Phrases
A rhythm can be a conversation: one bar asks, the next answers. Leaving the answer out is how everyone knows it was there.
From theory: Western theory: note values
Call and answer
1Shave and a haircut
The first bar asks and the second answers. It is also a door knock, a car horn and the joke at the end of a song, because everyone finishes it for you.
In notation: bar two begins with a quarter rest: the pause between the call and the answer. Seeing the rest on the page shows that the silence has a length. (The bar after two and bits shows how long each is still sounding.)
Do this: Say it as words, “shave and a hair-cut”, and clap only the words. Leave the gap, then clap the answer, “two bits”. Then play the first bar and stop, and feel the answer still waiting.
2Two, four, six, eight
A cheer is a call and an answer too. The four numbers are the call, one to a beat. The question follows twice as fast. The answer, the name of the team, is the silence the crowd fills.
In notation: bar one is four quarter notes. Bar two is seven eighth notes, so the words come twice as fast, and the last one, ate, is a quarter note that lasts a full beat.
Do this: Clap the four numbers on beats 1 to 4. Then say “who do we ap-pre-ci-ate” on the next four beats, one syllable to each half beat, and let the last syllable last a beat.
3Ba-dum-tss
Every drummer knows this one: the joke is the call and the sting is the answer. After it comes a silence, which is where the groan goes.
In notation: three eighth notes, one on each row, then rests. The two snare hits come first and the cymbal lands on the third, so it reads snare, snare, cymbal.
Do this: Tap the beat, say “ba dum tss” on three quick taps, and then count a full silent beat before you do anything else.
The silence is part of it
4Stomp, stomp, clap, rest
Queen built a whole song on three sounds and a silence. The silence on beat 4 is not a pause between the patterns. It is the fourth beat of the bar.
In notation: the stomp row is two quarter notes and then a half rest. The clap row starts with a half rest, then a quarter note, then a quarter rest. Between them every beat is either sounded or rested, none is skipped.
Do this: Tap your foot on every beat, saying 1 2 3 4. Stomp on 1 and 2, clap on 3, and on 4 do nothing but keep counting.
5A rest before the first note
The most famous opening in classical music starts with silence. Count it 1 & 2 &: nothing on 1, then three short notes on the &, the 2 and the next &, and one long note that lands on the next bar’s 1.
In notation: the bar opens with an eighth rest, then three eighth notes. The long note is a half note, and the bar that holds it is the bar the three short notes were leaning toward. It is in 2/4: two beats to the bar, so it takes two bars.
Do this: Count “1 & 2 &” and stay silent on the 1. Clap on the &, the 2 and the second &, and then hold your hands together through the next two counts.
Chants
6The stadium clap
A shout and a clap, over and over: the team name asks, five claps answer. The claps are the same whatever the team is called.
In notation: the clap row has a rest through the first bar, because the shout has it. Then a quarter note on 1, a quarter note on 2, two eighth notes on 3 and the &, and a quarter note on 4.
Do this: Say “Let’s go, Red-skins” on four beats, then clap 1, 2, 3 & 4 and count the shout in your head while you clap.
7A riff the crowd sings
Football crowds sing this one without words. Count it in sixteenths: the first note lasts a beat and a half, and the last three notes of the bar are the 3 + 3 + 2 from the lesson on groups, played as 3, 3 and 2 sixteenths.
In notation: a dotted quarter, an eighth, two dotted eighths and an eighth, then two half notes. Each long note is a bar in the grid that runs until the next hit.
Do this: Sing the riff on one syllable while you tap the beat. Long, short, then the falling three, and hold the last two for two beats each.
Starting early
8A pickup: La Cucaracha
Some songs start before the bar does. The first three notes are a pickup: they sit at the end of a bar that has not started yet, and they lead you to the downbeat.
In notation: the first bar is a dotted quarter rest and then three eighth notes (the pickup). Next comes a quarter note, an eighth note and the same three eighths. The last bar is a quarter note and a half note. It is in 3/4: three beats to the bar, so the three eighths at the end of a bar are 1½ beats.
Do this: Count “1 & 2 & 3 &” and stay silent until the & of 2. Say “la cu ca” on “& 3 &”, then “ra” on the next 1, “cha” on 2, and “la cu ca” again on “& 3 &”.
Close cousins. “Shave and a haircut” is often compared to the 3-2 clave, and the Bo Diddley beat is a variation of that clave. They share the shape of a call and an answer, but they are not the same rhythm. Hear them side by side in lesson 6.
Before you go on
- Say and clap Shave and a haircut with the click, leaving the gap
- Say Two, four, six, eight with the question twice as fast as the numbers
- Count the silent fourth beat of Stomp, stomp, clap
- Start Beethoven's Fifth from the rest, not from the first note
- Count La Cucaracha in threes and start on the & of 2
- Make up your own two-bar call and answer from steps
Play it on your instrument
You have been clapping this. On an instrument it is the same rhythm, with each clap played as a note or stroke while you keep tapping the count.
- Drums: A fill is the answer to the groove's question: call, then a one-beat reply. The one-beat fill
Every lesson on every instrument: Take it to your instrument.