Most of the music theory I have learnt/encountered was focusing on chords and notes of melodies, but not on interplay of melody and backbeat, hence I'm asking this question.
We are working on a song which has a rhythmically dominant part. However we have found that we are pretty much following the rhythm of this part with the vocals and we are kind of stuck with the same melody because of this.
So the question is:
Is there any "mechanical" way of constructing counter rhythms for melodies?
To give an analogy what I am looking for: there are these "mechanical" methods for writing melodies over chords, which say "start with the notes of the chords, then approach them through neighboring notes". Of course they can't replace inspiration, but it can get you open up for something with it.
Is there any rule of thumb here on which beat (say never start on beat 1) you should start and finish your melody?
The rhythm in question ^
Notation: lower notes bass drum, higher notes snare drum.
Rhythm and tempo: 8/4, 170 bpm