Syncopation

In music, syncopation is a stress on a normally unstressed beat, or a missing beat where a stressed one would normally be expected. Syncopation is used in many musical styles, including classical music, but it is fundamental in such styles as reggae, ragtime, rap, jump blues, jazz and often in dubstep. In the form of a back beat, syncopation is used in virtually all contemporary popular music.

Types of syncopation

Even-note syncopation

In meters with even numbers of beats (2/4, 4/4, etc.), the stress normally falls on the odd-numbered beats. If the even-numbered beats are stressed instead, the rhythm is syncopated.

Off-beat syncopation

The stress can shift by less than a whole beat so it falls on an off-beat, as in the following example where the stress in the first bar is shifted by an eighth note (or quaver):

Playing a note ever-so-slightly before or after a beat is another form of syncopation because this produces an unexpected accent.

Anticipated bass

Anticipated bass is a bass tone that comes syncopated shortly before the downbeat, which is used in Son montuno Cuban dance music. Timing can vary, but it usually comes less than an eighth note before the one and three beats in 4/4...

Missed-beat syncopation

Another type of syncopation is the missed beat, in which a rest is substituted for an expected note's beginning. For example, if the musician suddenly does not play anything on beat 1, that would also be syncopation.

Transformation

Richard Middleton (1990, p.212-13) suggests adding the concept of transformation to Narmour's (1980, p.147-53) prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions in order to explain or generate syncopations. "The syncopated pattern is heard 'with reference to', 'in light of', as a remapping of, its partner." He gives examples of:

• Latin equivalent of simple 4/4:

• Backbeat transformation of simple 4/4:

• Before-the-beat phrasing, combined with backbeat transformation of a simple repeated trochee, which gives the phraseology of "Satisfaction":

"Satisfaction" backbeat syncopation is good and before-the-beat transformations

The terms syncopation and syncopated step in dancing are used in two senses:

1. The first one matches the musical one: stepping on (or otherwise emphasizing) an unstressed beat. For example, ballroom Cha cha is a syncopated dance in this sense, because the basic step "breaks on two." When dancing to the disparate threads contained within the music, hands, torso, and head can independently move in relation to a thread, creating a fluidly syncopated performance of the music.
2. The word "syncopation" is often used by dance teachers to mean improvised or rehearsed execution of step patterns that have more rhythmical nuances than "standard" step patterns. It takes advanced dancing skill to dance syncopations in this sense. Advanced dancing of West Coast Swing makes heavy use of "syncopation" in this sense (although swing music and swing dances feature the "usual" syncopation, i.e., emphasising the even beats).

Many dance teachers criticize the use of the term "syncopation" and abandon it in favour of the term "double-time". This is most likely due to a convenience in similarity, and/or a misunderstanding of the rhythmic concept.

Dance syncopation often matches musical syncopation, such as when (in West Coast Swing) the leader touches slightly before beat 3 or stomps on beat 6. Two Time U.S. Open WCS Champion Kelly Buckwalter teaches these syncopations.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Middleton, Richard, Studying Popular Music, Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1990/2002. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
• van der Merwe, Peter (1989), Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, Clarendon Press, Oxford, ISBN 0-193-16121-4
• Seyer, Philip, Allan B. Novick and Paul Harmon (1997). What Makes Music Work. Forest Hill Music. ISBN 0-9651344-0-7.

External links

• Syncopation in Dance and Music Retrieved October 7, 2007.
• On syncopation (Dutch) Retrieved October 7, 2007.

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