![]() But when we get to the words “that your dreams come true,” the upbeat on beat 4 is NOT interrupted! Instead, the upbeat ushers in THREE QUARTER NOTES! The contrast in motion (forward momentum) is as astounding as it inspiring. The second phrase resumes the slow, backbeat stride of the first. “Someone Like You,” at the point the rhythm breaks In this way, she fills every pause with anticipation. But when Adele sings, none of the “connective” words “connect.” Each bar ends with an upbeat to nothing – an exaggerated upbeat to nothing. And that’s what they do when we read the lyrics. Adele turns each two-word phrase into an accusation by setting each pair of words to a disruptive, in-your-face rhythmic figure known as “ The Scotch Snap.” Usually, words like “that you’re,” “that you,” and “and you’re” serve to connect ideas. The words, “that you’re,” “that you,” “and you’re,” come on beat 4 of measures 1-3. She says what she says at her own deliberate pace.Īnd listen to how she shakes her finger at this man. By accenting the weak beats in bars 2-4, Adele creates a slow-motion backbeat. In fact, not a single melodic note falls on beats 1 or 3! No wonder the music feels unsettled: everything is metrically up in the air. That’s happens here, though Adele quickly recovers and immediately finds her stride.Īnd what an odd stride it is! Notice that none of the naturally-stressed syllables lines up with a stressed beat. We desperately want to speak with confidence, but instead, we blurt. The upbeat placement of the words “I heard” makes them feel interruptive and a bit awkward – the way we feel when we don’t quite know to bring up a sensitive issue. The first note of Adele’s song comes in “too early” – before the 4-bar introduction finishes. ![]() MELODIC NOTES TAKE ON THE CHARACTERISTIC HEFT AND LIFT OF THE BEATS THEY INHABIT. “Changing the metric placement of a rhythmic pattern,” Versions A and C have different rhythmic patterns, but sound and feel very much the same. Versions B and C have the same rhythmic pattern, but don’t sound/feel much like each other. In version B, the notes are on afterbeats (with the rests on the beat).Īs a result, something really cool happens. But in version C, the notes fall on beats (with rests off the beat). Each melody alternates eighth notes with eighth rests. Version C has the same rhythmic pattern as version B. This time, I’ll add another version (C) between the two. Let’s compare versions A and B once more. In melody B, not one note lands on a beat. In melody A, we hear a short pickup note leading to a note on every beat. Their dissimilarity results from “metric placement”: how notes align with strong and weak beats. Yet it’s not the patterns themselves that create the contrast. Clearly, the two rhythmic patterns sound and feel quite different.
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