Journal 04

What syncopation is

Syncopation puts the weight of a rhythm where the beat is not. A note lands between the beats, or a beat that was expected stays silent, and the music pulls against its own count. On sixteen steps it can be seen as well as heard.

Fig. 1

Four voices on sixteen steps. The short line marks a beat. A black lamp is a note on a beat; an orange lamp is a note off it.

The definition

A bar of four beats has strong places: the beats themselves, on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 of sixteen. A listener's foot falls there. A rhythm that puts all its notes on those steps is straight.

Syncopation moves the stress off them. One textbook definition: syncopation occurs "when a temporary displacement of the regular metrical accent occurs, causing the emphasis to shift from a strong accent to a weak accent." Another calls it the "placement of rhythmic stresses or accents where they wouldn't normally occur."

The beat does not stop. The foot keeps falling on 1, 5, 9 and 13, and the notes fall somewhere else. The pull between the two is the effect.

How to see it

On a step sequencer the beats are marked. Beep Boop engraves a short line under keys 1, 5, 9 and 13. A lit lamp over a line is a note on the beat. A lit lamp anywhere else is a note off it. The more of a pattern's lamps sit away from the lines, the more syncopated it is.

Four patterns follow, from none to a great deal.

None: four on the floor

A kick on every beat and nothing else. Every note is where the foot falls. This is the straightest rhythm there is, and the ground the others are heard against.

Fig. 2

Four on the floor: a kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13.
Kick	1, 5, 9, 13 Every beat. Nothing off it.
Tempo	120 BPM

Straight. Four on the floor, step by step.

The off-beat

Keep the kick and add an open hi-hat on steps 3, 7, 11 and 15, halfway between the beats. This is the simplest syncopation: a steady note on the off-beat. The kick says "one" and the hat answers "and". House music is built on it.

Fig. 3

A house beat: the steps each voice plays, of sixteen, at 124 BPM.
Kick	1, 5, 9, 13 On the beat.
Clap	5, 13 Beats two and four.
Hat	1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15
Open	3, 7, 11, 15 Off the beat, every time.
Tempo	124 BPM

The open hat sits halfway between the kicks. Touch OPEN to see it on the keys.

Three, three, two

Now a rhythm that crosses the beat. Reggaeton's snare falls on steps 4, 7, 12 and 15. Counted from the kick on step 1, the hits fall three steps apart, three steps, then two, and the same again from step 9. None of the snares is on a beat. The kick underneath still plays all four. The ear hears both counts at once.

Fig. 4

The dembow at 90 BPM: the steps each voice plays, of sixteen.
Kick	1, 5, 9, 13 On the beat.
Snare	4, 7, 12, 15 Never on the beat.
Tempo	90 BPM

The dembow. The reggaeton pattern, step by step.

The missing beat

The strongest syncopation leaves a beat empty. In this bar the kick plays on step 1, then on step 8, one step before beat three, and beat three itself is silent. The ear expects a kick on step 9 and does not get one. A third kick on step 11 lands after the gap.

Fig. 5

A pushed kick at 96 BPM: the steps each voice plays, of sixteen.
Kick	1, 8, 11 Step 8 comes early. Step 9, beat three, is empty.
Snare	5, 13 Beats two and four hold the bar still.
Hat	1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15
Tempo	96 BPM

The kick arrives one step early and beat three is left empty.

Why it works

Syncopation needs something to push against. In every bar above, one voice keeps the beat: the kick in house and reggaeton, the snare on beats two and four in the last. Take that away and the off-beat notes become the beat, and nothing is syncopated at all.

Swing is a different thing. Swing moves every second step a little late and keeps the notes in their places. Syncopation moves the notes to other steps.

On Beep Boop

Set a kick on steps 1, 5, 9 and 13 and press PLAY. Turn the voice dial to another voice and press keys that have no line under them. Each one is a syncopation, and the window shows the whole beat as dots, so the two can be read against each other. Or open the pushed kick as it stands: touch the link under the receipt, or point a phone's camera at the code.

Fig. 6. The pushed kick as Beep Boop prints it. Open this beat in Beep Boop

Sources

The definitions quoted, and off-beat syncopation: Syncopation, Wikipedia.
The house beat, the dembow and their sources: four on the floor and reggaeton on this site.
The beat marks: Beep Boop's step keys, which carry a short engraved line under keys 1, 5, 9 and 13.