Chapter 4
Rhythm and Mood
In This Chapter
Making music out of time
Deciding on rhythm and tempo
Feeling different rhythms
Varying rhythms
Understanding back phrasing, front phrasing, and syncopation
Finding your own rhythmic phrasing
Exercising your rhythms
T
ake a few minutes to listen to the rhythms around you. Is a bird singing?
A train rattling by? Is someone hammering something down the block?You may notice the repetitive sounds of your tires as you drive over a bridge,
your footsteps as you walk or run, the cash register tapping out its tune.
There are even rhythms from within: the sound of your breathing, your heart-
beat. Life is full of rhythm if you’re paying attention.The rhythms of life have always influenced composers, both consciously and
subconsciously. During the era when people regularly made long trips in horse-
drawn carriages, quite a lot of music was written with a trotting or cantering
rhythm. It’s easy to imagine being a bored composer on a long trip through
England when suddenly, your next composition pops into your head, spurred
on by the relentless, rhythmic hoof-falls of the horses pulling your buggy.The same types of influences are around us today. It’s not such a big stretch
to hear the clanging of assembly-line machinery when listening to industrial
music. Obviously, rap music wasn’t invented by cattle ranchers languidly fol-
lowing a herd along the trail, and there’s no way you can listen to rap and
think that there was any such connection. You can, however, hear the color-
ful banter of urban neighborhood streets in rap music, and you can easily feel
the sway of a horse’s walk in traditional country and western ballads.