Beat (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See also: Break (music), metronome, and Rhythm
A beat is the basic time unit of a piece of music; for example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat. More technically, "the beat is the pulse of the mensural level"[1], also known as the beat level[2], the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit--"the denominator of the meter signature," admitting compound meters. Depending on the context, beat may denote either
- the onset of the corresponding time unit, a point in time, the very moment when the metronome ticks, or
- the complete time interval between two consecutive taps, so to say, or
- in popular music, the whole sequence of individual beats (in the sense of meter, rhythm, groove, or riddim). In hip hop music, the term 'beat' has come to be defined as the entire instrumental, non-vocal portion of the song.
Much music is characterised by a sequence of stressed and unstressed beats (often called "strong" and "weak") organised into a meter and partially indicated by a time signature, the speed of which is determined by a tempo. In the context of a time signature, the term "beat" most often refers to the bottom number — so in 3/4, most people would consider the beat to be the 4; that is, a quarter-note, or crotchet. However, in 6/8 the dotted quarter note gets the beat rather than the eighth, for example. Musicians typically find that mentally counting a regular series of beats enables them to keep synchronised even if the music is not characterised by regular rhythm.
Metric levels faster than the beat level are division levels, and slower levels are multiple levels.
A hyperbeat is one unit of hypermeter, generally a measure, as is to a hypermeasure what a beat is to a measure.[3]
The following types of beats may create more or less syncopation.
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[edit] Downbeat
The impulse that occurs at the beginning of a bar in measured music.[4] In music performance and music theory, the "downbeat" is the first beat of a measure in music. It is named after the downward stroke of the director or conductor's baton at the start of each measure. This differentiates it from the back beat on the even beats.
[edit] Upbeat
An Upbeat is an unaccented beat or beats that occur before the first beat of a following measure. This is also called anacrusis. In other words, this is an impulse in a measured rhythm that immediately precedes, and hence anticipates, the downbeat, which is the strongest of such impulses. It is also not only this, but also can be the last beat in a normal 4/4 bar where that bar precedes a new bar of music.[5]
Beginning of BWV736, with anacrusis in red.
It is also an anticipatory note or succession of notes occurring before the first barline of a piece, sometimes referred to as an ‘upbeat figure’, section or phrase. An alternative expression for "upbeat figure" is "anacrusis" (from Greek. ana: "up towards" and krousis: "to strike"; Fr. anacrouse). This term was borrowed from poetry where it refers to one or more unstressed extrametrical syllables at the beginning of a line.[5]
[edit] Back beat
In music a back beat (also called the backbeat) is a term applied to the beats 2 and 4 in a 4/4 bar or a 12/8 bar [6] as opposed to the odd downbeat, (quarter beat 1). [4] That is, counting out a simple 4/4 rhythm, 1 2 3 4, the 1 beat is the down beat. If beat 4 immediately precedes a new bar it is also called an upbeat [5](see upbeat article for more information on what an upbeat is). The up and down refer to movements of the conductor's baton.
Afterbeat refers to a percussion style where a strong accent is sounded on the second, third and fourth beats of the bar, following the downbeat.[7]
The effect can be easily simulated by repeatedly counting to four while alternating strong and weak beats:
- 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 -- backbeat emphasis (and in 4/4 if beat 4 immediately precedes a new musical bar then beat 4 is also an upbeat[5])
- 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 -- downbeat emphasis (and in 4/4 if beat 4 immediately precedes a new musical bar then beat 4 is also an upbeat[5])
- 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 -- Afterbeat emphasis (and in 4/4 if beat 4 immediately precedes a new musical bar then beat 4 is also an upbeat[5])
The style emerged in the late 1940s in rhythm and blues recordings, and is one of the defining characteristics of rock and roll and is used in virtually all contemporary popular music, bossa nova being a notable exception. Drummer Earl Palmer states the first record with nothing but back beat was "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino in 1949, which he played on. Palmer says he adopted it from the final shout or out chorus common in Dixieland jazz.
While "The Fat Man" may have been the first Top 40 song with a back beat all the way through, urban contemporary gospel was stressing the back beat much earlier with hand-clapping and tambourine. Other earlier examples of back beat include the final verse of "Grand Slam" by Benny Goodman in 1942. There is a hand-clapping back beat on "Roll 'Em Pete" by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner, recorded in 1938.
In Reggae music, the term One Drop reflects the complete de-emphasis (to the point of silence) of the first beat in the cycle.
[edit] Off-beat
The Off-beat is a musical term commonly applied to rhythms that emphasize the weak beats of a bar. According to Grove Music, the “Offbeat” is [often] where the downbeat is replaced by a rest or is tied over from the preceding bar".[7] The downbeat can never be the off-beat because it is the strongest beat in 4/4 time.[8]
In music that progresses regularly in 4/4 time, the first beat of the bar is the strongest, the third is the next strongest, and the second and fourth are weaker; subdivisions (like eighth notes) of any of the beats are weaker than the main beats and if used frequently in a rhythm can make it off-beat.[7]
Certain genres in particular tend to emphasize the off-beat. This emphasis is a defining characteristic of Ska music and its successors.
In terms of dancing games (such as Dance Dance Revolution and In the Groove), offbeat notes are said to be off-sync, meaning that they do not fit in with the music. However, some offbeat notes are needed, such as in the songs "Ska A Go Go" and "Incognito". These help follow the rhythm of the song, but can be difficult to step at times.
[edit] External links
- YouBeats.com The first social network for beats, which provides examples.
- BeatCreators.com The first user-submitted news site for music producers
- DJ Xtermination's VVWL Records a New Mexico based rap label.
[edit] References
- ^ Berry, Wallace (1976/1986). Structural Functions in Music, p.349. ISBN 0-486-25384-8.
- ^ DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, p.213. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
- ^ (2005) "Glossary.", in in Deborah Stein (ed.),: Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517010-5.
- ^ a b [www.grovemusic.com Downbeat] (English). Grove Music Online (2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ a b c d e f DOGANTAN, MINE (2007). [www.grovemusic.com Upbeat] (English). Grove Music Online. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ [www.grovemusic.com Backbeat] (English). Grove Music Online (2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ a b c [www.grovemusic.com Beat: Accentuation. (i) Strong and weak beats.] (English). Grove Music Online (2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
- ^ [www.grovemusic.com Off-beat] (English). Grove Music Online (2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
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