We’ve introduced a wide range of Rhythm Syllables, as well as ways to create or recognise syncopated rhythms, and swung beats.
Just like our Pitch building blocks, you can make use of these throughout all your musical activities to help you better understand, relate to, and express musical patterns.
Playing By Ear
In Chapter 14: Playing By Ear you’ll learn the Play-By-Ear Process, a simple approach to methodically figuring out music by ear by using three steps: Listen, Engage, Express.
Rhythm Syllables will be very useful to you in the Engage step. If you haven’t read that chapter yet, all you need to know is that the Engage step means bridging from hearing (“Listen”) to playing (“Express”) by connecting with and analysing what you heard.
In the case of Rhythm, you can use the familiarity you’ve been building up with Rhythm Syllables to let you interpret rhythmic patterns you hear in terms of these building blocks. For example, rather than relying purely on a fuzzy musical memory for the rhythmic pattern you just heard, or needing to painstakingly count through the beats and try to figure out where each note lands, you’ll be able to instinctively recognise “Oh, that went Ta, Ta, Tika-Tika, Ta” and so on.
You can begin practicing this in an easy way by recording yourself doing some of the improvisational exercises in this chapter, using clapping or your instrument to express rhythms using the building blocks. Then, when you listen back, try to recognise the rhythm syllables being used. This way, you can begin by focusing just on certain syllables (for example, just with Ta, Ti-Ti and Tika-Tika to begin with) and you’ll know when listening back that all the rhythms you hear will be using just those syllables.
When you’re ready, you can take this same approach to any music you’re working on playing by ear, either using the Play-By-Ear Process, or just more loosely. Either way, you’re now equipped with Rhythm Syllables as a way to interpret the rhythmic patterns you hear, translating them into specific note durations.
Transcribing
Exactly the same process can be used for transcribing music as for playing it by ear. The only difference is that instead of the Express step meaning to sing it or play it on an instrument, we will write it down.
Once Rhythm Syllables have helped you decipher the rhythmic patterns you heard, you can use the corresponding Stick Notation to quickly and easily write it down. From there you can add the pitch information by annotating with Solfa syllables or note names, or convert your Stick Notation into full score notation by adding note heads and placing the notes on the correct positions on the staff.
For most musicians, the main use of transcribing isn’t to produce a full, finished score in traditional notation—but rather to capture more concretely what they’ve been figuring out by ear. Stick Notation provides a very convenient shorthand for representing the rhythmic side of things, and you may find that Stick Notation and Solfa together become your go-to way of jotting things down.
Improvisation
Since most of our exercises in this chapter involved improvising your own rhythmic patterns, you have already had a good taste of how Rhythm Syllables can empower you in Improvisation!
Just like Playing By Ear, using Rhythm Syllables in Improvisation lets you escape from the two very frustrating and limiting approaches to rhythm in Improvisation which I mentioned in the introduction: either “winging it” and hoping it works out, or needing to very carefully think through counting out the rhythms.
By audiating Rhythm Syllables (speaking them in your head) either while you play or before you play a phrase, you’re able to conjure up suitable, interesting rhythmic patterns with an elegant balance of “thinking it through” and playing “on instinct”. When you craft your improvised phrases using Rhythm Syllables as building blocks, you’ll find that your rhythms will be more precise, more structured, and more varied.
Although intentionally audiating the Rhythm Syllables is helpful when getting started, you’ll soon find that (like with the Pitch building blocks) you begin to internalise them, and be able to use them subconsciously. Without needing to think through “I’ll play Ta, Ta, Tika-Tika, Ta” you will be able to assemble your rhythms using those building blocks instinctively.
Songwriting
When it comes to Songwriting and composing, both Rhythm Syllables and Stick Notation can be a huge help. In Chapter 16: Songwriting we’ll talk more about writing rhythms for your songs and the interplay with lyrics.
You can probably already see though that having the simplified form of notation, along with the building blocks for common rhythmic patterns, drastically simplifies the task of “writing a good rhythm”.
You can also combine these building blocks with the Expansive Creativity framework of Chapter 15: Improvisation to put certain Constraints on the music you write. For example, choosing to limit yourself to using particular Rhythm Syllables, or constraining other Dimensions and letting your rhythmic creativity run wild.