SYNCOPATION: Expect the Unexpected

Syncopation, in music, is “the displacement of regular accents associated with given metrical patterns, resulting in a disruption of the listener's expectations and the arousal of a desire for the reestablishment of metric normality; hence the characteristic “forward drive” of highly syncopated music” (brittanica.com). Syncopation is the concept of playing rhythms that accent or emphasize the offbeats. It shifts or displaces a standard rhythm by stressing beats generally not stressed.

“Syncopation brings excitement to music by playing with our expectations for where the beat should occur. This groove-inducing tactic breaks away from the strait feel when every note falls on the expected beat. Syncopation is also attention-grabbing. It surprises the ear by playing on our familiarity and expectations about straight rhythms. Unexpectedly switching the pattern or stressing offbeats adds variation, character, and groove to your music. Emphasizing notes outside a constant pulse also allows you to create interesting rhythms when recording or performing. It gives music a more human quality. Music that plays only on the beat can sound static, boring, and machine-made. It lacks imperfect aspects that make music relatable. By using syncopation, artists make that imperfection sound good” (https://iconcollective.edu/what-is-syncopation-in-music/).

In simpler terms, syncopation creates the sensation of swing and groove. And though the mechanics are simple, syncopated expressions are endless and very personal.

Listen to jazzman extraordinaire Wynton Marsalis and imagine he is talking about coaching: “Each individual's way of pushing and pulling the beat is very personal, as is their approach to swinging. We play around with the 2-beat groove by accenting off the beat and coming back to it at unexpected times. It’s like you offer something to someone and then when they reach for it you snap it back. Syncopation is playing a rhythm on the opposite side of the beat. Syncopation is the daring application of dexterity, jocularity and timing to challenge the common grid, the common way of doing things, the accepted way. It is the masterful challenging of convention, the element of surprise that makes a punch line funny. It's what Martin Luther King did in combining the nonviolent action of Gandhi with the direct action of Niebuhr with his own down-home twist to make those concepts work for freedom in this country. Tex-Mex Indian Soul Food… it's something you can't imagine would taste good but it does.”

By applying the idea of syncopation to coaching we inject life into our sessions by adding variation, character, and groove to otherwise static “rhythms.” It’s the vehicle that drives exciting coaching. Without it, sessions become limited. Keeping them confined to a straight pulse is a surefire way to make your coaching “sound” stale and robotic. By syncopating coaching, a new world of exploration opens up. Syncopation in coaching also gives you more freedom to express your emotions. You can syncopate observations, questions, active experiments and anything else. The creativity is in your hands!

And at TCS we help you find yours.

PS: The Police have always maintained a strong influence of reggae in their music. Primarily through the drumming of Stewart Copeland. In their 1980 hit song, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” Stewart uses reggae rhythms over Brit-pop. Those reggae rhythms are all syncopated. See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNIZofPB8ZM&t=92s