The rhythmic potential of a beat is not exhausted once it is mastered in its original written form. By employing a technique, which one might call “beat shifting,” any beat can be transformed into interesting variations that are similar to the original yet present their own distinctive flavor. A variation is most easily achieved by shifting the starting point of the beat from the original 1 to any of the other downbeats. To illustrate, let us first play this basic rock beat. Now let us shift the starting beat, so that the original 2 is the new Beat 1b uses the original 3 as the new 1. Beat 1c uses the original 4 as the new 1.   Clearly, neither beat 1 nor its variations are extremely rhythmically inspiring and are merely meant to illustrate. It should be pointed out that it takes an interesting starting beat to make the […]

September 1986 Issue