This must be a drummer's page... right? Well, and then some. If there ever was a page in this text where "talking about music is like dancing about architecture" ... this is surely the one ... or second ... Oh well, somebody's got to do it right?
Well, it turns out that the idea of "2 and 4" applies to us all. For it is on the second and fourth beats of the measure, often termed the "back beats", that allows the American sounds to take off ... so to speak. This "backbeat" pulse goes way deep into the American well, and it's kinda hard to imagine the American sound without it. As you read through the following ideas, keep in mind that so much of all of the American library of music is meant to get the folks up and dancing. And it's the accenting of the pulse of 2 and 4 that works the magic.
In folk music? Well ... no not really but as soon as the rock element comes into the folk sounds, the pulse quickly shifts from the first and third beats to the second and fourth. When we listen back to the early pioneers of American folk, say Woodie Gutherie, Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, we enter into the realm of the storytellers. And once here, the music is mostly as an accompaniment to their voice. tis the vocal line that sets the pulse and rarely if ever are folk stories rhythmically centered on two and four. Watching people dance to folk music is a sure way to determine which of the beats are the strong ones.
In the blues, even way back to the early cats such as Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Charlie Patten, we hear the emergence of the "backbeat" in setting the rhythmic tone of the music. Why? Well, mostly in that when the second and fourth beats of the measure are accented, the groove evolves so as to allow a "pull" against the downbeat. It is in this "pulling of the beat" against the predictable downbeat or first beat of the measure, that gets the music to swing. Not to say that these early cats and those that followed would be called swing musicians, for that is usually more of a jazz term, but even the "theoretically primitive" delta blues players know the value of "pulling" their time to set things right for the dancers, accenting the "backbeats" and getting their music to find the pocket of 2 and 4.
Rock players, especially those that use the blue elements, are often way 2 and 4 dependent. The early cats, say Buddy Holly and Bill Haley, used the blues form for their tunes, such as "12 o'clock rock", but had a more steady quarter note pulse to their lines. Maybe they did not really accent 2 and 4, but they surely were not accenting 1 and 3 either. Spin their discs and snap your fingers on 1 and 3 ... By the time King Elvis came along, the 2nd and 4th beats become the core pulse. Just can't recreate those grooves without it.
Later rockers of the sixties, all the Motown sounds, the Beatles, Stones, Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power, even cats like Marvin Gay and Stevie Wonder, all used the magic of the backbeat to create their groovy grooves. Even Black Sabbath? Yep. Cue up "Smoke on the Water" and snap your fingers on 1 and 3 ... All through the 70's, 80's and forward, we hear the 2 and 4 things setting the pulse.
So often in the rock / pop / disco sounds, the "2 and 4 pop" is created by the drummer. To dial this in even further, it's on the snare drum... where the groove magic of 2 and 4 so often takes place. There has to be some trick to it, ( not being any sort of drummer myself). Probably just doin it for a while, hangin with other players, just like most things. But there is a fluidness that some drummers have and can create with the left hand on the snare, that not only drives things along, but also has the ability to "pull" the time. I've seen this watching some of our local monsters as they watch the dance floor to make sure they're with the dancers ... the rest of the band just grooves along. Simple eh? Tis is indeed, for those that have the feel and sense to do it. Is it all about "feel?" For lot's of smart players tis is indeed.
Not until the 90's and forward does the 2 and 4 pulse disappear from some genres of the rock library. Some of the faster metal cats create their sounds without a overly strong 2 and 4 pulse. Metallica's music often is more evenly pulsed throughout the 4 beats of the measure. Seems as if the faster the music moves along, it's harder to accent the backbeat. But as soon as the music slows ... 2 and 4 emerges to set the tone. More recently, heavies such as the Red Hot Chilly Peppers continue to maintain the 2 and 4 tradition and create some incredibly fun, danceable sounds.
Jazz. Early jazz finds some of it's roots in the marching bands at the turn of the last century. In the marching music, the pulse is basically two beats per measure ... left, right, left, right etc. As the blues crept in, and the smaller groups of King Oliver and a bit later that of Louis Armstrong made their way, we gradually see the pulse settle into the common 4 / 4 time. Once established, it has yet to change. A pretty big factor in this was the switch from the tuba to the upright bass for supplying the pulse and harmonic foundation for the music.
Once the swing thing came in during the 30's, with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and so many others, although the pulse is four beats per measure and the strong accents on 2 and 4 are softened, it is the slight swelling of the pulse on 2 and 4, or the lack of a strong pulse on 1 and 3, that gets the music to swing. In this and most of the later jazz stylings, the bass players are tasked to play what are termed "full value quarter notes", smoothly connecting their pitches to create the walking bass line. And while the pulse on 2 and 4 might not be accented sharply, there is a "swell" on these beats that motors the groove and gets it to swing. With the eighth note being the predominate rhythm of of soloist, we begin to see an accent or swell on the 2nd eighth note of each pair, in 4 / 4 time, furthering this sense of "pulling" the time. Again, it is this swell on 2 and 4 that gets the music "off the ground" so to speak, that elusive swing thing we all cherish. For most any jazz player, it is the ability to "pull" their time against this swell that gets their lines to swing.
As the tempos increased towards the Bebop groove, it was the understated pulse of 2 and 4 that motors the groove. A shift of the drummers sound to providing the pulse on the ride cymbal created a sleeker way of pushing the 2 and 4 thing. A funny anecdote from the biography of Charlie Parker, "Bird Lives" by Leonard Feather, tells of how Mr. Parker would often times "turn the beat around" on the rest of the players in his group. Such a strong player was "Bird" that he could make the band sound as if they were accenting the first and third beats, thus negating the swing thing ... and making the group sound kind of awful. As the story goes, this drove bandmate trumpeter Miles Davis to madness, who implored the band not to follow Mr. Parker and also turn the beat around to follow his lead. For as soon as they did ... yep, you guessed it, Mr. Parker would go back to 2 and 4. Oh, what a thing that must have been to behold!
As the jazz music advanced from the Bop era into the cool 50's and the emergence of John Coltrane, the quarter note 2 and 4 groove and the eighth note improvisation remains as the standard. What Trane so often did was to advance the rhythm of his lines to include groups of 5, 7 and 9 pitches over the traditional 4 and 8 eighth note groups, furthering this sense of setting his lines to "pull" against this 2 and 4 groove. This layering of the more complex 5, 7, and 9 over the four beat pulse is rather advanced and way difficult to do and probably finds it's roots in the ancient African drumming circles. Later into the Hard Bop of the 60's and forward, the slower Bluesy / Gospel sound re-emerges in some of the music but this time with a stronger sense of the backbeat. As the rock thing invaded mainstream jazz in the 70's into the funk and fusion of those days, it just could not have happened without the strong pulse on 2 and 4. Lest we forget that folks just wanna dance ...
Today, just cue up the radio, find some American or European rock, pop, jazz whatever, and count along and snap your fingers. 2 and 4. Spin the dial to a country station. Find the pulse and snap your fingers ... 2 and 4. Spin again to Madonna, Britney, Mariah ... any of the "divas" of today's scene, 2 and 4. Even in bluegrass? Reggae? Oldies? It really doesn't matter ... if ya want folks to dance to your music, accent 2 and 4.
What about classical music? Chances are there is no swell or pulse on 2 and 4. Why? Well, classical music is so often from a different era and culture. Way older and almost exclusively European. The strong beats are 1 and 3. Ever see folks dance to classical music? Is this why classically trained musicians don't swing? Well ... they do ... it's just to a different drummer.
Cool? Comments / questions?
So do you wanna swing in the American thing ...? perhaps to start by simply ... say one, clap 2, say 3, clap 4 ... and feel the magic. And as Sir Charles Mingus has been said to quip ... "better get it in your soul."