Introduction

Offbeat Count Theory explains the knowledge and techniques necessary for a person who does not groove at all to come to groove, and the method for acquiring them. And it shows that this groove ability and language ability are equal. Here, I explain an outline of what is explained in Offbeat Count Theory, and explain how it is good to proceed through these chapters.

What This Book Explains

In musical rhythm there are strong beats and weak beats. In fact, it shows that the way of recognizing this order differs depending on the language that person speaks as their native language. — This has a deep relationship with the phonological rhythmic characteristics of pronunciation called “mora-timed rhythm” and “stress-timed rhythm.” First, we linguistically analyze what this recognition of the order of strong beats and weak beats is, and investigate the reason why this difference is born. And after linguistically analyzing whether this difference is in the very custom of constructing melody itself, through the concept of “axis beat” that was born as a result of analysis using phonology, we explore the essence of groove from multiple angles.

Multi-Layered Weak-Beat-Oriented Rhythm Theory gives concrete guidelines to Japanese language learners and Japanese musicians regarding why Japanese people do not groove, and how they can come to groove.

Here I explain the following contents.

What groove is
The relationship between musical groove and English listening
What strong beats and weak beats are
That differences arise in the recognition of strong beats and weak beats depending on one’s native language
That strong beats and weak beats have a hierarchy common to both music and language
That the hierarchy of strong beats and weak beats has recursiveness
That the recursiveness of the strong-beat/weak-beat hierarchy has a great influence on music and the way of reading poetic chanting
The analytical method of the multilayer hierarchy of strong beats and weak beats

How to Read This Book

First, we look at how the pronunciation structure possessed by the language that person speaks as their native language greatly affects that person’s recognition of rhythm in music. Next, we learn the characteristics of the three rhythmic structures possessed by language that were made clear by analyzing from a phonological point of view: syllable-timed rhythm, stress-timed rhythm, and mora-timed rhythm.

And we look at how this is related to the concept of strong beats and weak beats. Next, we look at how in stress-timed rhythm this concept of strong beats and weak beats has a multilayer structure. And we dig into what strong beats and weak beats are, and look at the existence of the multilayer structure of weak beats and strong beats. And we look at how this multilayer structure greatly affects the directionality of placement when singing melody. And finally, we look at how this greatly affects the directionality of human recognition of time, and furthermore how this affects the recognition of human movement itself.

Groove Is English Itself

English is classified in phonology as stress-timed rhythm. Languages of stress-timed rhythm have the pronunciation rule that “syllables with accent (stress beats) must be pronounced at fixed time intervals, and syllables without accent (non-stress beats) must be pronounced weakly or omitted.” This rule has an important role for hearing the language called English as meaningful sentences.

In other words, this stress-timed rhythm is the true nature of groove.

Stress-timed rhythm has, just like haiku, a profound poetic chanting culture, and has a long history of exploring and developing the rhythm that the language itself possesses. On top of this poetic chanting culture, African American cultures such as R&B and rap developed. This further had a great influence on jazz. And from this jazz, blues and rock and roll, rock, hard rock, and heavy metal were born, spread around the world, and influenced music around the world.

Connecting Music and Language

This multi-layered weak-beat-oriented rhythm theory theoretically explains the conditions under which groove occurs in music, and then considers why differences are born in the recognition of musical groove depending on the person. And regarding the reason why this difference in rhythm recognition is born, it explains it using this phonology. This multi-layered weak-beat-oriented rhythm theory becomes the basic theory that shows that Offbeat Count Theory, the theory for acquiring groove, is established.

Making Groove Explicitly Conscious

In other words, multi-layered weak-beat-oriented rhythm theory theoretically explains why Japanese people do not groove, and gives a theoretical prediction regarding the practice method by which Japanese people can later acquire groove.

And the training method devised on the basis of that theoretical prediction is the Offbeat Count practice method.

Language Is Understood After It Is Heard

A person does not hear language because they understood it; rather, they understand it because they can hear it. Even if one does not know what language that language is, if one can hear the pronunciation structure, one can at least hear only what is being said. From what one was able to hear, one can infer what words it means.

In becoming proficient in language, creating this situation of “even if the meaning is not understood, one can tell what is being said” is the most important thing.

Because of a structural problem of language rhythm, it has become clear that while it is easy to switch from stress-timed rhythm (English) or syllable-timed rhythm (Spanish/French) to mora-timed rhythm (Japanese), it is extremely difficult to switch from mora-timed rhythm to syllable-timed rhythm or stress-timed rhythm.

If one can switch the rhythm mode possessed by the human ear from mora-timed rhythm to stress-timed rhythm or syllable-timed rhythm, one can arrive at the state of being able to hear it even if the meaning is not understood — If one can create this state, it is only a matter of time before one becomes able to understand English.

And in this book we look at how this ability to hear it even if the meaning is not understood is exactly the same ability as the ability to groove in music.

English Listening Ability Grows Through Musical Groove

If you, the reader, are an English learner, perhaps you have a sense of problem about listening — Japanese people cannot hear English. Japanese people spend more than ten years of compulsory education in order to come to understand English, but in most cases Japanese people cannot understand English. Even if after effort they become able to read English, they cannot watch movies without subtitles and understand them, or actually have conversations. Such top-heavy English education was criticized, and it was already more than twenty years ago that the importance of practical English conversation was loudly called for. However, even now, after twenty years have passed, the situation has not changed at all.

Multi-Layered Weak-Beat-Oriented Rhythm Theory throws a stone into this regrettable situation.

Musical Groove Ability Grows Through English Listening

If you, the reader, are a performer of music, perhaps you have a sense of problem about groove — Japanese musicians do not groove at all. This is tatenori. Tatenori was originally slang used among Japanese jazz performers. Japanese jazz performance without the groove and swing feel unique to jazz was colloquially called “tatenori” and was always a source of worry. A sense of groove is the true pleasure of jazz. Jazz without a sense of groove is truly valueless music lacking the finishing touch. However, there had been no person who could clearly understand and clearly explain the reason why Japanese people do not groove.

Among Japanese jazz performers, the Japanese rhythm problem tatenori created trauma in the hearts of Japanese jazz performers who wanted to groove but could not groove no matter what they did. While there were many people who became enraged just by bringing up the problem of rhythm as a topic among jazz performers, everyone had by then treated it as a taboo, like touching a sore spot.

Japan has one of the world’s largest jazz performer communities — nevertheless, nobody in the world listens to Japanese jazz. Japan has one of the world’s largest jazz listener communities, and the jazz market is said to be one of the largest in the world. Yet nobody in such a huge jazz market listens to Japanese jazz — this goes beyond the greatest tragedy in the jazz world, and is already a comedy.

Multi-Layered Weak-Beat-Oriented Rhythm Theory throws a stone into this situation.

Table of contents

Offbeat Count Theory