SongTrellis
Music and Musical Know-how For You

Author:  David Luebbert Posted:  8/30/19; 11:01:17 AM Msg#:  6121 (top msg in thread) Prev/Next:  6120/6122 Reads:  85

Investigating Complete and Incomplete Sounding Rhythm Runs for Rhythms Played Over A 4 Hit Subdivision Of The Beat

A "run of a rhythm" is a sequence that performs a hit in each adjacent subdivision of a rhythm once a starting hit is performed, which continues until a rest subdivision is encountered to end that run. Such hit sequences are said to "run" because the subdivisions of the rhythm within the run are visited at the maximum speed allowed by the rhythm's subdivision scheme.

The runs listed in the table below are designed to be performed within rhythms where beats are subdivided by 4.

Runs that feel COMPLETE (those ending in TA or TI) are paired in the table below with their neighbor runs that feel INCOMPLETE, which end one hit earlier and one hit later, on either KE or NA.

Play or speak one of the ideas from the right side of the table. Then play or speak the idea shown on the left side of the table in the same row, and notice how it seems to resolve suspense that is left hanging in the air once the ideas on the right side sound.

Later, to simulate a more realistic performance situation and to gain intuition on how to use these ideas, use a randomly selected idea from the right column to establish suspense, and then release that suspense by playing a run that is much smaller or larger in a different row from the idea that you originally chose.

You will likely find that at first its useful to master the use of the smaller sized runs (1 to 5 hits in length). In a soloing situation, you'll feel that it feels better (is more conversational sounding) to use smaller runs in a word-like way fairly frequently, using longer runs much less frequently.

Runs that end with TA and TI reward listeners because the flow of rhythm pauses on a safe, stable subdivision of the beat, which correspond to one of the TA subdivisions of the two TA-KE pairs that fit inside a TA-KE-TI-NA quadruple.

Runs that end with KE and NA, leave listeners in a state of suspense because the rhythm has paused on weaker sounding, in-between hits that correspond to one of KE subdivisions of the TA-KE pairs that fit inside of a TA-KE-TI-NA quadruple.

Summarized as a slogan:

Even runs on the beat (beginning with TA or TI), Odd runs off the beat (beginning with KE or NA), INCOMPLETE (because they end on KE or NA).

These opposite cases, summarized as a slogan:

Even runs off the beat (beginning with KE or NA), Odd runs on the beat (beginning with TA or TI), ARE COMPLETE (because they end on TA or TI),

We have two classes of hits:

1) The Weak hits that fall on the KE syllable of repeated TA-KE cycles, and which fall on the KE and NA syllables of repeated TA-KE-TI-NA cycles.

2) The Strong hits that fall on the TA hits of repeated TA-KE cycles and which fall on the TA and TI hits of repeated TA-KE-TI-NA cycles.

When we follow these cycles and start on a Strong hit, the next and previous hits will always be a Weak hit,

When we follow these cycles and start on a Weak hit, the next and previous hits will always be a Strong hit.

If choose to play a particular type of hit (Strong or Weak) and then play the next hit in the cycle, that hit will be of the opposite type of your initial choice. If your first hit is Strong your second hit will be Weak. If your first hit is Weak, your second hit must be Strong.

If your goal is to play a two hit run that ends on a Strong hit, you must ensure that the initial hit of your run is Weak.

If your goal is to play a two hit run that ends on a Weak hit, you must ensure that the initial hit of your run is Strong.

To extend this rule for all even count runs, you will repeatedly add pairs of hits to a sequence of two hits that ends on your desired hit strength. The first hits of these extension pairs will always make a hit in a subdivision that is of opposite strength of your goal. The second hit of these pairs will always have the same strength as your goal strength.

So we know that if you've created a hit pair that ends on the strength that you desire, any additional even number of hits that that you add you your pair will end on the same strength of subdivision as that you've chosen for your goal for the initial two hit run.

We know that adding pairs of hits to a two hit long run will run will always result in a run whose length is an even number. Because of that we are now sure that if we've chosen our first hit of a run to have a certain strength, we know if we play an even length run that the final hit will have opposite strength from that of our first hit of the run.

To perform a three hit run, you will always choose to play a hit on either a Strong or Weak subdivision of your rhythm. Your second hit will be on the next subdivision which is of the opposite strength than that of your first hit. Your third hit will necessarily fall on the same type of hit as your initial hit.

If your goal is to play a three hit run that ends on a Strong hit, it is necessary that the initial hit of your run be Strong.

If your goal is to play a three hit run that ends on a Weak hit, it is necessary that the initial hit of your run be Weak.

To extend this rule for all runs of odd length, you will repeatedly add pairs of hits to a sequence of three hits that ends on your desired hit strength. The first hits of these extension pairs will always make a hit in a subdivision that is of opposite strength of your goal, and a second hit which is the same strength as your goal.

So you know that if you've created a three hit run that ends on the strength that you desire, any additional pairs of hits that that you add to you your pair will end on the same strength of subdivision as what you played for your first run in the hit..

Since we know that adding two to an odd number always results in an odd number, we now know that if we choose a certain hit strength to start an odd sized run, we are certain that the final hit of the run will also be of that same strength.

If a run begins with TA or TI, hit first with your stronger hand (right hand if you are right handed, left hand if you are a lefty) and then hit with alternate hands to produce the remaining hits of the run.

If a run begins with KE or NA, hit first with your weaker hand (left hand if you are right handed, right hand if you are a lefty) and then hit with alternate hands to produce the remaining hits of the run.

If you play the runs following these instructions, you'll find that the last hit of Complete sounding runs will always be performed by your stronger hand.

You'll also find that the last hit of Incomplete sounding runs will always be performed by your weaker hand.

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