Before starting to explain what musical syncopation is, it is necessary to cover a couple of other basic music terms so that the description of syncopation makes more sense.
1. Beat of the rhythm – think about a song on the radio, and the way the drummer accents the music. He’s picking up on the beat of the piece. This is usually where the emphasis is placed in the music. If you watch a conductor in an orchestra, he will ensure that the musicians keep on the same beat by marking the down beat – the emphasis – with his baton. As you listen to music and clap along in time, you will probably be picking up on the beat.

2. Measure – depending on the time signature of the piece of music it will be broken up into groups of 2, 3 or 4 crochet notes or the equivalent value (as dictated by the time signature) made up of other notes – such as 4 groups of 2 semi-quavers.
When you see a piece of music you can immediately identify the time signature that it’s in, and see where the emphasis should be placed when playing the music. If the piece is in 4/4 time for example you would expect the beat, or emphasis, to be on the 1st and 3rd notes in the measure, or in 3/4 time on the 1st note in each measure. That is unless the piece of music has been composed using syncopation!
Syncopation is where the emphasis is on a note other than the one expected. It could be that there is an irregular pattern in the group perhaps as the result of a brief quaver length pause that should be where the emphasis falls. It could be that the music has been composed in a way that has dotted crotchets paired with quavers. There are many different reasons for creating the imbalance on the beat but usually it is done purposefully and to create a certain effect.
There are 4 usual types of syncopation that composers commonly use:
• Suspension
• Missed Beat
• Even Note
• Off Beat
With suspension the note where the beat should go is usually being held from the previous note.
In missed beat syncopation there is a rest where the emphasized beat ought to go.
Even note syncopation is where the composer has the emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beats rather than the 1st and 3rd.
Off beat occurs where the musical notation has split notes up, for example starting a measure with a quaver and ending it with a quaver, or even the use of dotted notes that extend their length.
A 5th type of syncopation is known as anticipated bass and this is usually found in Cuban style music.

One of the most common music forms of syncopation is in ragtime music where the melody is often syncopated and the bass line isn’t. Think of the music of Scot Joplin, and the memorable strains of “The Entertainer” and you’ve got a great example of syncopated music. The Big Band sound, created by such musicians as Glen Miller, is another great example of syncopation in music. However, syncopation isn’t a 20th century creation, Bach, Beethoven and Mozart were among the earlier composers who used this kind of musical “edge” in their work.

Most people who play an instrument of any kind have trouble with

rhythm. It’s the number one problem people mention when they

talk about learning music.

But I know a secret: It’s NOT their fault!

I know, because I had major problems with rhythm too, and it

took me years before I figured out how rhythm worked and how

easy it is once you grasp the logic of it.

The fault is in the way music is taught. You learn about quarter

notes and half notes and eighth notes and dotted notes and so

on, but they are just “floating around” on the staff — some

measures are longer than others — some notes are crammed

tightly into a measure — and overall it’s a mess.

It’s like the pilot of an airplane who can’t ever see the ground

and has no instruments to guide him, so he has no idea where he

is. He has no reference point, so distances are relative to him.

He doesn’t know whether he is going East, West, up, down — and

his chances of crashing and burning are excellent.

I was just like that pilot. I crashed and burned in rhythm time

after time. Let me tell you a painful TRUE story about one of my

“rhythm crashes.”

Duane Crashes & Burns

When I was in my late teens, I w as playing for a youth

group sing. I loved chords, and I used to do pretty

well playing most songs. But when it came to the “spirited”

songs — the ones with lots of rhythm and life, I was lost. I

overheard one of our youth leaders say “Let’s get someone on the

piano with some rhythm!”

Ouch! That really hurt. I knew it was true, but it’s not

fun to hear if from someone else, especially

someone you respect. Right then and there I made a decision: no

matter how long it took, I was going to MASTER RHYTHM. I was

going to learn every possible beat combination, and how to use

those beats in each song, and what to do in the right hand to

compliment what the left hand was doing. My search took me to

private teachers, music schools, combos, books of all sorts,

libraries, and listening to THOUSANDS of records, tapes, and

liv! e performances. I copied dow! n various rhythm patterns on 3”

by 5” cards, and at night I would analyze them playing them over

and over again on the piano. It was HARD WORK for me. It didn’t

come easy, like chords had for me.

Chords were a snap, but not rhythm. It was difficult to read,

and hard to play. I found myself rushing, dragging, stumbling,

and generally fouling up. But as time went by, I got a little

better. I continued to make notes of rhythm patterns, and

started a collection of books and materials on rhythm.

By the time I got my Master’s Degree from Southern Oregon University, I

was starting to get the hang of it. I was beginning to

understand what rhythm was, and what made it tick. I began to

categorize rhythm patterns into different groups, such as rhythm

& blues, jazz, rock, dance patterns, marches, waltzes, fox

trots,! s! wing, boleros, discos, ballads, gospel, bossa-novas,

beguines, rumbas, cha chas, sambas, and so on. But it’s one

thing to know a rhythm, and another thing to EXECUTE it on the

piano. So I developed a system that is VISUAL — it allows you

to SEE a rhythm while you HEAR it played.

Once you SEE it on the baseline, it becomes obvious!

That is the problem with the way music is taught: rhythm has no

baseline! It’s like the pilot of an airplane who can’t ever see

the ground, so he has no idea where he is. Without a baseline,

how in the world can I expect to understand the rhythm of a song?

But with a baseline, it’s a snap.

I wish I could show you in this article how it works, but printed words alone

don’t quite convey the idea. Please go to the web page now to

get a better idea how it will help you solve all your rhythm

problems: How To Solve Your Rhythm Problems

The mambo is one of several Latin-American rhythms that has developed into a style of dance. Although not as popular as it once was, it still is a contagious rhythm that makes feet dance

The mambo is a Cuban genre of music and dance that combines traditional Cuban music with the highly Americanized forms of swing and big band. It’s a very syncopated type of music, a style that finds its footing in rhythm as opposed to melody (though melody, of course, plays its role). Mambo is always played in 4/4 time and uses an amalgamation of American big band instruments and those found in traditional Latin styles; mambo bands will typically have a horn section in a addition to the very percussive bongos, timbales and congas.

Though mambo is a decidedly Cuban style, it’s roots are far more European than Latin. The very first mambo was based heavily on English and French ballroom dancing music, and it was rarely intended for dancing. Though it certainly carried an inherent dance ability, early mambo was music for the sake of music; no dance had been assigned to it, nor did it seem like one would be. The early mambo thrived as a piece of music alone until the 1940s when Damaso Perez Prado, a Cuban bandleader, began specializing in the form. His version of the mambo brought people to their feet and led to the famous mambo dance’s creation. Prado is also credited with bringing mambo music and it’s accompanying dance to the United States, though the form sustained a bit of a shift as a result of the cultural change. Prado altered the mambo to make it slightly more commercial, more ready for 1950s American consumption, and watched the form become an almost instant craze. Prado’s role in composing and popularizing the form earned him the title “Mambo King.”

But like most instant crazes, mambo faded out of American popularity nearly as quickly as it arrived. Though the form is still heard and danced today, it morphed into a variety of different styles, including the pachanga, a mambo-like dance that also faded quickly. Mambo recently saw a resurgence of popularity in the late 1990s with a rock and roll based mambo revival, but that too was extremely short-lived.