Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 29: Tied Notes and Syncopation

  • Hold a tied note across a bar line and feel the bar without re-articulating.
  • Play a syncopated melody whose energy lives in off-beats.

Syncopation is the surprise of a heavy beat where you expected a light one.

A tie joins two notes of the same pitch — the first holds for both durations, the second is never re-articulated. Ties most often cross bar lines, sustaining a note into the next bar without a tongued downbeat. Syncopation is the effect this creates: emphasis on a normally-weak beat.

Do not tongue the downbeat — just keep the note ringing.

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Tongue lands on the “and” of beat two.

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Play: a syncopated melody

An Afro-Cuban-style line in G. The downbeats are mostly avoided; the energy is in the off-beats.

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Now play these

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
The syncopation on “swing” and “low” is the song.
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
Built on tied bar lines and off-beat accents.
Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho
The off-beats are the march.

When you can play a tied note across a bar line without an audible accent on the downbeat, move on to Lesson 30.