# Playing on the 'off' beat'



## ed2000 (Feb 16, 2007)

Is there a technical term for this.
ex. playing on the and as in - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

1. the bass line to Ina Godda Da Vida
2. Sunshine of Your Love

and many Motown bass lines


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## GWN! (Nov 2, 2014)

Syncopation?


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## Bastille day (Mar 2, 2014)

The drummer for the Guess Who did this off beat on the song "No Time" with his bass drum although I would not consider it syncopation.

I always thought of syncopation as the drummer changing up his snare drum and bass drum so instead of bass drum on "1" and snare drum on "2" it's reversed or adds another beat in a part of the song. It's a bit more complicated that but Neil Peart and Bill Bruford the drummer for Yes do this very well.

The song "Roundabout" by Yes is a perfect example, a drummers nightmare and could result in an on stage train wreck, if you were not well rehearsed.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

backbeat........go to 7 mins....you only start count the_ and _in eight notes


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## amagras (Apr 22, 2015)

I double checked with our drummer: off beat


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## Bastille day (Mar 2, 2014)

amagras said:


> I double checked with our drummer: off beat


Hi Amagras:

Both terms, off-beat and back-beat are correct.

BUT if you turned around and told your drummer and said the bass drum is on the backbeat, he may not know what your talking about.

I took formal drum lessons back in the 1970's, played for several years and very seldom heard the term.

Playing an off-beat takes time to learn as it's not your typical "Beatles" beat and very difficult to do all the way through a song.


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## amagras (Apr 22, 2015)

Hi, thanks. I didn't meant to argue with you, was just answering to the OP, in fact I'm pretty sure our drummer mentioned back-beat too and a few more terms that I don't remember...one of them was something like "to play in the AND" like playing in the 1 "and" 2 "and" 3, etc... Totally new to me but easily understandable.


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