accordingly. THIS IS WRONG.
In the videography/content creation world, it’s conventional wisdom to cut to a new shot as soon as you hit a beat in the song you placed in your timeline — but this is a totally backwards approach that limits your storytelling power.
Too many editors rely on the soundtrack to dictate their cuts, forcing their story to fit inside someone else’s creative structure, which leads to:
Disjointed pacing — Some shots linger too long, while others feel rushed, creating a rhythm that doesn’t match the emotion of the scene, or the logical flow of events.
Predictability — The audience subconsciously picks up on the editing pattern, making the video feel repetitive rather than surprising and engaging.
Lost storytelling opportunities — Instead of guiding the viewer’s attention with intention, the editor follows the beat structure, missing chances to amplify emotion, tension, or impact.
Walter Murch is a renowned film editor known for Apocalypse Now, The Godfather trilogy, and American Graffiti. His book In the Blink of an Eye is essential reading for any video editor or storyteller as the concepts transcend film editing. In the book, he breaks down the six core principles of editing, and notably, rhythm is the third priority.
In order of importance, here’s what should dictate your cuts, according to Murch:
Emotion. Surprisingly, the first priority isn’t even the logical flow of events in the story; its the emotional impact. We are first and foremost emotional beings, and we will forgive lapses in chronology if what we’re watching is making us feel something. Films like Oppenheimer, The Social Network, and Arrival all use non-linear storytelling to their advantage; in fact, these stories would fall flat on their faces if they were told from beginning to end.
Story. Does each event logically lead to the next — A to B to C to D? If one shot doesn’t create the right context for what follows, the edit feels unnatural, even if the timing matches the beat.
Rhythm. This isn’t just about timing the cuts to the beat of the song. It’s about the pacing of information, the emotional build-up, and when the audience needs a breath or a jolt.
Eye Trace. In each shot, there will be some object that catches your eye, and as the shot progresses, your point of attention will follow that object. For example, you’re watching a movie and the character suddenly looks off-screen at something, and then the next shot is what they’re looking at. The edit should guide the viewer’s attention naturally, leading them to focus on what’s important in each frame.
2D Screen Space. Framing, balance, and how elements move across the screen should maintain visual coherence from shot to shot.
3D Scene Space. How do the shots connect spatially? Can the audience make sense of where things are in relation to each other? This is critical for maintaining immersion — if they can’t mentally visualize the space of the scene itself, as if the cameras weren’t there, they’ll feel disoriented.
Hierarchy of Priorities: What Can You Sacrifice?
Each of these core storytelling priorities supports the one above it. Often, a trade-off is necessary in an edit, because we don’t live in a perfect world where everything makes 10,000% sense. Lower priorities should be sacrificed to serve the higher ones:
If preserving the emotional impact requires breaking story chronology, do it.
If maintaining story clarity means disrupting the rhythm of a scene, so be it.
If eye trace needs to be adjusted to strengthen the rhythm, tweak it.
Editing isn’t about following rigid rules — it’s about making decisions that serve the experience you want the audience to have.
The Attention Curve: Why Cutting to the Beat Kills Engagement
The best edits follow an attention curve — a natural ebb and flow of engagement that keeps viewers locked in.
Think of it like this:
If every cut is perfectly aligned with the beat, the rhythm becomes predictable, and the audience will eventually zone out.
If every shot holds the same amount of time, there’s no contrast, no variation, nothing to keep the curiosity engaged.
If every moment follows the same structure, the video feels mechanical, rather than immersive.
Instead, great edits use contrast and pacing to reset the audience’s attention:
A long, slow shot can create tension and anticipation, or it can be an opportunity to let the story breathe.
A rapid sequence can create urgency and energy.
A well-placed pause can add emphasis to an important moment.
Great editing is about holding and releasing attention at the right moments — not following a metronome.
Why Cutting to the Beat Undermines Your Creative Control
When you rely on a song’s structure, you’re letting someone else dictate your storytelling. You’ll waste hours searching for the perfect song before you even understand what your story needs. The video will feel rigid, not fluid, because the music’s beats were designed for the song itself — not your pacing. Your audience will engage at a surface level instead of feeling fully immersed in the story — because you, the editor, weren’t immersed!
A Better Approach: Build the Edit, Then Find the Music
Music doesn’t necessarily come last — it just comes near the end of the edit process. Here’s how I do it:
Make sure the edit works without music. If your video only “works” with a soundtrack, then the story isn’t strong enough. The music should enhance the emotions and ideas you’re communicating, not carry them.
Audition tracks as you go. Do this during pre-production, filming, and during the beginning of your edit. Play back rough cuts with different songs and notice how different songs over the same material activate slightly different flavors of feeling.
Use a licensing service. To avoid copyright strikes, use royalty-free music from services like Musicbed (my personal favorite, but pricey), Epidemic Sound, or Artlist.
Be willing to adjust — think of it like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Some sections may need stretching, others may need tightening. You may need to trim or extend the song itself to fit the natural flow of your story. This will take a lot of finessing and practice, but if you aren’t wiling to refine your work to get it right, why the hell should your audience invest their attention in watching it?
At the end of the day, how much do you care? Your audience will subconsciously feel the difference between an edit that was crafted with intention and one that was slapped together with a metronome.
The Result? A Video That Actually Flows
When you edit based on emotion first, every shot serves a purpose. Your pacing isn’t dictated by a song — it’s dictated by the story, the feelings and ideas you want to impact your audience with. And that’s where the real magic happens.
