Definition
Syncopation shifts the accent to a weak beat or weak part of the bar, often with a note tied over the strong beat. The listener expects the accent on 1 and 3 (in 4/4) and receives it elsewhere: this creates “swing,” drive.
Types
- Offbeat: notes on the “ands” (on the second eighth note of each beat).
- Tie over the strong beat: a note that starts on the “and” of 2 and continues over 3.
- Anticipation: the chord or note of the strong beat arrives an eighth or a sixteenth early (the pop “push”: the new chord enters on the “and” of 4).
- Asymmetric groupings: 3+3+2 sixteenth notes or eighth notes (tresillo).
Grids (one bar in sixteenth notes, 16 slots)
- Straight: x...x...x...x...
- Tresillo: x..x..x.x..x..x. (3+3+2 repeated)
- Tresillo in eighth notes (one bar): x.....x.....x... (3+3+2 eighth notes)
- Anticipation of the next 1: the last sixteenth note of the bar played and tied over.
Harmonic example in C
Bar 1 on C, bar 2 on Am: instead of changing on the 1 of bar 2, the Am enters on the last eighth note of bar 1 and is tied over the barline. The change feels more urgent without changing the BPM.
In genres
Funk and R&B (bass and guitar on weak sixteenth notes), reggaeton and dembow (tresillo in the kick and snare), afrobeats, K-pop (syncopated synths), trap (808s syncopated against the kick).
Real-world example
The marimba riff of “Shape of You” (Ed Sheeran, 2017) is built on the 3+3+2 grouping: tresillo syncopation that makes a mid-tempo track danceable.