Hey, Azizi:

Right on. Today, I sang with the Men's Chorus at the black Baptist church my wife and I attend. When they were taking the collection, we did a very African sounding song (much like the ones my wife and I heard in church in Ghana.) I was the only one clapping off-beat and was corrected by the man standing next to me. I told him that it was my African blood (I'm half Danish, and the other half mostly English and French.) I asked him whatever happened to polyrhythms, and said, I guess they aren't allowed in this church. He laughed and nodded his head knowingly. I find it humorous that as the Lone White Guy in the black churches we go to that I am usually the only one who claps off-rhythm, except when my friend and fellow Gospel Messenger Frankie is with us. Then, we both clap off-rhythm and get a whole rhythm section going of our own. You might think that it's the upscale black churches that have lost the rhythmic clapping, but I don't even hear it in the Apostolic churches. They run around the church when the Holy Spirit moves them, but for some reason, they all clap on the beat.

Yeah, Martin... has a beat to it, as well as the obvious rhythm. I think it's the back-beat that people think of when they think of the "beat." Or, the bass line. From what I remember, you play bass, Martin so you know all about the beat.

When I see cars coming down the street playing their stereos so loud that the fenders rattle, there's no problem catching the beat. To my ears, the beat overwhelms everything else, but then I am about as graceful a dancer as Frankenstein probably was, so I can't speak directly about dance beats.

Nice to see you both posting in this thread.