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Using The Musical Beat To Your Advantage

// January 13th, 2012 // Music

One of the strongest tools musicians have in their arsenal is a somewhat small musical element we know as a “beat.” Even though we generally picture a beat as an exact moment, there’s quite an expansive space, in musical terms, in which a note can be placed and remain musically correct, or still be “on the beat,” as we say.

The Dual Nature of the Beat

To understand how this works, picture the beat as as having two main parts: the space where the note is placed, called The Slot, and The Pulse, which is what the listener hears and refers to as the beat of the music. The Slot has a dimension which is measured in beats per minute or BPM. Naturally, the size of The Slot is dependent on the speed of the music. The beat is simply a note located in The Slot.

The Three Positions of the Slot

Imagine The Slot as consisting of three spots in which the note can be positioned to make a beat, and these are, in laymen’s terms, Early, On Time and Late. The musical terms for them are Pushed, In the Pocket, and Pulled. Each type of beat placement produces a unique feel to the music and changes how the music sounds.

Although we are picturing The Slot as consisting of three distinct parts, in reality it’s a broad field with numerous points where the note could fall. We are making it easy for clarity’s sake.

The Placement

Whenever a musician employs a Push, it gives a drive to the music and makes the apparent speed seem accelerated, causing an impression of urgency and forward motion. When the beat is placed In the Pocket, it creates a familiar sensation that we associate with dance music such that, “you just can’t sit still,” as the saying goes. When a musician uses a Pull, which means the beat is late, it creates a sense of heaviness and makes the apparent tempo of the music seem slower than it really is.

Using these methods of beat placement, a musician or producer can make the impact of the music much stronger and more effective for any application. These techniques are widely used in the performance of music for ballet class owing to their usefulness in creating precisely the correct musical conditions for dance, and drummers have employed these techniques since the dawn of music.

This is brought to you by Don Caron who is a composer/writer/dancer/choreographer and who enjoys writing about a range of subjects which naturally includes music. He has composed four albums of music for ballet class which are available from CDBaby.