SongTrellis
Music and Musical Know-how For You

Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  8/29/19; 3:34:36 PM Msg#:  6119 (top msg in thread) Prev/Next:  6118/6120 Reads:  101

Predicting Rhythm Meaning in the land of TA-KE and KE-TA

When the beat of a rhythm is subdivided into two equal parts, we use the syllable TA to represent hits of a rhythm that coincide with the beat, and KE to represent the hits that occur at the start of the second subdivision of the beat, approximately halfway between the previous and next on-beat TA hits.

When a rhythm is subdivided by a multiple of two (the beat divided by 2,4,6,8 etc.), it's easy to hear the rhythm as sequence of TA-KE hit pairs:

When divided by 2: | TA-KE | TA-KE | TA-KE | TA-KE | etc.
When divided by 4: | TA-KE TA-KE | TA-KE TA-KE | etc.
When divided by 6: | TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE | TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE | etc.
When divided by 8: | TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE | TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE TA-KE | etc.

We're going to pay attention to the differing rhythm sensations that we experience, when a run of successive hits of a rhythm ends on a TA hit or on a KE hit, within the ongoing stream of the rhythm.

Here, we mean to show how can one anticipate playing a single hit or a run of hits will feel, when the beat for your rhythm is subdivided by a multiple of two

Observations: 1. A TA hit by its lonesome is a complete idea. TA feels good because that hit coincides with start of the beat.

2. KE hits by themselves are suspenseful. KE hits hang in the air between TAs. Adding a TA after (KE-TA) resolves that suspense,

3. TA-KE leaves that listener in suspense because it ends in KE. Just as with #2, adding a TA produces TA-KE-TA, which resolves that suspense

4. Playing any number of TA-KE pairs in sequence, will sound incomplete because you√ve ended your run with a KE. Starting with a KE before playing TA-KE pairs will still sound incomplete since the result will still end with KE.

5. You can release that suspense and complete the idea, by adding a TA after a sequence of TA-KEs, so that it ends with a TA-KE-TA. You can also release suspense by removing the final KE hit, which also ensures that the sequence ends in TA.

6. Any number of KE-TA pairs played in sequence will feel like a completed idea to the listener, Starting with a TA before playing KE-TA pairs also produces a completed idea, since the idea still ends in TA.

7. Adding a final KE after any number of KE-TAs or removing the final TA of the pair sequence will make the result feel incomplete, since the idea will now end in KE.

8.Adding two hits to the end of a COMPLETE sounding run (ends with TA), will still end in TA and will sound COMPLETE. Adding two hits to the end of an INCOMPLETE sounding run (ends with KE), will produce an INCOMPLETE run that still ends on KE

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