Stuff I don't know
 

And maybe y'all do.


Why does syncopation work? Flint? Anybody?

I'd be glad to discuss my understanding of syncopation. First of all, syncopation is a term I haven't used in years, as it's a general term used to describe a more specific set of techniques I employ (as a drummer). But it does present an interesting question.

The short answer is: syncopation creates musical interest, by generating small instances of tension between the notes.

You asked why it works, and the answer to that is: because it sounds good. Completely subjective, I know, but that's "why" any art "works" - it is deemed by the listener/viewer/experiencer to have aesthetically pleasing qualities. Naturally, I will address how syncopation works.

Most syncopation in popular music is achieved through beat displacement. The beat being the underlying structure upon which notes are placed.

Playing "on top" of the beat is metronomic (technically perfect) time. A musician who plays "on top" of the beat can "bury the click" - the click track being an electronic metronome used in the recording studio to synchronyze the various parts of a composition. If all of the notes produced by one instrument are "on top" of the beat, there is no syncopation in the pattern. However, if other instruments are displacing beats, there can be syncopation between the instruments.

A common beat displacement is to play "behind" the beat. Motown drummers (and those whom they influenced, such as the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin) played the backbeat of the snare "behind" the beat, that is to say, they slightly delayed striking the snare. This is how you establish a "groove" - with these displacements. Back to the subjective quality of aesthetics, the listener expects to hear a certain beat placement, but you delay the gratification, creating that small pocket of tension, or musical interest. This is especially effective when other instruments are playing "on top" of, or in some other orientation to, the beat.

Enough of that. A more advanced technique for syncopation is polyrhythm. That is to say, more than one time signature is superimposed within a pattern. For example: within the same space that one pattern strikes out eight notes, another strikes six. Obviously, the notes aren't going to be happening at the same time. That's polyrhythm. Heard more often in jazz, see: the late Elvin Jones, legendary Coltrane drummer. Drummers pride themselves on creating polyrhythm between different limbs, thus establishing syncopation between different parts of their own body!

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I'll leave it at that. If anyone displays the slightest interest in any of this, I could go on for days.

i'm slightly interested. this seems like something you would do without knowing you're doing it......but when you lay it all out like that...it makes it so...clinical. and lame.

I don't consciously know what I'm doing, perhaps most of the time during a live playing situation, but, I'll be doing things that I practiced while knowing exactly what I was practicing. Personally, I am of the school that believe music should "breathe" ... the time should be organic. Still, you have to know what you're doing, or you're just making noise. The tools you have learned become part of your vocabulary, to be used expressively.

I usually don't notice the drumming. The exception to that is Rush. What does that guy do that's different, and what do you call that?

Chops.

Interesting concepts. Makes it more scientific and easy to understand. Thanks.

Oooh...that was really interesting. That kind of explains what it is I'm hearing when I listen to jazz....why it sounds so fundamentally different.

Finally an explanation that works for me. Thanks Flint!

For $370 you can try it with your own electronic drum kit.

ha ha ha ... Chops is right.

There are a few more items of note, regarding Neil Peart. Number one, for the purposes of this discussion I should point out that he plays "on top" of the beat. So, how can he be syncopated? I'll get to that shortly.

Number two, he writes the lyrics. He then "formats" the lyrics (frames them, emphasizes them) with his drum parts. You might not be conscious of all the editorial decisions he is making, but rest assured he is not just going crazy.

Number three, Rush plays in a hodge-podge of time signatures, mostly written by Lifeson and Lee. Neil is able to play something incredible regardless of whether the composition calls for odd time, or for the whole thing to shift dramatically at the drop of a hat. It's a trio, the components are limited to what three people can do, so the perception of the drumming is really coming from a combination of efforts.

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Now, a few more thoughts I had on syncopation. Since, apparently, people are actually reading this.

How can Neil Peart or Stewart Copeland (Police) be so syncopated while sitting right "on top" of the beat? A big part of this is playing accents at a smaller subdivision than the main drive of the song. I will explain that:

Most popular music (rock, pop, rap, etc.) operates in 4/4 time, that is to say each measure (or bar) has 4 notes that occupy one-fourth of the measure. Nice and clean, it’s divided into equally spaced parts, called quarter notes. The basic "thump/whack" beat (think AC/DC) has the bass drum hitting the 1 and the 3 (the first and third quarter note), the snare hitting the 2 and the 4 (known as the backbeat).

In the basic "rock" beat (think Ringo Starr or Creedence Clearwater Revival), the high-hat taps out 8th notes; that is to say notes that occur twice as often as quarter notes. Here’s an example of 8th notes:

The "equal spacing" is defined by 8th notes:

Now consider 16th notes, which occur twice as often as 8th notes. 16th notes are the tom part from "Wipeout" or the high-hat part from the "Shaft" theme. The tempo isn’t necessarily faster, the drummer is just playing smaller subdivisions.

Back to syncopation. If you can imagine a "framework" of subdivisions, wherein the most common subdivisions comprise the familiar pattern of the song (remember, the standard rock beat operates primarily on 8th notes, with accented quarter notes), the drummer has the option to accent any other subdivision in the course of constructing a syncopated pattern. Stewart Copeland plays his frenetic high-hat embellishments on a framework of 16th notes, on top of an 8th note pattern.

Neil Peart plays tom fills that alternate between 16th notes and 24th notes, or 8th note triplets. That is to say, on the highest tom, he plays four 16th notes, on the next tom, he plays six notes that exactly occupy the space of those four 16th notes. As he goes down the toms, it sounds as though his fill is speeding up and slowing down (it’s not). Confusing?

Triplets are groups of three notes that occupy the space of one of the standard subdivisions. Triplets are another common technique to achieve syncopation, while technically staying "on top" of the beat. But the triplets don’t have to be a repeating part of the pattern, you can pick one at random for a crazy syncopated accent. Furthermore, as triplets are three-note groups that occupy a certain space, there are quintuplets etc.

By now, you may be thinking "It’s all just math?" … Yes. It’s all just math. This is why they call Neil Peart "The Professor" …

One more item of note, regarding Neil Peart: consider that he penned the lyrics to the song Subdivisions (about subdivisions in society, and geographical subdivisions), and then played the drum parts to the song, utilizing various musical subdivisions, thus acting out parts of an extremely involved metaphor.

One more item of note, regarding Stewart Copeland: He didn’t really get along with Sting, as a person. Yet they were the rhythm section of a musical trio. This personal tension often resulted in parts that didn’t really "fit" between the bass and drums; thus creating the syncopation that made their music sound so exciting.

Great job, Flint. This is very interesting and informative.

I feel like I am back in my drum lessons when I was 10! I love it! I used to love to sit and listen to my drum teacher talk to me about this stuff and then go home and drive my parents nuts trying to get it right.

I hope my son gets as excited when he picks up an instrument and then feels this great reading a discussion about it so many years later.

Duuu-uh!

That's why I asked! Thanks for the helpful information. I did know what it was, technically. I did know why it worked, technically (cause it grooves, man). But that was not a very satisfying answer. Much help from you, many thanks.

what a great thread, Flint, BigV!