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Hearing a rhythm is a prerequisite to playing it.
Hearing a rhythm is a prerequisite to playing it. After three months of exploring rhythmic displacement, you should be able to recognize its use in a plethora of songs and styles. Our final installment examines a host of real-world applications for this versatile musical tool.
Ex. 1 lays down two quarter-note G5 dyads, and then displaces them to the eighth-note upbeats on the and of beats three and four to create a groove redolent of Keith Richards’ intro to “Honky Tonk Woman.” For total authenticity, use open-G tuning and tie the last eighth-note in each measure to the following quarter-note downbeat on the repeats.
Utilizing a single C chord, Ex. 2 extends the same idea over two bars by including an extra quarter-note downbeat and eighth-note upbeat, plus an additional quarter-note hit on beat three of bar 2, and brings to mind many popular songs, from the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann,” to the Doors’ “Touch Me,” to the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.” In a more prog-ish context, Ex. 3, excerpted from Todd Rundgren’s “Everybody’s Going to Heaven,” displaces a cool 3/4 lick over two bars of 4/4. Note how the last note is held to fill out the remainder of bar 2.
Moving on to three-against-four rhythmic displacements, or hemiolas, Ex. 4 illustrates a partial hemiola, i.e., one that does not completely recycle, and brings to mind George Harrison’s playing on “Here Comes the Sun.” The figure consists of four 3/8 arpeggios followed by four eighth-notes and a resolution to D, which could also be perceived as four bars of 3/8 plus a bar of 4/4.
The same hemiola is double-timed as four 3/16