Rhythm grids may seem fixed, like mathematical subdivisions resting in space, but that isn’t the end of the story. Once we’ve got our grids down (!!!), we can start bend them at will. Imagine a perfectly round ball gliding down a pool table. Now picture an egg rolling. Rhythm can shapeshift in the same way. If the difference between the two were a sound, that’s bending time. The symmetry of a grid is malleable, and we have power to influence it. It’s not metronomic like in a sterile laboratory, it’s organic. Bending time is Jedi-level attuning rhythm to our (or the music’s) vision. It can be our playground to shape rhythm in limitless ways. Depending on who’s playing and where we are in the world, it can look the same on the page but come out different every time. Zooming out, the common notes we all use can seem more […]

April 2026 Issue