STRING THEORY
LAST TIME, WE saw how an augmentation dot placed after a note or rest increases its value, or duration, by 50%. We also learned that its opposite, the diminution dot, also known as the staccato dot, placed directly above or below a note head or tab number, decreases its duration, or sustain, by 50%. Both kinds of dots can be used in some cases to render a simpler, less cluttered visual representation of a rhythm, by eliminating a tie or a rest, which makes something written in sheet music or rhythmic tab easier to read. I’d now like to focus on the sound of the dotted-quarter rhythm, which spans one and one half beats, and look at different ways in which it can be conveyed and repeated with anticipated chord changes to create syncopation and dramatic musical tension, via a chain of shifting accents.