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IV.8Part IV, Meter and Rhythm
Rhythm, Syncopation, Offbeat Notes
This lesson explains what rhythm is, and teaches you to recognize and write syncopations and offbeat notes, both regular and irregular.
10 min9 questionsDanhauser § 212 to 219
Let's turn now to rhythm. Rhythm is the more or less symmetrical and characteristic order in which different durations follow one another.
This is the characteristic rhythm of the bolero, the Spanish dance, in three beats: an eighth note and two sixteenth notes on the first beat, then two eighth notes on each of the next two beats.
Pitch and duration are the main elements of music. But a melody isn't made of pitches and durations picked at random, any more than a sentence is made of words lined up with no grammar. As Danhauser puts it, rhythm is to duration what melodic shape is to pitch. Rhythm is the outline that the different pitches come to color in.
In fact, rhythm is sometimes easier to recognize than melody: you can often identify a tune just by tapping its rhythm, while you rarely recognize it from its pitches alone, without their rhythm.
Among rhythmic figures, two are important enough to have their own names: syncopation and the offbeat note, which French calls “contretemps”.
Syncopation
Let's start with syncopation. A syncopation is a note sounded on a weak beat, or on the weak part of a beat, and held over into a strong beat, or into the strong part of a beat.
Syncopations at the level of the beat: the notes are sounded on beats 2 and 4, which are weak, and held into beats 3 and 1, which are strong.Syncopations within the beat: the quarter notes D and G are sounded on the second half of beat 1 and held into the first half of beat 2.
When the two parts of a syncopation are not the same length, it is called an irregular syncopation.
Irregular syncopations: the note sounded on the 2nd eighth note lasts one eighth, then is held for two more eighths over beat 2. Its two parts are not the same length.
A syncopation must always be played with a firm accent, because it is really a displacement of the strong beat, or of the strong part of the beat.
Offbeat notes, the French “contretemps”
Now for the second figure. French has a precise word, “contretemps”, for a note sounded on a weak beat, or on the weak part of a beat, that is not held over into the following strong beat. The strong beat, or the strong part, is then filled by a rest. English has no single standard term for this; we will call it an offbeat note, or an “off-beat accent” when it is stressed. The difference from syncopation is the rest: a syncopation ties over the strong beat, while an offbeat note leaves it silent.
Offbeat notes at the beat level: the notes fall on beats 2 and 4, and the strong beats are rests.Offbeat notes within the beat: the notes fall on the second eighth note of each beat.
When there are two weak beats against one strong beat, or two weak parts against one strong part, the offbeat pattern is irregular.
Irregular offbeat notes: two weak eighth notes after a silent strong part.
You'll meet offbeat notes very often, especially in accompaniments.
A waltz accompaniment: the bass on the strong beat, the chords as offbeat notes on beats 2 and 3.The tresillo is a syncopated rhythm made by grouping eight eighth notes three, three and two.The rhythmic cell of the habanera: a dotted eighth note, a sixteenth note, then two eighth notes.
Exercisein the method's spirit
Vary the rhythm of the following fragment in several ways, keeping the same pitches and the same meter. You could, for example, add syncopations and offbeat notes.
Solution
Many answers are possible. Here are two: the first with syncopations, the second with offbeat notes. Always check that each measure adds up to two quarter notes.
You now have the basic vocabulary of rhythm. Next, we'll see how fast all of this should go: that's the question of tempo.
Check your understanding
9 questions
1.
What is rhythm?
2.
A syncopation is a note:
3.
With an offbeat note, the French “contretemps”, the strong beat is filled by:
4.
A syncopation whose two parts are not the same length is:
5.
How should a syncopation be played?
6.
What does this example contain?
7.
What does this example contain?
8.
Today, how do you write a syncopated note that crosses the bar line?
9.
Two weak beats against a silent strong beat form:
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