Syncopation and Anticipation (Sync and Antic) - a series within the overall Musicarta 'Beat and Rhythm Cookbook' - presents an opportunity to hone your rhythmic skills on a simple series of paired notes.

In this final module in the series, you extend the syncopated riff over a whole octave.

Sync & Antic - Module Six

Play this string of eight tenths - left hand G to G, right hand B to B - first in half-notes (minims) then in quarter-notes (crotchets). Use proper scale fingering, for preference.

Then with the right hand next-door-below note, using RH fingers 3-2-4 to keep creeping down the keyboard.  Twice through, left hand quarter notes.

Check that 3-2-4-3-2-4 RH fingering by playing in even right hand quavers - you'll be playing in 6-8. Twice through, so be ready to jump back to the top.

Now put the 'bounce' into the right hand - see the little graphic there?

Now with one anticipated note - between the first and second pairs, the third and fourth, and so on. Left hand stays in even crotchets, for now.

Errata: MS on video is wrong. Trust your ears!

Now the same right hand with the bouncy, long-short-long-short left hand. Same thing, twice through - be ready to jump back up to the top.

We could in theory anticipate all the way through in the right hand. Try it, just for practice, once with the straight quarter-notes left hand, once with the bouncy left hand.

If we play the right with one next-door-below and one next-door-above note - you'll see what happens! Back to anticipated notes only between the different pairs. Twice through, once with straight and once with long-short left hand notes.

Now here are some new in-between notes. Play these sets of three notes - two in the right, one in the left. Use the fingering indicated. There are only four new top notes - one for each two pairs.

Now here's a rhythmic rendering of those same notes.

Notice particularly the bars of mixed bouncy and straight left hand second time through and the getting-back-to-the-top left hand note (asterisked).

Now a mixed in-between notes version - next-door-below and the new ones. Two departures from the pattern on the right hand/second half - asterisked. Second time through the left hand is two bars bouncy and two bars straight.

All the asterisks in the music below indicate where the music deviates from the pattern.

Straight quarter notes in the left hand first time through; second time, mixed long-short and even crotchets.

Now introduce next-door-above in-between notes. The rhythmic pattern first time through is familiar. The second time through, mix next-door-above and 'new' (higher) in-between notes and bars of mixed LH rhythm - but mixed the other way round. Expect to take a number of times to get this one.

Now move the in-between-notes out a step - you'll get three triads (chords) - a G chord, an E minor chord and a C chord - at the start of the bars. Watch out for the mixed-rhythm left hand bars the second time through.

Now for a real hybrid - some triad patterns, some next-door-above notes, and so on. There's an F sharp in the left hand, too, but the big feature is how the left hand gets back up to the top - using the four notes of the G major arpeggio, and arriving early.

Keep that same left hand but regress the right hand a version or two to the two-note intervals, and add some (tied) triplet figures. Don't worry about the complicated MS (written-out music); just go by the sound. Same thing twice through - apart from one left hand F sharp.

Practice that rhythm with a delayed entry, on thirds below in the right hand  (first time through) and ditto plus fourths above second time through.

Only 'skeleton music' is given. If you encounter difficulties, work out the together-left-right (TLR) pattern in your head/tapping on your desk top.

Now mix the two in-between notes using a combination of rhythms.

But we're neglecting our in-between-below notes. Rehearse these groups of two right hand/one left hand notes.

Notice the F sharp in the right hand, last bar.

Now with a familiar rhythm.

Now with mixed  below and above - notice they're the same note - but dropping the first note of the pattern to give a syncopated entry.

Now for a couple of ways forward. The first is triplet quarter notes. Listen to the next example. In the right hand, there are three even quarter notes in the space of two in the left hand - a 'triplet'.

That's a difficult rhythmic skill to master - look for the special module on this platform. Another option is a 'walking bass' in octaves. Here's the example with a plain 'placeholder' right hand.

Look at the fingering carefully. You swap fingers on the second top note 2 to 1; at the bottom, you play 4-5 if you can stretch, or play 5 and swing finger 4 over. (That's the official story, anyway. "Fake it til you make it"!)

Here's one last variation which uses these last two - and other - elements.

The possibilities are, as they say ... endless!