Rhythm

• Syncopation
• Swing
• Counterpoint
• Richness of Jazz Rhythms

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

Syncopation

Perhaps more so than the melody or harmony, it is the rhythm of a performance that identifies it as jazz for many people. Jazz developed in part from ragtime piano music, and the very name "ragtime" is a contraction of "ragged time", which refers to the use of syncopated rhythms that are common in both ragtime and jazz.

In the most general sense, syncopation has to do with the creation of rhythmic surprise. The most typical way this is done is through the placement of accents. In most other styles of music in the Western world, accents generally fall on the beats:

In jazz, however, accents tend to fall between the beats. If you divide each beat into two parts, the accents in jazz often fall on the second half of each beat. Furthermore, they appear irregularly; you do not tend to see the second half of every beat accented equally:

Note the accents in this example occur within the melodic line. One of the characteristics of bebop in particular is the use of short, accented offbeats at the ends of phrases:

Another aspect of syncopation has to do with which beats are emphasized. In other types of music, when there are four beats per measure (as is most common), beats one and three are usually stronger than two and four:

In jazz, at least since the Swing Era, beats two and four - the "offbeats" - often feel stronger than one and three:

All four beats are still played, but beats two and four are accented slightly. This is sometimes referred to as a four-beat rhythm. When two and four are accented especially heavily, it is sometimes called a "backbeat" rhythm:

The early jazz musicians often strongly accented beats one and three, however, with bassists and drummers playing almost entirely on these two beats, and pianists or guitarists supplying chords on the offbeats:

This is referred to as a "two-beat" rhythm. Modern jazz musicians will often use a more subtle two-beat feel at the beginning of a performance, such as while playing the theme, and then switch to a four-beat rhythm for the solos.

Swing

When people discuss rhythm in jazz, they almost invariably deal with the concept of swing. Whereas syncopaton has to do with surprise, swing has to do with the creation of forward momentum, a drive that makes you want to dance to the music.

At the most basic level, swing is usually described in terms of the length of eighth notes. If you divide each beat exactly in half, the results are called straight eighth notes:

In swing eighth notes, the first part of each beat is a little longer than the second:

Sometimes this is described by saying that the beat is really subdivided into three parts, and swing eighth notes are the first and third parts of the beat. Here is how that rhythm sounds:

This is not really a typical swing rhythm, however. Jazz musicians almost always play eighth notes straighter than that, except perhaps in the style known as the shuffle. A correct ratio for swing cannot be given precisely. Different musicians tend to interpret swing in different ways. Earlier jazz musicians tended to play with a more exaggerated swing:

The more modern tendency has usually been to play eighth notes a little straighter:

Also, the ratio depends on the tempo of a performance. At slow tempos, an exaggerated swing often works well:

While at fast tempos, straighter eighths usually sound better:

Some styles of jazz - especially hybrids of jazz with other forms of music - do not use swing eighth notes in this literal sense at all. For example, eighth notes in bossa nova are usually played straight. However, the slight accent on the second half of each beat, combined with other elements of jazz expression, may still convey something of a swing feel:

Not only does swing involve altering the placement of eighth notes within the beat, but it can sometimes involve the placement of the beats themselves. Musicians may sometimes play "in front of" or "on top of" the beat, meaning that when instead of playing each note exactly when it is called for, they anticipate slightly and play everything a fraction of beat early:

This tends to give the music a sense of forward momentum. At other times, a musician may play behind the beat, meaning that they delay everything slightly, giving the music more of a relaxed feel:

Another subtle aspect of swing is that all players in an ensemble do not necessarily play with the exact same feel. For example, the bassist may be playing his eighth notes with close to a triplet feel, while drummer may be exaggerating the rhythm on his ride cymbal even beyond that; meanwhile the pianist and horn players may be using straighter eighth notes. Furthermore, the rhythm section may be playing more in front of the beat, with the horns well behind (or vice versa). This creates a sort of rhythmic tension within the group that also contributes to a sense of looseness:

Counterpoint

One final rhythmic component of several styles of jazz is counterpoint, which is created when several instruments are playing melodic lines at once, each with a different rhythm:

While other styles of music, particularly baroque, use counterpoint as well, it is in those cases usually a planned counterpoint, and the individual lines are designed to fit together in a logical fashion. In jazz, since the lines are usually improvised, the counterpoint often turns out to be more complex. Some styles of jazz make more extensive use of counterpoint than others do.

Richness of Jazz Rhythms

Syncopation and swing are like yin and yang; they may take on different forms depending on context, but always act in opposition to each other and yet in conjunction. Usually the elements of syncopation and swing will be present in a jazz performance to some degree, or else we would start to question whether or not it was really jazz. But swing and syncopation may not always take precisely the forms described above.

While most jazz is played in four, meaning there are four beats per measure, jazz is also commonly played in three. The rhythms are usually still syncopated and swinging:

More unusual meters that contain five, seven, or other numbers of beats are used on occassion as well. These can also swing in their own way:

Modern jazz musicians sometimes choose to play without a constant rhythmic pulse at all. Beyond the literal definition, syncopation can refer to the general tendency to create surprise, and swing to the tendency to create a sense of forward motion. Without a sense of the expected, there could be nothing unexpected. The following excerpt demonstrates how a non-literal "swing" creates a sense of continuity that can be broken up by non-literal "syncopation":

This more generalized concept of "swing" and "syncopation" also applies to jazz played with a conventional pulse. For example, when jazz is performed at slower tempos, such as in ballads, the swing and syncopation is usually of a looser nature, but it is still present in some way:

Together, the components of syncopation, swing, and counterpoint lead to a rhythmic feel that is unique to jazz. Syncopation and counterpoint create excitement, while at the same time, these rhythms are often very natural and conversational. The irregular accents of a syncopated jazz line mimic the patterns of ordinary speech:

While counterpoint mimics the sound of several people talking at once:

The sense of swing in jazz rhythms often makes them danceable despite their unpredictability and complexity. The richness of the rhythms may be the single most important element of jazz, rivaled only by the emphasis on improvisation, which is discussed further in a later chapter.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Rhythm