We Dance to Music

Since we dance to music, its only natural that many musical terms will creep into our dancer's vocabulary. Common terms are tempo, measures, and beat. When dance teachers use these words they conform to correct musical definitions. The word syncopation, however, is a different story! In music the word syncopation has a very specific meaning. Many dancers and dance teachers use the term much more loosely. Although I'm not likely to change the habits of the millions of dancers who use this term, I would like to clarify it's meaning in music. I also suggest that we keep that same meaning when we refer to syncopation in dance.

Splitting the Beat is NOT Syncopation!

I've heard more than one dance teacher explain: "in music, syncopation is the splitting of the beat into two parts." These teachers, in this case, were explaining how you take two quick steps in cha-cha. Yes, a beat is split into two steps in cha-cha. Usually this is beat four. But no! This action does not constitute syncopation!. Actually, the main syncopation in cha-cha happens on beat two (usually the first part of a rock step), I'll explain why shortly

Other teachers and dancers use the term "syncopation" to refer to fancy footwork or a deviation from some basic pattern of steps that they have learned. This is getting closer to the true meaning of syncopation, but it still misses the mark. You could being doing fancy footwork that deviates from a basic step and still not be syncopating the steps. So what then is syncopation?

Before I get to that definition, I need to clarify some basic terms: beat, strong beat, weak beat, and accent.

Beat. A beat is a regular pulsation. A spring driven clock ticks to a regular beat by itself. In classical music the beat tends to somewhat flexible and is an expressive element. That's why a conductor is needed in classical music to show the beat by the up and down movements of a baton. The conductor helps the musicians stay together on the beat. Popular dance music, in contrast, usually has a steady never ending beat indicated by a drummer; a conductor isn't needed to help musician follow the beat during the playing of a song. The beat is not the same as the drummer part--the beat is the regular pulsation created by all of the musical parts working together. The drum part usually just highlights the beat.

Strong and Weak Beats. When we listen to a series of beats, we tend to organize them into strong and weak beats. If you can find a clock that ticks, try this experiment. Listen to the ticks. Do you hear "tick-tick-tick-tick" or "TICK-tock-TICK-tock"? Most people hear the TICK-tock-TICK-tock. We hear the first beat as strong (TICK) and the second one as weak (tock). We tend to hear every other beat as strong.

Measure. A measure is a grouping of beats. If a piece of music has four beats to a measure, the first beat is considered strong. What about the second beat? Will it be weak or strong? What about the third and fourth beats?

We tend to hear the second beat as weak, the third beat strong and the fourth beat weak. I'll illustrate that here by making the strong beats boldface:

One Two Three Four

Normally, then, when there are four beats per measure, beats one and three are strong and two and four are weak. (For the sake of simplicity, I'm not dealing with Waltz music, here, which has three beats per measure.)

Accent. An accent in music is created whenever a music tone sounds. (When a musician plays a note, a musical tone is created.) If a tone is played or sung loudly or with a unique quality, the tone is said to have a strong accent.

A dancer creates an accent whenever she takes a step. But she can create a strong accent by making a step larger than usual, by delaying the step slightly and then stepping quickly to arrive on the beat. A dancer can also accent a step in some dances by stomping his foot or by making unusual moves with his or her upper body. (Some dances allow more freedom in this respect then others. In certain smooth dances, the rule is to "not make noise when you step." But that rule is not always the case, as in swing when a good stomp can provide a needed accent.)

Now with that background information out of the way I'm ready to define syncopation.

Defining Syncopation: As "the shifting of an expected accent , moving it from the usual strong beat to a beat that is usually weak. " Other writers offer similar definitions. For example, Miller, Taylor, and Williams in Introduction to Music write: "The shifting of the accent to a weak beat or to an off beat is known as syncopation. " Let's consider this in more detail and explore how it relates to music and dance.

Since the sounding of a music tone creates an accent and beats one and three are normally strong beats, we can create a syncopation simply by playing notes on the weak beats (beats two and four) and not playing (resting) on the strong beats (one and three)

One Two Three Four

Rest Play Rest Play

(Playing on beats two and four}

Swung note

Musically, swing can be either:

• (written with small "s") the rhythmic feeling evoked by swinging music, esp. Jazz or
• (written with capital "S") the most popular jazz style ever that prevailed during the 1930s and early 1940s, Swing (genre).

A rhythmic device, swing or shuffle is an augmentation of the initial note in a pair and diminution of the second. Notes which are not swung are straight (no shuffle).

Mostly common this is done with eighth notes and ranges anywhere from treating the initial eighth as a triplet quarter note to a dotted eighth (hard shuffle). However, it is usually considered ideally as in between both feelings.

When the initial and final eighth note form a ratio of:

• 1:1 = eighth note + eighth note, straight eighths or no shuffle
• 2:1 = triplet quarter note + triplet eighth, triple meter
• 2.5:1 = long eighth + short eighth, Swing
• 3:1 = dotted eighth note + sixteenth note, hard swing or hard shuffle

Since a swung note is actually not a note of the named length (a swung eight note is not an eight note), some musicians consider this term a misnomer.

Swing is commonly used in blues, country, jazz, Swing (genre), and often in many other styles