Syncopation

We learnt the Tolka Polka tonight, which is a 3 part tune with some interesting syncopation, particularly in the 3rd part. We spent some time tapping our feet on the on beats only while playing in reel time, and worked on finding and emphasising the on beats and off beats. Tapping your foot on just the onbeats gives a distinction between on and off beats – when you want to play around with rhythms within a tune, it can be helpful to have this ‘anchor’ in your body so you know where those offbeats are.

Here’s a rather blurry video of Kevin Burke playing the Tolka Polka:

 

We also played through the 2 tunes we have already learnt this term, working on the triplets, thinking abut the sound we were creating. We revisited getting the weight of the bowing arm in behind the bow right at the start of the triplet.