Talk:Syncopation

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[edit] Stressed beats in 4/4

The second sentence of this article reads "For example, in 4/4 time, the first and third beats are normally stressed."

It is my understanding that for the most part this refers mostly to 'western' styles of music, whereas the generalisation for most other types of music is that the 2nd & 4th beats are usually stressed.

As I am not sufficiently sure of this to warrant editing the article, I would like to see other opinions and evidence.

I think the important part is "normally". Hyacinth 10:26, 5 February 2006 (UTC)
What about reggae? There, the offbeats are normally stressed. ILike2BeAnonymous 10:00, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

see back beat 65.81.149.73 22:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Syncopation is necessary

in order for music not to sound too boring or monotonous, there are some "silencing" techniques that are used within rhythm for emphasis. For example, a silent third beat emphasis is common to be heard as a little pause in melody and a break of the drums in soul, or hip hop.

[edit] Audio examples?

Can someone upload some example music?

Three examples added. What do you all think? Hyacinth (talk) 18:59, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
Well, I am curious if what I heard, is what you intended. There were a series of identical notes, then a little bit of noise (limited to a twentieth of a second, or a fiftieth of a second or so), then a cessation of sound, then a resumption of identical notes. Is syncopation really an absence of music, contained on either side by notes of an identical character? I think I would be asking too much for sound spectrograms, but I think the examples were worth listening to. I am curious about the brief amount of noise. You know, like when you are connecting wires together, when testing out the schematic for an oscillator. The noise might have been an unintended artifact not present in the original composition. It was so brief, I was wondering if it was a transmission problem on my end, or a problem with the player. The duration was much less than any of the notes preceding the silence, or following it.198.177.27.28 (talk) 07:28, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
What you heard where? Which example are you referring to? Hyacinth (talk) 08:06, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Technical

This page is unenlightening for a non-musician - and the stuff about "transformation" is downright intimidating. Surely more could be said about the basics of syncopation? Particularly in the light of music history and ethno-musicology. And reference is made to "Narmour's prosodic rules" - but no work is cited in the bibliography. If analogies are going to be made to verse meter (the reference to "trochees" for example, which doesn't link to anything about music), then that analogy should be explained and illustrated.

I agree with you. And, in my own opinion, the main article could be improved if all of those diagrams were deleted. They don't make a lick's worth of sense to those of us who don't understand the notation commonly used in recording music on paper, nor are we in a position to see if the compositions add to the article or subtract from it. So, in cases of doubt, delete it.
If someone does, however, decide to upload some .RAW or .WAV files, maybe she should remember to include examples of syncopation in near eastern music? Are there any famous ragas that use syncopation? 198.177.27.18 (talk) 04:25, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
I oppose the deletion of "diagrams" which are useful and informative to those who do read music. Under which policy would the deletion of those images be justified? Hyacinth (talk) 05:11, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
Also, the rhythmic aspect of music notation is the most straight forward part to learn, and teaching oneself is 1/2 to 3/4 of what Wikipedia is all about. Note heads and flags indicate rhythmic proportions, or fractions of time. Examples containing only one kind of note head and flag are thus fairly easy to figure out, such as the example of "latin transformation", containing only eight notes. Hyacinth (talk) 18:58, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Misuse of "missing beat"

I don't think it's correct to say "a missing beat where a stressed one would normally be expected". If the beat itself were missing, then it would be something like a single 3/4 bar in the midst of a piece otherwise in 4/4. The beat is a location in time where (i.e., when) there might or might not be a note.

I'd say an example of syncopation would be a missing *note* on a beat that would normally be stressed, not for the beat itself to be missing.

MusicScience (talk) 01:36, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

I believe that is a misinterpretation of what van der Merwe meant by "missed". I believe I clarified the article a little. Hyacinth (talk) 00:27, 27 May 2008 (UTC)