Rhythmical Displacements
Melodic Displacements
The following example uses 4 rhythmic displacements (eighth note, quarter note, and sixteenth note). These rhythmic devices are used extensively in composition1 and improvisation. The following uses a basic example, though only the eighth note and quarter note displacements might be appropriate for beginner students.
Randomized Displacement With Different Exercise Options
Options a, b, c, and d are played randomly, with a 15% chance setting for option d, which can be considered the most difficult performance-wise.
Also note that:
- the drum groove is 4 bars long and randomly plays 3 different variations
- there are 2 possible drum fills, one with a 1-bar drum silence
- the guitar part is 8 bars long with different rhythmic variations on E7#9.
This is a good example of the potential for spontaneous variation by using short, similar loops of different lengths.
Based on this simple example, many variations can be created. By muting the drums, the guitar, or both, the playback becomes a time-keeping exercise. The quantize setting can be randomized, and more advanced subdivisions become imaginable, such as transformations2 into other beat subdivisions (triplets, quintuplets, septuplets) and their respective displacements.
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E.g. Green Chimneys (Thelonious Monk), Green Spleen (Ari Hoenig) ↩︎
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cf. rhythmical sangatis p. 61 in Reina, R. (2017). Applying Karnatic Rhythmical Techniques to Western Music. Routledge ↩︎