Beats (improv)

In improv, a beat is a section of a scene. Like in a song, a new beat changes the rhythm of the scene. A scene with only one beat would be a scene where the characters were doing one thing the whole time, such as "sitting at a table and criticizing the food". A new beat could be added if someone did something as small as adding the information that they were food critics and heightening the conversation to the point where they were "sitting at a table and talking about how they would write about the food in their reviews". This is an example of a type of heightening called "raising the stakes".

Alternately, they could do something to break the established pattern of "sitting and criticizing the food", such as stating that it was one person's birthday and beginning to sing to them in the middle of the restaurant. Now the new beat is "sitting at a table and singing "Happy Birthday"". This could quickly escalate into a game of the characters "sitting at a table doing things that are disruptive to the people around them", starting with "Happy Birthday" and escalating to who-knows-what.

Adding a new beat can be done through breaking the pattern of the current beat or heightening the current beat. These can also relate to finding the game of the scene.