"A big part of R&B's attraction had to do with the stompin' backbeats that make it so eminently danceable," according to the Encyclopedia of Percussion. "It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it" – Chuck Berry, " Rock and Roll Music"Ī back beat, or backbeat, is a syncopated accentuation on the "off" beat. Certain genres tend to emphasize the off-beat, where this is a defining characteristic of rock'n'roll and ska music. The downbeat can never be the off-beat because it is the strongest beat in 4Ĥ time. According to Grove Music, the "Offbeat is where the downbeat is replaced by a rest or is tied over from the preceding bar". This is a fundamental technique of African polyrhythm that transferred to popular western music. So "off-beat" is a musical term, commonly applied to syncopation that emphasizes the weak even beats of a bar, as opposed to the usual on-beat. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 - the stress is on the "unexpected" or syncopated beat play ( help.info) But one may syncopate that pattern and alternately stress the odd and even beats, respectively:.1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 - the stress here on the "on" beat play ( help.1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 - play eighth notes and bass drum alone ( help.As a background against which to compare these various rhythms a bass drum strike on the downbeat and a constant eighth note subdivision on ride cymbal have been added, which would be counted as follows ( bold denotes a stressed beat): The effect can be easily simulated by evenly and repeatedly counting to four. Subdivisions (like eighth notes) that fall between the pulse beats are even weaker and these, if used frequently in a rhythm, can also make it "off-beat". The second and fourth are weaker-the "off-beats". Often referred to as "upbeats", in parallel with upstrokes.Ĥ time, counted as " 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.", the first beat of the bar (downbeat) is usually the strongest accent in the melody and the likeliest place for a chord change, the third is the next strongest: these are "on" beats. The term anacrusis was borrowed from the field of poetry, in which it refers to one or more unstressed extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a line. In English, anákrousis translates literally as "pushing up". Alternative expressions include "pickup" and " anacrusis" (the latter ultimately from Greek ana and krousis through French anacrouse). Īn anticipatory note or succession of notes occurring before the first barline of a piece is sometimes referred to as an upbeat figure, section or phrase. The anacrusis leads to the crusis, but doesn't have the same 'explosion' of sound it serves as a preparation for the crusis. The crusis of a measure or a phrase is a beginning it propels sound and energy forward, so the sound needs to lift and have forward motion to create a sense of direction. This idea of directionality of beats is significant when you translate its effect on music. Both terms correspond to the direction taken by the hand of a conductor. The upbeat is the last beat in the previous bar which immediately precedes, and hence anticipates, the downbeat. The downbeat is the first beat of the bar, i.e. When pulses are thus counted within a metric context, they are referred to as beats.īeginning of Bach's BWV 736, with upbeat (anacrusis) in red.
Therefore, in order for meter to exist, some of the pulses in a series must be accented-marked for consciousness-relative to others. Meter is the measurement of the number of pulses between more or less regularly recurring accents. Rhythm in music is characterized by a repeating sequence of stressed and unstressed beats (often called "strong" and "weak") and divided into bars organized by time signature and tempo indications.īeats are related to and distinguished from pulse, rhythm (grouping), and meter: In popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts, including pulse, tempo, meter, specific rhythms, and groove. The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a piece of music, or the numbers a musician counts while performing, though in practice this may be technically incorrect (often the first multiple level). In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the mensural level (or beat level). Metric levels: beat level shown in middle with division levels above and multiple levels below.