Building Your Band

A better conversation about music, with David Loftis and Peter Bulanow

More Subdividing

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We’ve already laid out how music generally subdivides each count into 2s or 3s. This means that in 4/4 (or 3/4 or 5/4 or 6/4 or 213/4) time the first duple subdivision results in a 1/8th note, and the next a 1/6th note. We can keep subdividing by 2s and reach 1/32nd notes and I’ve even see 1/64th notes in print. This can keep going to 1/124th notes, 256th note, 512th note and even 1024th notes, and in theory could continue.

If we were subdividing by 3s, an “eighth note triplet” figure with three notes takes the same amount of time as an “eighth note duple” with two notes. And three sixteenth note triplets takes the same amount of time as two regular duple sixteenth notes

The kind of subdividing going on in a song is something to listen for, no matter who you are in the band. Generally, if the song has an eighth note feel, or a sixteenth note feel, everyone is playing to that level of subdivision, and no one instrument is exceeding that. For instance it would be very unusual for a song with an eighth note feel to have sixteenth note tom fills, or riffs with sixteenth notes in them.

The possible exception to this (and something which I love) is the use of 16th-note triplets in the hi-hats in a song with an eighth note feel. For some reason the triplet used against the duple doesn’t mess with the overall feel of the song, and can really add a wonderful freshness or urgency. Michael W. Smith’s “Goin’ Thru The Motions” is one notable (old school) example of sixteenth note triplets in the hi-hats in a song with an otherwise eighth note feel.

Subdividing

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Up until now, we’ve stuck with the integers of counting. Sure, we’ve counted in 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7… but those are just whole numbers. What about the stuff that goes on between those counts?

Music is divided up either by 2’s or by 3’s, stated as “duples” or “triplets” respectively.

So if we were to count 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, we can count between the numbers using “and” like this –  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.  If the numbers were quarter (1/4) notes before, by adding the ands we can count eighth (1/8) notes. And we can subdivide further to sixteenth (1/16) notes by adding something between the “ands”. We count this as 1-e-&-a-2-e-&-a-3-e-&-a-4-e-&-a.

Triplets subdivide the 1-2-3-4 into a “triplet 8th note” by counting 1-&-a-2-&-a-3-&-a-4-&-a.

Laid out graphically this looks like:

Subdividing

All of this follows logically.

Where it gets interesting is with an eighth note swing feel. Technically it’s still a duple, and this is how you would count it, but if you swing the count, it can begin to take on the feel of a triplet.

This is where you get into the “groove”, the space between the notes. Defining how much swing, or how things feel – the human element rarely follows a perfect duple.

The “groove” is one of those things you pretty much need to stick with for an entire song, and everyone needs to agree on – because if you look at the jumble of the grid below, you can see a pretty bad train wreck if you tried to mix the triplet or swing feel with the straight duple feel. The same things happens if you mix other grooves.

TrainWreck

One groove per song keeps everything locked into place and feeling tight.