Rhythm, who needs it?

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” –Pablo Picasso

Music can be broken down into many different variables depending upon which type of music you want to talk about. I think of music as being made up of three basic components melody, harmony, and rhythm. Melodies are tunes you can’t seem to get out of your head or better known as the hook that brings you in to listen again and again. Harmony is the notes that accompany the melody giving it a foundation to sit upon. Rhythm is something unique in that even if there is no accompanying rhythmic voice (drums or percussion) it’s still prevalent. Everything has rhythm. Speech has a rhythm and varies from culture to culture, our very own heartbeat has a rhythm, and when we sing or play a melody unless the notes are droning with no decipherable time there is a rhythm attached to it. Rhythm gives music its space in time.

As musicians our understanding of these three basic components is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. Isn’t it our responsibility to learn as much as we possibly can about all three of these elements? In my experience I’ve seen a lack of interest, among musicians (professional and amateur), in learning all they can about the art of making music. As a lifelong drummer/percussionist I have spent countless hours pondering rhythm and how it is perceived.

To me, time is abstract, something that didn’t really exist until someone decided to start measuring it. Hours, days, months, and years pass because someone mathematically plotted it out and decided to measure it in those ways. But if you don’t think time is abstract think of this, right now in the United States of America we have four different time zones. I can call L.A. from Indianapolis and while they’re having lunch I’m wrapping up my work day. Or that in Australia it’s already tomorrow.

In my travels and various musical encounters I have met musicians that think they know all there is to know about their craft or that there isn’t an infinite number of possibilities to explore in music. Truth is there is a finite number of possibilities but the art of it is how each individual or group puts these three factors together. So many guitar players that strum the eighth notes or may even accent some of those eighth notes think that’s the extent of syncopation, given it is not their specialty to fully understand rhythm but why not take a note from the guy sitting behind the drums whose job it is to understand as much as possible about keeping time and the rhythms within them. Even then many drummers don’t fully grasp the vast array of rhythmic concepts that are available, mainly because popular music holds true to a very basic standard set of rhythms for time keeping. But what if we progress the art and pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable in pop music instead of just adhering to a tried and true formula? Once music becomes science all of the heart, soul, and emotion are stripped from it.

To my musician friends and colleagues but more so to my drummer friends, explore all there is to find, wax philosophical about it, and find new ways to express yourself but for your sake and the guys/gals standing next to you on the bandstand try it out. Although it is the drummers job to hold down the time-keeping fort if you as a musician have a stronger sense of rhythm and how it relates to time, the music you make will always be stronger.