Plain Music Theory

Syncopation in music

Syncopation is a rhythm that stresses beats or parts of beats that are normally weak. Accents fall on off-beats, notes are held across strong beats, or rests replace strong beats, so the music feels as if it is pushing against the steady pulse.

Tap your foot to a steady beat and listen to a funk groove, a ragtime piano piece or a Latin dance tune. Your foot keeps its even pulse, but the melody keeps landing in between the taps, and that tension is what makes the music swing, bounce and groove. That surprise is syncopation.

11&2&3&4&11&2&3&4&
Notes that begin on the off-beats (the "and" of each count) sit against the steady beats, which is the sound of syncopation. The quarter notes land on 1&, 2& and 3&, between the beats.

What is syncopation?

Most music has a steady beat with a regular pattern of strong and weak beats. In 4/4, beats 1 and 3 are strong and beats 2 and 4 are weaker, and the off-beats (the "ands" between the numbers) are the weakest of all. Syncopation happens when the music emphasizes the weak spots and plays down the strong ones. Your expectation is pulled one way and the music goes another, and that creates energy.

The word comes from a Greek root meaning to "cut short" or "blend together," and it describes how a note starts early and spills over the next strong beat.

What are the ways to create syncopation?

All four ideas do the same job: they move attention away from where the ear expects it.

What does syncopation look like in notation?

Look for notes that begin on the off-beat and last longer than an eighth note, or rests on the beat. The quarter note in the middle of a measure of eighths is a classic. A quarter note that begins on the "and" of 2 crosses beat 3, and your ear hears the crossing.

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Syncopated rhythm 1: the quarter note on the "and" of 2 lasts past beat 3, so beat 3 is never heard on its own.
11&22&33&44&123
Syncopated rhythm 2: a rest on every beat leaves only the off-beats sounding. The notes on the "ands" feel like a pulse of their own.
12&412&4
Syncopated rhythm 3: dotted quarter notes make an uneven 3+3+2 pattern across eight eighth notes. This pattern is so common in popular music that it is nicknamed the tresillo.

What is the difference between syncopation and off-beat rhythm?

They overlap, but they are not the same. An off-beat note is simply any note that starts between the numbered beats. Syncopation is the effect you get when those off-beats carry the accent, or the music skips a strong beat entirely. A line of steady eighth notes has plenty of off-beat notes but no syncopation, because nothing disturbs the pattern. Remove the note on beat 2 and tie the "and" before it across, and you have syncopation.

What music is syncopated?

Syncopation is everywhere. It is the main ingredient of ragtime, a piano style from around 1900. Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" is the standard example: the right hand plays syncopated melodies against a steady left hand that plays one-two, one-two. Jazz, blues, funk, reggae, salsa and most Latin and African music, as well as a great deal of pop and rock, rely on it. Classical composers use it too. Brahms, Stravinsky and many others wrote syncopated passages, often to create surprise.

In the left-hand and right-hand idea of ragtime, you can feel two rhythms at once: the steady beat in the left and the off-beat melody in the right. That clash is called polyrhythm when it grows larger, and it is the basic idea behind much of the world's dance music.

How do you count syncopated rhythms?

Subdivide the beats into eighth notes and count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" out loud, even where nothing is played. Then place each note on its count. If a note lands on an "and," it is off-beat. If the next beat is silent or tied, the measure is syncopated. Keep your foot tapping on the numbers the whole time, because the contrast between your foot and the notes is exactly what you need to hear.

  1. Tap your foot on every beat and keep it steady.
  2. Count eighth notes aloud: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
  3. Say only the counts where a note starts, and stay silent on the rest.
  4. Clap the rhythm while your foot keeps tapping.
  5. Repeat until you can stay on the beat while the rhythm moves around it.

Why does syncopation matter?

Learning syncopation makes you a better reader of pop, jazz and Latin music, where it is the norm, and a more expressive player of any style. It also shows why time signatures matter: syncopation only makes sense against a steady meter, such as 4/4 or 3/4. Without a firm beat to push against, there is nothing to syncopate.

Practice tip: play a syncopated rhythm slowly with a metronome clicking the beats. If you can hear the click land in the gaps between your notes, you have got it. Speed up a little at a time.

When you move on, check the pages on eighth notes and rests, since both are the main tools for writing off-beat rhythms.

Check yourself

1. What is syncopation?

2. Which of these can create syncopation?

3. In 4/4, where does an off-beat fall?

4. Which style is built on syncopation?

5. Does a line of steady eighth notes count as syncopated?