What do we call music which is not played on the beat?

Question

What do we call music which is not played on the beat?

Answer 1

Syncopation is the technical term for off-beat rhythms. There are many genres that incorporate a syncopated style, as noted by Louis Armstrong:

Ah, swing, well, we used to call it syncopation, then they called it ragtime, then blues, then jazz. Now, it's swing.

• Louis Armstrong, on the Bing Crosby radio show (as quoted on the wikipedia article for Jazz).

Answer 2

It can be called Off beat.

Per the above Wikipedia article

In music that progresses regularly in 4/4 time, counted as "1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4...", the first beat of the bar (downbeat) is usually the strongest accent in the melody and the likeliest place for a chord change, the third is the next strongest: these are "on" beats. The second and fourth are weaker - the "off-beats".

So, when you don't play on the 'strong' beats of the measure, but on the weak ones, you play off beat

or a simpler

Offbeat, originally a music term meaning "not following the standard beat", which has also become a general synonym for "unconventional" or "unusual"

Answer 3

We can answer a few possible meanings of your question:

1. If every note from a given instrument is consistently played slightly before or after the beat from the "metronome" (or, the rest of the instruments), but still played at the same tempo, then that instrument is considered "early"/"pushing" or "late"/"laying back" respectively.

2. In a "syncopated" rhythm, notes are accented in places which are not the obvious or conventional places ("strong beats").

3. "Rubato" means playing in free time, with no strict time signature or tempo.

4. "Swing" means squeezing every second note into less time, so that the downbeats are longer than the upbeats. Depending on the difference in size between each note, you can have:

   • "straight": each note is the same size
   • "lope": each second note is slightly delayed
   • "swing": each second note is close to where you would place a 2nd triplet
   • "shuffle": each second note is very delayed, occuring just before the next note

5. "Off-beat" means accenting the rhythmic opposites of the "normal" beats; playing in the negative space. For instance, playing on the 2 and 4 in a 4/4 meter.

Answer 4

"off beat" has been mentioned here. That's basically the name for rhythms that are accentuated, well, on a beat, just a different one than the "normal" beat. So a swing accent is on beat 2 and 4 rather than 1 and 3.

"Syncopated", in contrast, usually implies coming in early or late by fractions of a beat. Like { c'4. c'8~ c'4 c' } a typical tango rhythm with an early second note that blunts the hard "slow-quick-quick-slow-quick-quick" of the original tango.

Answer 5

Both syncopated and off beat can be used. In my book, these are not entirely synonymous!

I would characterise the difference much as what Caleb's and Shevliaskovic said: off beat means, you put accents on weak beats (but the strong beats are still played quietly, perhaps as dead notes or at least "pronounced rests"). Whereas syncopated means, you play between strong beats, without really making these beats audible or "feelable" at all (though another voice may play on-beat). To give a concrete example of the difference: a Reggae guitar is off beat. String parts with notes on the weak beats are syncopated, prominent e.g. in the 4th movement of Tchaikovsky I.