Two little figures use the same two note values — a dotted eighth and a sixteenth — in
opposite orders, and they sound completely different.
The dotted rhythm: dotted-eighth then sixteenth. "Long–short." The strut of a
march, a hornpipe, God Save the King.
The Scotch snap (or Lombard rhythm): sixteenth then dotted-eighth.
"short–Long." The kick of a Scottish strathspey, and a favourite of Bach's.
Long–short, then short–long
60 bpm
Bar 1: dotted-eighth then sixteenth, twice — LONG–short, LONG–short, a firm march. Bar 2: the values swapped — short–LONG, short–LONG, a snap that flicks forward. Clap both and hear the character flip.
Dotted, against plain
64 bpm
Bar 1: four even quarters. Bar 2: beats 1 and 2 are dotted-eighth-plus-sixteenth — sharper and more clipped than the even version, then a half note. The dotted figure always points forward.
On the D string
60 bpm
A dotted-rhythm line up the D string, then a held A. Give each dotted note a firm push of bow and clip the sixteenth after it short — the 'long–short' should be crisp, not lazy.
A note on Baroque style
You'll sometimes hear a written dotted rhythm played even more dotted than the page shows
— the long note stretched, the short one squeezed — especially in Baroque marches and French
overtures. That's a performance convention called overdotting (its cousin is notes
inégales). It's a Stage 3 topic — for now, play dotted rhythms exactly as written.
The usual mistake
Flattening the dotted rhythm into even eighths (the march goes limp), or turning the Scotch
snap into a triplet. Count the sixteenth precisely — it's a quarter of a beat, no more.