Rhythmic Placement

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An important but often overlooked component of the execution of an idea is its rhythmic placement. A given phrase can be played starting anywhere within a measure, and it may sound subtly different at each position. In a measure of 4/4 time, the accents naturally fall on beats one and three, and depending on where in the bar you start a phrase, the accents will fall on different notes:

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Also, the use of space is an important part of the expression of an idea. A phrase that immediately follows on the heels of the previous phrase conveys a different feeling than one that follows at a greater distance:

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As with the contours themselves, you should take care not to fall into habits of always placing your phrases the same way. A overly common pattern is to improvise in phrases of two measures that always start on the "and" of beat one:

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Even when the phrases themselves are varied, if this same rhythmic pattern is always used, the overally effect is still that of too much repetition. You should try to vary where your phrases start relative to the measure:

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Within phrases, you may find yourself repeating some rhythmic devices more than may be appropriate. I personally have found that, when playing bebop lines that consist of mostly eighth notes and triplets, I tend to place the triplets most often on beats one or three, and sometimes four, but hardly ever on beat two:

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Once I caught myself doing this, I was able to practice playing lines with triplets on beat two. In the process, I discovered that the reason I tended to play triplets when I did had to do with my piano fingering technique. Changing this has not come easily, but I continue to work on it.

Other things to watch for include where you place large interval leaps and changes in direction. It may seem silly to have to worry about details like these, but you would be surprised how repetition, no matter how unintended, can start to grate on the ears. For instance, consider the following example:

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The leaps tend to occur on beat one, and the changes in direction tend to occur on beat three. Eventually, the solo starts to sound repetitive. Yet with only small changes in timing, this effect is lessened greatly:

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Besides the issue of placement relative to the measure, you should also consider the placement of your phrases relative to the form. In general, the tendency is to play separate phrases on each chord or sequence of related chords such as ii-V-I progressions:

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Particularly when playing 32 bar AABA forms and 12 bar blues progressions, many people tend to play as if there were brick walls at every fourth bar line. With the exception of a pickup or two, it seems the vast majority of phrases do not cross these boundaries:

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This can end up sounding very rigid after a while. You should try instead to play phrases that connect from one chord or chord sequence to the next:

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This, combined with variation in starting and ending points, is sometimes called "across-the-bar" phrasing. It tends to loosen up the rhythm. It is almost like the difference between a strict reading of iambic pentameter in verse:

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And a more conversational style:

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The second example is clearly more natural and it allows for more individual expression. It is the same with music.

Similarly, many soloists tend to wrap up one idea at the end of a chorus, and start a new phrase with the next chorus:

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While on one hand this is an effective way to outline the form, it is important to realize that, particularly in simple forms such as these, the form is not your master. It exists to provide you with harmonic framework for your improvisations, but there is no reason your ideas can not or should not develop more naturally. Here is an example of two choruses of a simple form that exploit this type of phrasing:

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The use of the turnaround at the end of the first chorus can help connect the first chorus to the second. But here I am talking about something more than just anticipating or delaying the start of a new set of ideas by a measure or two. As will be discussed in a subsequent section on Melodic Development, you will normally develop an idea after stating it by playing variations on the original or ideas that are complementary. For example, here is an idea and some development:

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You should not treat the beginning of a chorus as a commandment to abandon the development of one idea and start on a new one:

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You may instead continue the development of an idea across chorus boundaries:

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Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Rhythmic Placement