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Where's the Beat?

by Max Valentino

One of the most highly debated subjects in music has been, as is today, the placement of the beat. As in all things musical, perception of the beat, and its' placement, is a rather personal matter. Often referred to in rather vague terms such as "groove", "pocket", and "feel", perceiving, understanding, and commanding the "lie" of a beat is one of the major hurdles in achieving one's personal sound and a sense of rhythmic acuity.

We all know of players who have incredible "feels", but what exactly does that mean? Many times trying to learn even deceptively simple lines by these players can lead to a mountain of frustrations. Often we learn that the notes of their line may be few, the tempo slow, but no matter how hard we try we cannot match the rhythmic "sense", the tension and release, the eloquent timing and the sublime phrasing of the original. Or, we may find in playing original material that our own playing lacks those very same characteristics. All of this has to do with understanding how a single beat of music is perceived, translated and produced.

The essence of "the groove" is quite mercurial, and as such it is also rather ambiguous and difficult to describe. It is quite different from a sense of time, although the two are inter-related. We tend to think of time as being metronomical, and as such we practice with metronomes, or at least should, to gain a more exacting sense of time and note durations. The "groove" is not metromomical; it is not exact or precise (of course, the most obvious exception to this in classical or orchestral music where an exact and deliberate pulse is maintained throughout).

Grooves are created through the inter-relationships between shifting perceptions and "centers" of the beat; through the tension and release within the rhythmic structure of a piece (much as the sense of composition is derived through the tension and release created in the harmonic and melodic structures and developments of a given piece).

A very common occurrence in contemporary music is the mechanized feel of rhythmic parts phrasing together. The goal here is to have the rhythm section sound "tight", as one instrument, and this is a usable and often desirable musical effect. But, just as often, it is neither usable nor desirable as it can provide an unwanted "stiffness" or lifelessness to rhythm of a tune. Today, in our age of digital audio, many recording and editing techniques can, and are, applied to enhance this "tightness"; all with varying degrees of success.

Yet, allowing the rhythm section to breathe a bit and not phrase directly on top of each other can create great "grooves". An exceptional amount of the desired "tightness" can be applied to this with outstanding musical results.

The key to this all is understanding "where the beat lies". I am sure you have all heard terms such as "ahead of the beat" or "behind the beat", and these terms are often mis-used in describing the dreaded "Russian Dragon" syndrome of either rushing a tempo or dragging one. Discussions of the "beat" are quite different than discussions of tempo, and it is quite possible to play "behind the beat" without dragging the tempo at all.

So let's look at the beat, or better yet, a beat: a single sixteenth note. Imagine a ball as being the physical manifestation of our single sixteenth note. If we were to take an imaginary plane and slice that ball exactly in half we would have a point, which is exactly in the middle of the beat. This is where we might play, or perceive, that beat if we were playing with a metronome, or if we were approaching classical music. If we shift the imaginary plane to the left, so now it is a little off the center axis of the ball, we are "behind" the mid point of the beat, or "behind the beat". If we shift the plane to the right, we become "ahead of the beat".

This all fairly simple, but what does it all mean? Are there exact points of being ahead or behind the beat? No, there are no "exact" points, and that is where a musician's "feel" comes into play. As bass players we know that no two drummers are created equal. Some charge into a beat, aggressively driving a band, and others tend to have a more relaxed, "laid-back" feel to their playing. And, as we all know, this is also true of bass players. The magic in a groove happens when these two "feels" interact. If a drummer is charging into a beat, and the bass player follows suit, it is entirely possible to surmise that the tempo will also shift with them; the song will rush as they both try to "out-race" each other. Similarly, if both pull back on the beat, playing behind, the tempo stands a very good chance of dragging. Yet, if a drummer is charging into the beat, and the bass player pulls back, playing on the backside of that beat, the tension, the push and pull, created by them will surge and recede, ebb and flow, creating a deep "pocket" on which the other instruments can lie. The mechanical, metronome-like, "marked time" which is created when both the bass and drums phrase together, gives way to a wider, thicker "groove" which moves and breathes with the music, creating not only a more articulate rhythmic "drive" but yet another layer of dynamics within the structure of the tune. The amount of give and take between the two parts can vary, determinately, throughout the piece based upon the rise and fall, or emotional level of the tune. The parts can "tighten up" or "loosen" in predetermined, arranged, or even improvised fashion, at will.

So, how does one develop this perception of the beat? The "perception" of where a beat lies is altogether different than the subdivision of the metric "counts" of a rhythm. For ages musicians have debated on the placement of the "beat", as its' placement is not a mathematical formula, nor is it precise, or, for that matter, altogether consistent.

The beat, and therefore the "pocket", has almost a life of its own. It breathes and moves about in relation to what the musicians hear and react to. This gives the music "life" and substance. This little miracle is not something that can be taught, but is a much more intuitive device; a knowledge gained from the practical experience of playing. In this day and age, with the rampant "pro-tooling" of both recorded and live music, musicians are trying at great lengths to "tighten" up the grooves and remove this "living" part of the music process.

Whether "on top", "on' and "behind" the beat, no two players will perceive it exactly the same, and it is just this diversity which makes the groove, and the music, both powerful and dynamic. A good drummer will know, instinctively, that if he/she is working with a bassist who is up on top the beat, that they can lay it back just a bit (definitely NOT a full 16th, 32nd or possibly even a 64th note in duration) to create some tension, some give and take within the rhythm. As the tune/groove progresses, this "amount" of laying back/pushing forward will change; it will ebb and flow as the feel of the music progresses. Remember, music is not meant to be a static event. It is meant to morph, evolve and change over the course of a piece. Bass players working with drummers who either lay back or push the beat use this same approach. The dynamic of polarities creates the tension. If one player is pushing, another can pull back...ever so slightly. If everyone pulls back on the beat, or pushes it forward, or plays on top of it, you achieve a mechanized feel (which, again may be a desired result).

To conceptualize, this try this analogy: look at the room you are sitting it right now, and imagine the space there between two parallel walls to be the space of a single 16th note. If you measure the dimensions of the room, and divide those by half, you can stand in the direct middle of the room: the middle of the beat. Take two steps to the right and you are pushing the beat; get to the top side of the beat (and you can continue to move in this direction until you are quite on "top" of the beat where you are standing near the far wall of the room. Step back to the "middle" of the beat and move the opposite direction and you falling "behind" the beat. With each step toward the left wall you move a little more "behind"...yet these are not exact subdivisions of the beat (is it a baby step or a giant step you are taking?)

In playing a groove, and let us say you are playing behind the beat, you can vary the number of steps you take toward that far wall with each phrase, or division of a phrase. Listen closely to Duck Dunn, Pino Palladino, or Larry Graham and you can hear them do this. Also listen to drummers and learn to hear where the change their position in the beat. (A lot of drummers have a hard time learning that their role, their instrument, is NOT metronomic...).

To "learn" this...try practicing to a metronome set to a very slow click and try to slide your note a little behind the click...keep sliding it back, farther and farther. Then go the other way. Listen closely to the tension each direction applies. Then try it with a very patient and understanding drummer (you can even have the drummer do the same as you both move in opposite directions...)

And..In short...this practice creates a deep groove or pocket with a dynamic rhythmic feel.