Gongchime
New member
In my earlier post on How Pros Compose, I related that experts who study creativity in professional composers said that pros have a rhythmic concept for writing melodies.
I just wanted to point out that experts also have a rhythmic concept for rhythms as well often making the parts played into rhythmic phrases.
In a very old article in Modern Drummer it said that in popular styles, the bass guitar follows the bass drum though won't necessarily be identical. They also said that the keyboard/guitar part follows the high hat. They also went on to say that the high hat part can be extracted from the bass part by using the retrograde rhythm of the bass as accents in the high hat part. This also suggests the guitar and bass part as they mentioned.
When thinking about each aspect of the music. Many musicians think about what they consider to be the best in that domain. Many drummers consider African percussion and the percussion of India to posess the height of excellence. "How is rhythm approachd in those systems?" is often what your favorite percussionists have answers to or wish they did.
In African music master percussionists will make phrases from the rhythm (as you and I could be doing).
How is this accomplished you ask? The events occuring in the first half of the rhythm can be labeled "a" and the events in the second half can be labeled as "b."
Usually in African music only the permutations abab, abaa or abbb are used primarily because this is all an improvising musicians mind can keep track of. The other thing that they do is to only play half of a rhythm and then complete it much later.
Subfigurations can be added on one beat especially at important structural points primarily on the last beat. All of the possible permutations are possible on the last beat of four or eight measures.
These consist of 4 sixteenths, 3 rhtyhmic events in whatever configuration contrasts with what came previously, two rhythmic events that contrast and one rhythmic event.
Examples,
Possibilities of three rhythmic events at the level of the beat might be one eighth note and two sixteenths, two sixteenths and one eighth, one sixteenth plus an eighth note followed by another sixteenth etc...
Possibilites of two rhythmic events might be one sixteenth rest followed by an eighth note followed by a sixteenth note. A sixteenth rest followed by two sixteenth notes followed by another sixteenth note rest etc....
Possibilites of one rhythmic event might be one sixteenth note rest followed by a dotted eighth.
You get the idea.
Another concept employed as a structuring element is what's called turning the beat around as Gloria Estefan so passionately sings about.
The concept came to Cuban music from Africa.
African music has a bell pattern which has an "on the beat" first half and an "off the beat" second half.
The clave developed from African musicians trying to fit their bell pattern into western rhythms.
As you may well know, there are two kinds of clave 3:2 and 2:3.
The clave never changes but if all the rest of the accompanying instruments drop the last measure or play an extra measure or an odd number such as three (this functions as a transition) then the clave turns around to it's opposite which gives the next section of music a sense of newness.
There are actually several kinds of clave; cuban, brazilian, jazz, etc...
In popular music the two side of the clave is generally dropped and the three side isn't played on the clave. It's often in the bass. But permutations of this are also employed. The three side is a dotted quarter note with an eithth note tied to a quarter and then another quarter has it's own attack.
I'll leave it to you to write the permutations.
Gongchime
I just wanted to point out that experts also have a rhythmic concept for rhythms as well often making the parts played into rhythmic phrases.
In a very old article in Modern Drummer it said that in popular styles, the bass guitar follows the bass drum though won't necessarily be identical. They also said that the keyboard/guitar part follows the high hat. They also went on to say that the high hat part can be extracted from the bass part by using the retrograde rhythm of the bass as accents in the high hat part. This also suggests the guitar and bass part as they mentioned.
When thinking about each aspect of the music. Many musicians think about what they consider to be the best in that domain. Many drummers consider African percussion and the percussion of India to posess the height of excellence. "How is rhythm approachd in those systems?" is often what your favorite percussionists have answers to or wish they did.
In African music master percussionists will make phrases from the rhythm (as you and I could be doing).
How is this accomplished you ask? The events occuring in the first half of the rhythm can be labeled "a" and the events in the second half can be labeled as "b."
Usually in African music only the permutations abab, abaa or abbb are used primarily because this is all an improvising musicians mind can keep track of. The other thing that they do is to only play half of a rhythm and then complete it much later.
Subfigurations can be added on one beat especially at important structural points primarily on the last beat. All of the possible permutations are possible on the last beat of four or eight measures.
These consist of 4 sixteenths, 3 rhtyhmic events in whatever configuration contrasts with what came previously, two rhythmic events that contrast and one rhythmic event.
Examples,
Possibilities of three rhythmic events at the level of the beat might be one eighth note and two sixteenths, two sixteenths and one eighth, one sixteenth plus an eighth note followed by another sixteenth etc...
Possibilites of two rhythmic events might be one sixteenth rest followed by an eighth note followed by a sixteenth note. A sixteenth rest followed by two sixteenth notes followed by another sixteenth note rest etc....
Possibilites of one rhythmic event might be one sixteenth note rest followed by a dotted eighth.
You get the idea.
Another concept employed as a structuring element is what's called turning the beat around as Gloria Estefan so passionately sings about.
The concept came to Cuban music from Africa.
African music has a bell pattern which has an "on the beat" first half and an "off the beat" second half.
The clave developed from African musicians trying to fit their bell pattern into western rhythms.
As you may well know, there are two kinds of clave 3:2 and 2:3.
The clave never changes but if all the rest of the accompanying instruments drop the last measure or play an extra measure or an odd number such as three (this functions as a transition) then the clave turns around to it's opposite which gives the next section of music a sense of newness.
There are actually several kinds of clave; cuban, brazilian, jazz, etc...
In popular music the two side of the clave is generally dropped and the three side isn't played on the clave. It's often in the bass. But permutations of this are also employed. The three side is a dotted quarter note with an eithth note tied to a quarter and then another quarter has it's own attack.
I'll leave it to you to write the permutations.
Gongchime
