Can someone help me understand what drum syncopation is?

[u/warspawn_goat]

I've been wanting to get into making djent and thall, and I know drum syncopation is important. Issue for me is, every time I try looking up what it is or how exactly it works, I just get confused by technical lingo. Can somebody please explain it to me?

[u/Jackal904]

It’s when stick hit drum at weird time

[u/Trimshot → u/Jackal904]

Instead of stick hit drum at regular time, stick hit drum at other time

[u/KD_sBurnerAccount]

To understand syncopation, we first have to understand what pulse is. The pulse are the strong beats that you dance to. In most music these pulses are consistent and equally spaced, like a metronome.

The pulse forms a grid that you can place musical notes on, or in between.

Notes that are placed IN BETWEEN the pulse are syncopatie notes.

The pulse for djent are the steady cymbals hits on every quarter note. So the syncopated notes are the notes between those cymbals hits.

The quality of being syncopated not only pertains to single notes, like a single kick uit for example. Whole rhythms can be called syncopated as well. Take the Funky Drummer beat from the James Brown song for example. That Groover would be called syncopated, even though some of the notes are played on the pulse. That is, because some of the hits on the snare and the kick are placed in between the pulse.

When notes are placed in between the pulse (i.e. when theyre syncopated), they play with the way you as the listener (or dancer) feel the pulse itself, leading you to move to the syncopated rhythm (i.e. you start dancing to the syncopation).

[u/Ok_Pirate_2714 → u/KD_sBurnerAccount]

Great explanation, but I would add that it doesn't have to be the cymbal hits that are the pulse.

[u/Juicyb17 → u/Ok_Pirate_2714]

Anything can drive the main pulse, as long as whats accented is off beat! The accent is key to syncopation!

[u/foggypanth → u/KD_sBurnerAccount]

Great explanation! For the most obvious example to syncopation, I always point to how the hi hat is played in a classic disco beat.

[u/Juicyb17 → u/KD_sBurnerAccount]

Another thing to add, is it specifically the accent being off beat. So in the drums case, usually accented snares or cymbals being off beat.

[u/Repulsive_Trash_4542]

It's just emphasis on off or "weak" beats. It's a paramount technique for most (all?) djent/thall rythmically heavy shit. It can be done in a myriad of ways, which is the hard and confusing part when you're learning about it. What bands do you listen to it? It's a better practice to be able to dissect and try to explain rhythmically complex sections in songs you enjoy. It's then a lot easier to apply in practice.

[u/meshuggahdaddy]

One play 1 rythm other play other rythm but it still make sense in the end

[u/krangksh]

The simplest answer is that syncopation is when two different things are happening at the same time rhythmically. This can be two sets of equally spaced notes which are happening at different speeds, or it can be longer more complex patterns; the result is that sometimes there is a note or drum hit that happens in one pattern but not the other, creating moments throughout the passage where one of the patterns is "out of sync" with the other.

On the drums, this often means that one of the patterns is on one piece of the kit like the kick while another is on a different piece like the snare or hi hat, and sometimes it means that one limb is doing the pattern between multiple pieces while a different limb is doing the other pattern on one or more other pieces. So you might have something like the hi hat playing a simple 4/4 beat while the kick is playing in triplets or some other pattern that repeats more or less often than 4/4, so sometimes the kick and snare happen at the same time and at other times they alternate.

When it comes to actually learning to play drums using syncopation, the ultimate goal is total "limb independence", where each hand/ foot can sort of do its own thing and play in any pattern regardless of when it falls on or off the beats of what the other limbs are doing. The way to get there is to start at the basics, learning basic "polyrhythm" patterns that practice out of sync patterns between different limbs, and slowly adding more complexity. In terms of learning to write, Meshuggah and most djent bands use something called "polymeter", which is really just a more complex level of polyrhythmic syncopation (and deserves its own explanation).

[u/Eddargos]

Normal 4/4 beat:

1---&---2---&---3---&---4---&---
|-------O-------|-------O-------
X-------|-------X-------|-------

4/4 beat with syncopated (="off beat") snare hits on "2-&" and "4-&" instead of 2 and ).

1---&---2---&---3---&---4---&---
|-------|---O---|-------|---O---
X-------|-------X-------|-------

X = Kick
O = Snare

[u/warspawn_goat → u/Eddargos]

Now I get it! Thank you!

[u/sup3rdr01d]

Count

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

Usually kick is on 1 and 3 and snare is on 2 and 4

Syncopation is to play them on the "ands" not on the beats

[u/Garpocalypse]

Accenting the Offbeats. mostly when people say syncopation they are talking about where the snare hits and trying to sound like they know something.

[u/UnholyCityRecords]

Go back in time and listen to 1920s jazz like Louis Armstrong. The Hot Five era. That's all pretty much syncopated and very prominent in the mix, so a good way to learn.

[u/JollySno]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation

[u/NecroRAM]

When accents are made between the 4 main beats in a 4/4 time signature. Basically any music with groove inherently has syncopation in the drums.

[u/Jesus0nSteroids]

In short, syncopation is when the instruments are played in sync on the same emphasis/emphases. Think YYZ by Rush. A good example though not metal (which might help illustrate it better) is the song Syncopated Healing by Twiddle.