Syncopation - A Rhythmic Jigsaw for Music?

Four Beats…

Have you ever wondered why one song might make you want to move, or lock in to a beat, and another has you there stationary… or have you been in the unfortunate position of a crowd that claps on the wrong beat? Well - that might be down to syncopation. The quickest way to explain this term is to correct the mistake I’ve already made, purposefully of course…

When I said the ‘wrong’ beat, what I really meant was ‘with the wrong emphasis’. Syncopation is the term used to describe what happens when an instrument chooses to place against a rhythm or outside of a typical beat - that is, assuming we are in the world of 4 steady quarter note pulses.

Let’s quickly address that:

Go listen to the first - let’s say, minute or so of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. It’s a well known song and typically is considered reasonably catchy right?

First thing - listen to the drums, they land square on the beat - 1 and 3 are for the kick, 2 and 4 are the snare. Nothing new there. It’s predictable and makes you feel ‘safe’ in the songs rhythm. What about the shaker on the right though? Well that seems to be outside of those drums? But we only have four beats?

The shaker is on the ‘offbeat’, or rather the next division of these four quarter notes - eighth notes. These are often referred to as the ‘and’ of a beat - so: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3… you get the idea. So now we’re counting in terms of eight.

Next - where is the push and pull of the rhythm? Well rhythmic emphasis lands on the four main beats, the kick and snare are being played with the same sense of impact really. In doing so, that shaker becomes twice as obvious as being on the offbeat.

Because of this, there’s a rhythmic relationship now between the shaker and drums? They interact with one another. A push and pull.

And the bass - well that glues this all together, it runs evenly across eighth notes - and being pitched, now beings to outline the melodic structure of the song.

This - is syncopation. In terms of meaning, it never gets more complicated than this - however, the extent to which a song or rhythm can be ‘syncopated’, can vary dramatically.

Common Examples

One of the best ways to understand, or hear syncopation is to listen to the rhythmic elements of a song - those being the drums, bass, and percussion.

In most instances, it is not necessary for two instruments to be ‘together’ for syncopation to occur. If I were to play any drum pattern, there could be syncopated - provided there was a discernible set of beats/regularity.

In genres such as rock and pop, syncopation tends to be light - at most, you might hear a second kick preceding the second snare (fourth beat) of a rock groove. But there are times, and often songs, that become famous because of their rhythmic irregularity - something which provides intrigue to a listener without them realising why.

Gorillaz’ ‘Feel Good Inc.’ is a great example - the first kick and snare land on Beats 1 and 2, then there is a delay in the third kick - it lands on the ‘and’ (or the eighth note) preceding the fourth beat (and second snare). The omission of this third kick, combined with the bassline, causes a tension (or a sense of pulling back) before the fourth beat.

The effect of this, in the bigger picture, is that a song becomes more rhythmically dense - imagine it like a jigsaw, if every piece is the same shape they will stack on top of each other… but if you start to create variance between the pieces, there’s a greater chance of each part aligning more closely and creating a new shape/image.

In ‘Big Time Sensuality’, the ‘1’ or the sense of a downbeat is held back for the first few bars of the song. The lack of a kick drum makes the song feel lighter, and detached - this is the same reason that the ‘drop’ from a DJ in a club, has so much impact… it brings back the weight of a song and lets you get back to your drunken shuffling. Notice then, the drum machine cymbal on the left lets you bob your head up, rather than down? Well that’s the effect of the upbeat accenting the rhythm. You’ll hear this a lot in disco music, in the form of the hi-hat, it’s a simple trick but always gets people going.

‘Taxman’ is somewhere between this - it has the pull of Feel Good Inc, but the kick plays now on the third downbeat and the upbeat that follows before the fourth beat. This is mirrored by the bass. Essentially the rhythmic density is backloaded in every bar. By locking these instruments together, you get a stronger sense of groove which drives the song.

The bridge then, comes as a surprise, because Paul now plays with emphasis at the beginning of the bar whereas Ringo sticks to the same drum beat. The two go out of phase as a mirror image of one another.

The Emergence of Rhythmic Ambiguity

The next level of complexity, is where the syncopation of instruments omits enough ‘emphasis’ in a song that you begin to either experience the ‘push/pull’ of knowing where the beat lands, at least for prolonged periods, or you lose the sense of a downbeat completely - especially so when those mischievous artists decide to omit the first beat entirely.

There are many interviews with Stewart Copeland where he states ‘Spirits in the Material World’ is the hardest Police song for him to perform. There are also interviews where this answer changes, but his general reasoning is that this song is constructed upon all three band members playing on the ‘offbeat’ and not the downbeat, at all…

From a drumming perspective, I’ve never found this song difficult provided you can quickly get the first kick on the offbeat… and not the downbeat. If you don’t, you’re really in for it.

That is not to say I’m as good as Stewart Copeland, the man is an octopus on the drumkit, but… I would instead suggest ‘Driven to Tears’ is a little bit harder!

Notice then, how the verses are occupied just by a kick and hi-hats, landing on the offbeat, whereas the chorus introduces the snare to give a greater sense of regularity. It’s still on the offbeat, as are all the dominant beats, but it’s enough variation to suggest the song is driving forward at a greater pace.

You may think - if everything is on the offbeat, then doesn’t the downbeat disappear? Or get replaced? Not quite - for there to be an accent on the offbeat, you have to internalise/imagine/feel (pick your fighter) the dominant beat (the downbeat) that would facilitate the ‘up’ of the upbeat.

That reminds me - if you ever hear the saying ‘Slow on the Uptake’ - I’m fairly sure that comes from orchestras, where the ‘uptake’ would be a short passage preceding whichever bar/section of a composition would be performed after a pause or break. More you know…

Another step forward with this thinking - ‘I Got The’ just oozes that slick groovy vibe of the 70s so perfectly. For the first few bars we are exposed to the unusual rhythm of the guitar and bass, playing in unison, and taking big gaps between phrases - enough that you’d struggle to find a pattern on first listen. You’d need a lot of go’s so to speak.

Did I mention that you can have more than eight subdivisions? No I didn't. I didn’t want to scare you - but you’ve made it this far, you can do it.

So those beats between the beats? There’s beats between those too. These are referred to as sixteenths - or semi demi… whatever… it’s too many syllables to represent such a short duration. I am English, but I think the American system wins here. Typically, if we have 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, you can speak a sixteenth by going 1 e and e 2 e and e 3 e and e 4 e and e 1 e and … - it looks a bit mental. It sort of is. They take a while to internalise. They do allow a much wider breadth of accenting and rhythmic complexity however, which can be quite beautiful - so be excited! And scared. Maybe both. I’ll get back to them properly in a bit.

Back to Labi. So by the time the drums enter, do you notice that there is less of a discernible pattern between the guitar and drums? It’s harder to note whether the kick and snare are landing regularly. They sort of are - but with a bit of artistic license, or what we call jamming/expression. In this instance, the drummer knows exactly where they are but are choosing to play around with what they play to keep the excitement going - all while remaining in conversation with the guitars.

By the time the chorus rolls about, the pulsing upbeat of the hi-hat helps focus in on the rhythm and intelligibility of the song.

So - 16ths (numbers now, I’m lazy). You know that bridge… I mean that bridge, well that’s a great spot to identify 16ths. Focus on the kick, notice that it stutters? There’s a sense of lunging forward, because the kick seems to land twice in quick succession? That’s the 16th preceding the main beat. It’s so good Eminem made it more famous than this song… shame really.

It’s worth noting that where 8th notes (or offbeats) can be quite easy to identify, the new possibilities opened up by rhythms involving 16th notes become considerably harder to grasp quickly or intuit.

Ok triplet time - let’s get into the really good stuff.

If you don’t know the name for the rhythm in this song, it’s known as a ‘shuffle’. They’re really quite fiddly to learn at first, if you’re a drummer.

Everything is in threes - there’s a strong emphasis on one, two, three, four, but if you notice the subdivision (those pesky guys in between) - it’s one two three, two two three, three two three, four two three? How does that work if they seem to be in even intervals but everything rolls in fours?

Well in terms of what you hear - you now have four kicks, emphasised evenly across every beat. But, the accent is now coming from the hi-hat, playing two notes out of a triplet. Don’t glaze over, I’ll make it clear:

Much like the kick in the bridge of ‘I Got The’, the hi-hat is emphasised both on the regular quarter note beats and the sixteenth before it - like so.

1 e and e 2 e and e 3 e and e 4 e and e 1 e and e

So, if you’re a drummer, this feels really weird at first because your hi-hat limb now is playing a rhythm that doesn’t align squarely with your kick or snare limbs. You now are accenting with the limb that typically is keeping a constant rhythm - at least in rock and pop.

What is the effect of the shuffle? I’m not sure? A head bob I think. But some stank face too. Sounds like a horse generally.

Triplets are awesome - especially on drums, they make the entire song feel like one long drum fill because the emphasis feeds between bars. Note: the ‘e’ of the notation above exists before the beat? So, you have a regular overlap between bars. This opens a lot of space for the bass and other instruments to work around this. In ‘Higher Ground’ the bass locks between the drums by sitting on a regular eighth pulse before emphasising two triplets to lock in with the drums ever bar.

Here’s a diagram, this is getting hard to represent in words:

Behold - an ugly monstrosity of a diagram that gets my point across with no care for aesthetic beauty - purple represents the triplet accent of the drums (hi-hat specifically) and the green represents the bass.

Note the use of two bars (divided in the middle) to show where the drums overlap/lean into the next bar.

Hip-hop is another fantastic example for syncopation. De La Soul’s ‘Stakes is High’ is chosen here because it’s produced by J Dilla, an American producer known for his ‘wonky’ beats.

I say ‘wonky’, not because it’s a bad thing. A lot of hip-hop is built on sampling - the practice of recording sounds, cutting them up, and re-sequencing/performing/playing these sounds using ‘samplers’ - you guessed it, devices that play back sounds on request.

Anyway - I say this, because J Dilla’s signature ‘wonky’ sound came from his decision to slice up drum recordings and play the parts manually, introducing an element of human variance to the rhythm. This very slight push/pull of the rhythm doesn’t operate within the range of subdivisions (e.g 16ths), but more like a 1/256th… if that makes sense? A microscopic kind of tension that makes an overall sound seem ‘loose’ rather than rhythmically different.

So - this track, why? Well De La Soul are famous for performing their own sort of syncopation with their lyrics - that use of pause and emphasis on specific words or syllables. Beyond that, this song not only has a sense of regular head bob, but it’s pushed further by its iconic set of horns, repeating across the bar before descending.

Unlike the galloping groove of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’, we’re now met with a simultaneous push and pull of rhythms, where various samples overlap slightly ahead and behind the beat, creating a richly knit groove. It’s what lets you head bob as well as choose whether you emphasise the beat being stronger as the horns descend, or whether they just stay the same.

Hiding the Beat Until the End

I got this far without Radiohead - but sorry it’s time for me to change that.

‘Videotape’ is a cool example because it uses syncopation fairly invisibly - up until the point that it suddenly isn’t.

I think this example is perhaps easier to understand than say the shuffles beforehand, but the overall effect is still quite dramatic. Notably, if you listen you’ll begin to identify the downbeat of the song with the piano chords, as they land. But, by the 3 minute mark, as the vocals end… you’ll notice the drums seem to be … well - off? They’re actually aligned to be about a 16th off from the drums, on purpose - and that is in fact the downbeat of the entire song, just hidden until the end. The effect is that the song sort of flips on its head, just a little - because your ear is now given and entirely new rhythmic perspective.

It’s best demonstrated on the Bonaroo version here, with the grand reveal at around 34:45 - you’ll notice the song seems to split in two? This second rhythm slips out and begins to continuously accent the one you’ve been listened to for the whole song. Sort of like parallax on a camera lens… you’re seeing double.

There’s a much more concise and visual explanation of this song here.

The Rhythmic Jigsaw

I hope this is in some way interesting - it’s definitely a hard one to explain but simple to appreciate. At least, it maybe gives you an awareness of how syncopation can enhance or exhibit itself in music. It’s just one of the many things that can add interest and complexity to songs and make them more unique, or stand out…

I might revisit this topic in future in more depth, or focusing on specifics rhythms/tropes. For now maybe check out Bossanova, Clavés, or maybe Reggae? There’s really a lot of options to draw from.