835  Splitting the beat vs. syncopation

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 18:07:24 -0500
From: Alan McPherron <mcph+@PITT.EDU>
Subject: Splitting the beat vs. syncopation

Jonathan Thornton has to repeat for us for the umpteenth time that there's
a difference (in music) between "double time" or "splitting the beat" or
"Slow-Quick-Quick-Slow" and SYNCOPATION. The latter is something quite
different. Interesting: he points out it's one more insidious thing that
has crept in from Ballroom Dancing. Would that be enough to make people
finally recognize that "Splitting the Beat is not Syncopation"?

If you want to hear more, look at

www.ilovemusic.com/syncopat.html
(Philip Seyer "Syncopation in Music and Dance")

Alan McPherron, Tangueros Unidos

Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 12:22:16 -0700
From: Huck Kennedy <huck@ENSMTP1.EAS.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Splitting the beat vs. syncopation

Alan McPherron writes:

> Jonathan Thornton has to repeat for us for the umpteenth time that there's
> a difference (in music) between "double time" or "splitting the beat" or
> "Slow-Quick-Quick-Slow" and SYNCOPATION. The latter is something quite
> different. Interesting: he points out it's one more insidious thing that
> has crept in from Ballroom Dancing. Would that be enough to make people
> finally recognize that "Splitting the Beat is not Syncopation"?

No, my friend, I fear misuse of the term "syncopation"
is forever entrenched in the dance world. Probably the
best you can do is to yourself use the term "double-time"
rather than "syncopation" in dance conversations. But
trying to correct everyone else's erroneous usage of
"syncopation" is rarely any more fruitful than banging
your head against a wall.

> If you want to hear more, look at
>
> www.ilovemusic.com/syncopat.html
> (Philip Seyer "Syncopation in Music and Dance")

I couldn't find this at first; it turns out you
need to drop the "l" off "html," and then the link
works.

The author uses cha-cha as his example. I think
a much clearer example is comparing salsa to mambo.
Both have a quick-quick-slow rhythm, but mambo's
quick-quick-slow is syncopated (2-3-4[hold through 1]),
and is much harder for most novice dancers to grasp
than the straightforward unsyncopated quick-quick-slow
of salsa (1-2-3[hold4]). I've even heard some people
jokingly refer to salsa as "mambo for dancers who can't
hear the two-beat."

Huck