thumb|One measure of the "Scotch snap" or Lombard rhythm notated in sheet music in a time signature.
The Lombard rhythm or Scotch snap is a syncopated musical rhythm in which a short, accented note is followed by a longer one. This reverses the pattern normally associated with dotted notes or notes inégales, in which the longer value precedes the shorter.
In Baroque music, a Lombard rhythm consists of a stressed sixteenth note, or semiquaver, followed by a dotted eighth note, or dotted quaver.
Baroque composers often implemented these rhythms. For instance, Johann Georg Pisendel utilized Lombard rhythms within the largo and allegro sections of his sonata for Violin Solo in A Minor. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach included dotted rhythms within certain excerpts of his concerto for flute, cello, and keyboard.
Not only did Baroque performers and composers such as Johann Joachim Quantz, introduce these uneven rhythms in their studies and pedagogy, but jazz also possesses these rhythms which are in the very essence of its style.
In Scottish country dances, the Scotch snap (or Scots snap) is a prominent feature of the strathspey.