Stuff I don't know

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Weird Harold

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?

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Chops.

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.

…

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:

Originally Posted by vocalperk

• the beatboxing went: bom ts kuh ts ts ts bu-kuh ts bom ts kuh ts ts ts bu-kuh
• to get the rhythm of that beat box, each syllable is equally spaced apart and "bu-kuh" is said and spaced together like one syllable

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

1.....2..3....4..5..6..7.........8
bom ts kuh ts ts ts bu-kuh ts

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.