Syncopation
Syncopation is rhythm that places the accent where the beat does not lead you to expect it, on a weak beat or between beats, often holding that note through the next strong beat.
What does syncopation look like?
Count a bar of 4/4 in eighth notes: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. A plain rhythm puts its notes on the numbers.
Now play an eighth on 1, a quarter note on the & of 1, and an eighth on the & of 2. The middle note starts between beats and is still sounding when beat 2 arrives, so beat 2 gets no new note. That short-long-short figure is a classic syncopation.
Another everyday one is the anticipation: a chord that belongs to the next bar arrives an eighth early, on the & of 4, and is tied across the barline. Written music shows it as a tie, because a single note cannot cross a barline.
How do you recognise it?
Tap the beat with your foot and keep it steady. When a note starts while your foot is in the air, and nothing new happens when your foot comes down, you are hearing syncopation. It feels like the music is leaning ahead of the beat.
Ragtime is the textbook case: in pieces such as Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and “The Entertainer” the left hand keeps a steady beat while the right hand keeps landing just off it.
What is it confused with?
Swing. Swing changes the length of the off-beat notes, playing pairs of eighths long-short. Syncopation changes where the accents fall. A rhythm can have either one without the other.
Also, not every note between beats is syncopated. Two even eighths in a row, with the next note on the beat, only fill the beat in. The effect comes from skipping or holding through the beat that was expected.
Try it: Rhythm basics sets out the beat that syncopation pushes against, and Ties and dots shows how a note is held across a beat or a barline.