Microrhythms

Microrhythms are the subtle variations in timing musicians have; the instances where they slightly drift off the main grid. They’re small enough that they don’t show up on sheet music, but big enough to shape the feel of a phrase. This rhythmic concept is what gives a musician their unique rhythmic signature, and explains why two people can play the same thing at the same tempo but will sound very distinct.

All musicians have their own microrhythmic displacements, which are developed naturally through the music they grew up with. Some notes are early, others are late, and the amount by which they deviate off the grid varies constantly. Practicing with a metronome can reduce extreme offsets, but even the most precise players don’t land in the exact same place on the grid every time.

Some musicians tend to play so far off the grid that it just sounds bad, while others try to land perfectly on the grid but become disappointed when they can never get there. Fizz believes that microrhythms aren’t something to avoid, but something to be manipulated, which renders the number of compositional possibilities infinite.

Examples

In classical music, there’s a marking called “rubato” which instructs the performer to interpret the written notes expressively, subtly slowing down or speeding up to shape each phrase. They might hold a melody note while slightly rushing the accompaniment, or vice versa. These types of microrhythmic decisions can create a desirable effect if executed and thought about properly.

Hungarian pianist and composer Zsigmond Gerloczy created many moments in his song "MOVE” where the main grid is intact but the song feels like it’s rushing.

The song “ground8” by Fizz musician Jonathan Berroa has a moment where, when the first D chord hits, it sounds like it’s rushing. He explained that he achieved this by “making the previous couple of eighth notes increasingly late and completely quantizing the next downbeat to create that effect”.