What is syncopation, anyway?

[Steve Pastor]

And, towards the end in this one he talks about the syncopation of the bass in Cuban music, and how it fits the dance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&NR=1&v=YzRGH-5yk-w

 

[opendoor]

..he talks about the syncopation

Thanks, Steve for sharing!!

 

[DWise1]

For the newbies and non music majors out there, could someone please explain the meaning of the term, syncopation, that we've been throwing around, from a dancer's perspective, please. No need to get too technical musically, unless you just want to.

http://www.ilovemusic.com/syncopat.htm

I went through a similar problem with the term "rhythm", only to finally realize that dancers and musicians apply slightly different definitions to common terms even without realizing it. Same thing with engineers and technicians. For both, current is defined as the flow of electrons in the circuit, but technicians learn "electron current" which is from negative to positive while engineers learn "conventional current" which is from positive to negative. It turns out that Benjamin Franklin, in naming which had a surplus of charge (positive) and which had a deficit of charge (negative) got it wrong, but we didn't discover that until a century later after all the mathematics had been developed, so engineers continue to use conventional current because that makes all the math come out right.

Similarly, in music "rhythm" talks about dividing up the beats within each measure, while in dance it talks about the basic count of the dance and how that relates to the phrasing of the music, when that phrasing actually applies. Two different concepts, albeit related, though confusing them can result in disaster.

The same with syncopation. As I understand it in music, there is a natural system of strong and weak beats within a measure. In 3/4 time, it's strong weak weak, strong weak weak. In 4/4 time it's Strong weak less-strong weak. In musical syncopation, as I understand it, you divide up the beats so that the normally strong beat is weak, which shifts the stronger beat to where it would have otherwise been weak.

However, in dance syncopation refers to dividing the normal dance rhythm up; eg, swing's 1-2-3&4-5&6 can become and-1-and-2-3&4-5&6, or 1-2&3-4-5&6.

Same words, but with different meanings within different contexts.

 

[tsb]

for syncopation to be understood, you need to understand the concept of accents; regardless of the number of beats in a grouping, some beats get emphasized more than others. that emphasis musically is most often done by volume, this is commonly referred to as an accent.

in dance music, the most common grouping of beats (measure) is in multiples of four (but for waltz the grouping is in 3). the most common accent patterns are:

ONE two three four
ONE two THREE four (such as in a march)

beats can be subdivided, most commonly verbalized (with accents) by musicians in one of the following ways:

ONE and two and three and four and
ONE and two and THREE and four and
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and (most common for something like hustle)

musical syncopation occurs when the accent pattern differs from the common patterns.

as mentioned previously, cha cha syncopation emphasizes an accented pattern on FOUR AND ONE

ONE two three FOUR AND ONE two three FOUR AND ONE (this pattern is sometimes obvious, in some music, it's a little more inferred.)

a common syncopation you hear in salsa music: (the beats in parenthesis are often silent)
(one) TWO THREE (four) ONE (two) AND (three and) FOUR

in the previous pattern, the first TWO drives the first step in MAMBO that breaks on TWO.

or just the dotted quarter pattern which you often hear in rumba/bolero
ONE (two) AND (three and) FOUR

swing/bop is often syncopated by the hi-hat/ride cymbal:
one AND two AND three AND four AND

in these cases the syncopation does not drive the movement - but still helps you identify when the downbeat occurs (sometimes in combination with other things going on in the music).

the only real dance syncopation i would categorize as such is actually in waltz:
ONE two three

where an emphasis is placed on TWO:

one TWO three one TWO three

to drive the sense of reaching on the second step. as a DJ i try to find music that sustains beat two to help emphasis the feel, but not all music often chosen for waltz does that.
==========
east coast swing features a basic figure that encompasses 6 beats (while music is usually grouped in four beats). because of this, there's an overlap such that the beginning of a figure does not always occur with the down (first) beat of a measure (grouping of beats). i would not categorize this as syncopation.

and while two basic figures in WCS are taught initially as 6 count figures, most advanced/experienced dancers add styling beats, etc. so that the start and end of figures coincide with the start/finish of measures/phrases, though they may syncopate by doing things such as kick-ball-change footwork - one AND TWO, most syncopation i've seen tends to reflect syncopation in the music.

i've probably left some things out, but i think covers enough and in such a way most people should be able to grasp it.

 

[Terpsichorean Clod]

As someone with some musical experience, the ballroom definition drives me nuts. I've seen a show video of Pino/Bucciarelli where they're actually hitting the offbeats. That's a pretty rare example. I'd love to see more cases of musical syncopation in ballroom.

 

[opendoor]

..the only dance syncopation i would categorize as such is actually in waltz.. where an emphasis is placed on TWO: one TWO three one TWO three...

Interesting idea. But what about hustle? Three major steps to a regular 4/4 measure?

 

[tsb]

As someone with some musical experience, the ballroom definition drives me nuts. I've seen a show video of Pino/Bucciarelli where they're actually hitting the offbeats. That's a pretty rare example. I'd love to see more cases of musical syncopation in ballroom.

maybe it should start in france:
the french audience is clapping on the down beat, so harry connick jr adds a beat so that the french audience, which doesn't change, is subsequently clapping on the off-beat.

as god (and harry connick jr) intended.

 

[tsb]

Interesting idea. But what about hustle? Three major steps to a regular 4/4 measure?

old school hustle music (disco) kept a constant accent on every beat so it wasn't an issue. as such, i would maintain that a DJ that picks music that has onbeat/offbeat feel has merely chosen a bad song to play for hustle.