Duke Ellington routinely gave his audiences a lesson in his inimitable style: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPcZ5ex2t-g</a><p>Harry Connick Jr. didn't bother educating his European audience with any explanation. He simply skips a beat, and then they're clapping on 2 and 4. It happens after the first sung chorus. You can see the drummer raise his hands in joy: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw</a><p>And, of course, the great Slim Gaillard was so saturated in swing, his predominantly white 1950s television audience SPONTANEOUSLY clapped on the 2 and 4: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdrnTTDTqo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKdrnTTDTqo</a>
actually the notion that european music is "harmonically rich and rhythmically unsophisticated" is incorrect; it's relatively modern phenomenon that the rhythms in european music were simplified. Traditional eastern european rhythms are incredibly complex and western european liturgical and vernacular music tended to have complex ryhthms until around the 16-17th century.<p>IIRC this was basically an effect of the church decided to try to monopolize music in the service of liturgy <i>and</i> "dumb down" the music so that everyone could participate in hymnals, etc.<p>This could also partially be a result of music printing; it's harder to notate complex rhythms - if you've ever sung medieval music that's pushed into modern notation, sometimes wierd things happen, like time signatures that don't quite line up with the all of the music lines because polyphony is going on; invasions of 3/4 measures in an otherwise 2/4 song, etc.
My circle of friends used to joke about the "Republican Test." You administer it like this: play the song "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," ideally the Marvin Gaye version, and ask the subject to "clap along with the music" however he or she feels.<p>Our unscientific observations showed a high correlation with 1/3 clapping and being old, square, uptight, or an alien from an unfunky and obsolete dying planet.
A YouTube link to the Taj Mahal concert mentioned:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQOJQHJ8Sg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQOJQHJ8Sg</a>
The following blog post provides examples of swung beats and clapping, as it pertains to dancing:<p><a href="http://vixswingjazz.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/can-you-hear-the-beat/" rel="nofollow">http://vixswingjazz.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/can-you-hear-th...</a><p>A few songs are missing from the page:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtNC8BwKI0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtNC8BwKI0</a> (Dinah; NSFW)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YqDbd6pUC0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YqDbd6pUC0</a> (Everything is Jumping)<p>To get a feel for clapping on the even beats:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_WZenJnT8M" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_WZenJnT8M</a> (Shout, Sister, Shout!)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_pi0r75mA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_pi0r75mA</a> (Lavender Coffin)<p>Harry Connick Jr. beat-shifts the audience from clapping on 1 & 3 to 2 & 4 (at 40 second mark):<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD3iaURppQw</a><p>Usually the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdowns have live music, which induces the audience to clap:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfWA4ClPnxk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfWA4ClPnxk</a><p>A tradition called a jam circle involves encircling dancers who steal the spotlight, with the audience clapping (on even beats) for encouragement:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRNQAcXhJo" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTRNQAcXhJo</a><p>This tradition goes back a long way; see Hellzapoppin' (1941) and Keep Punching (1939):<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAOV6XEjXA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSAOV6XEjXA</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfgKMfexdPQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfgKMfexdPQ</a>
For those that didn't make it to slide 28:<p>Subject 5769, a tabla player only weakly familiar with Western or African music, clapped on displaced backbeats or using complex 16th note rhythms, that, if recorded, "would likely make an enjoyable work of art."
Interestingly, the Schottische, a 19th-century dance which despite the name originates from Central Europe, has strong and fairly complex backbeats (if danced the traditional way): one-and-TWO, three-and-FOUR, one-AND-two-AND-three-AND-four-AND.<p>This dance has influenced blues dancing. (Which is a partner dance; African-American slaves had no tradition of partner dancing.)
Links to the songs discussed:<p>* Billie Jean - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi_XLOBDo_Y</a><p>* Impeach the President - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqbEsS5kFb8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqbEsS5kFb8</a><p>* Take me to the Mardi Gras - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaoCsmFDLcY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaoCsmFDLcY</a><p>* The Funky Drummer - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNP8tbDMZNE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNP8tbDMZNE</a><p>* Amen Brother - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxZuq57_bYM</a>
If you get tired of 2 and 4, try this.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVBoDx_1dTc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVBoDx_1dTc</a><p>[The First Circle -- Metheny/Mays]
"Taj Mahal found it distressing when his audience clapped wrong because it felt like a failure to emotionally connect with them."<p>How do they know this? Did they ask him or is this their assumption based on their expectations. It is annoying enough when researchers impute motive and thought to inanimate things. But people actually have them so it is all the more frustrating if they are assuming they know what he's feeling.<p>The beat you emphasize has a great effect on the feel of the rhythm. Instead of "feeling like he failed to connect on emotionally," it could just be that he wanted them to hear the song as he intended to play it and without altering it's rhythmic nature.
"We can determine the “metric salience” of each event in a rhythmic pattern by“recursively breaking down a musical pattern (with an initially specified length)into subpatterns of equal length.” <i></i>The more subdivisions it takes to reach a given event<i></i>, the lower its metrical salience. In 4/4 time, the downbeat is themost salient position, followed by beat three. It would seem natural to clap onthe strongest, most salient beat."<p>Anybody know what this quote is trying to say? What is a "given event"?
I'm genuinely grateful for this article, because I'm going to show it to my wife as an explanation why I dance the way I do. (dnb and classical Indian music fan)
Here is an excellent 18 minute piece on the Amen Break, mentioned in TFA:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SaFTm2bcac</a>
The rhythm tengoku series of games will teach you about stuff like this.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMe-j0Lg5w8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMe-j0Lg5w8</a>
Barry Harris tells it like it is:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnX_PkDwWs#t=2992" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjnX_PkDwWs#t=2992</a>
And then there's bluegrass clogging...<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2j8f7H2WY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs2j8f7H2WY</a>