Hah! Like we used to do in kindergarten. <sigh> Music was better, then. [withdraws tongue from cheek] I'm really only half kidding; great post, Gong. I think that concept of how the spaces between are as important as the notes is often overlooked. Take funk in particular; it's more about the notes you don't play than the ones you do, and the important notes are felt, rather than heard. Same in Reggae, where the one is so huge, the musicians don't play it, they just let it exist, and put the littler notes and spaces around it.

I guess it's that old adage "less is definitely more". I know this is so true when I'm programming the rhythm for bass and drums. Often I will leave just one note out and the whole thing somehow pulls together like magic.