Syncopation On Guitar

The term syncopation refers to when a song accents a pulse of the beat that is not normally accented, which generally means the up beat. When counting eighth notes, most people learn the “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and …” method. Normally, the downbeat (the numbers) is accented, but when syncopation is used, the upbeats (the “ands”) are accented instead. Using this allows for some more elaborate and interesting rhythms that would not be possible just sticking with accenting the downbeats.

Just as a note, when practicing syncopation, you really do need a metronome. This goes beyond the normal issue of it being a very useful and effective tool for practice and building up your ability to keep rhythm. Syncopation is surprisingly difficult to learn initially, and it does require you hitting the rhythm perfectly. In addition, without something like a metronome, your ear gravitates toward accenting the downbeat. If you only accent the upbeat, your ear will hear it is all accents on the downbeat if there isn’t something like a metronome or drums to provide a frame of reference. In order for syncopation to work, you have to be spot on with the timing. A guitarist that is used to playing straight eighth note power chords where the audience may not notice if the timing slips a little and takes full advantage of that to play sloppy is not going to be in good shape. If you are having trouble keeping downbeats in rhythm, you should focus on developing a stronger sense of timing before working on syncopation. In the long run, it will save a lot of frustration.

The following example is what happens when you take a simple eighth note power chord progression and add a syncopated tie across each bar, to create a quarter note that runs from the and of the 4th beat to the 1st beat of the next bar. The only real accent in this line is the rhythm accent caused by the quarter note and the tonal accent on the bars with chord changes. You can use this to slightly lead the listener to the next chord, which can sometimes be quite effective. Rather than having the chord change on the 1st beat, if it moved an eighth note earlier to the previous bar. This won’t work for every song, but it can be a neat trick to use. This is probably the simplest syncopation line you will run across. Normally when this bar is repeated, the last and first bar are also tied together.

The above example really only had an accent on the 4th upbeat, with the rest of the line being made up of straight eighth notes. However, that doesn’t mean that only the up or downbeats are accented. You can write rhythm parts where both are quite noticeably defined. The example below demonstrates a fairly basic way to accent both the down and upbeats in the same part. In this example, every bar has a chord change on the 1st downbeat, which gives a tonal change. In addition, the first three bars have a horn punch type attack on the 1st beat. However, the rest of the bar only hits the chord on the upbeat of the rest of the beats, and mutes the chord on the downbeats. In addition, the 4th beat shows a cap, which is a bar used to either tie back to the first bar of the section during a repeat or tie to the next section. This bar has a different rhythm than the previous bars, and has two half notes in place of the rhythm used before it. Make sure to practice with a metronome to be sure the downbeat strikes are on the downbeat, while the upbeat strikes are on the upbeat.

Keep on rockin'!