The Overuse of Downbeats

One of the most common issues that can be observed with inexperienced composers/arrangers is the lack of variation in rhythmical ideas. Certain rhythmical gestures or accompanying patterns very often get repeated over and over again. This  results also in a concentration of rhythmical events on the downbeats of each bar. 

With a constantly repeating rhythmical model, even the most flowing melodic idea becomes static and lifeless and even the most interesting chord progression becomes annoyingly predictable.

Of course, there are certain genres and styles of music that rely on repeating rhythmical structures like marches or minimal music but very often it is clear that the rhythmical staticness is not intended but caused by a lack of control over the musical ideas.

When looking back at the times when I made my first steps in composition, I can very clearly see that in most of them a big issue was the static rhythm. I managed to come up with a "head motif" and then simply repeated that motif rhythmically identically and often the only thing that changed was that the melody was following a melodic sequence. Also, the stiffness of accompanying patterns was even obvious at that time to myself. I remember me looking at a piano sketch that I had written and noticing that every bar looked somehow the same. And yet, I was lacking the chops to "imagine" something more varied there.

It is important to understand that there is a very fine balance between necessary repetition and being annoyingly static. Our brain needs certain structural elements that link musical ideas together and repeating something creates a strong sense of structure. On the other hand it can become very annoying to feel stuck at a musical idea.

It took me quite some time to gather enough experience to develop a feeling for how much repetition is needed and when variation is necessary. But of course that line is quite subjective and very much depending on musical experience.

One of the things that helped me tremendously to "unlink" my brain from the gravity of the downbeat was a quite simple exercise that my former piano teacher showed me which was to play a relatively easy Jazz standard from a lead sheet and consciously place the left hand accompanying chords statically on a specific moment in every bar, for example always on the 1-ands, or the 4-ands and do several passes of this with a different non-downbeat accompying pattern with every pass. Doing this for a while helped me to internalize that the downbeat is not the rhythmical center of every bar. Developing a consciousness of this helped me to avoid static rhythmical models that accumulate on every downbeat.

One strategy that I use as a composer/arranger is to try to find inner voices that I can tie over barlines into the next bar to avoid that all voices attack downbeats. This is if course not appropriate for every musical genre but for example in flowing legato string sections, it can help tremendously to create a stronger flow. 

This does not mean to completely disguise the downbeats as of course a proper underlaying pulse is essential for the audience to understand the music. So the target should be to try to counterbalance an excessive accumulation of downbeats in every voice with voices that move more on off- or backbeats.

Again, this is not a "rule" to apply universally, but more a hint to develop a sensitivity for the rhythmical dramaturgy of a passage or even an entire piece.