# Phrases A rhythm can be a conversation: one bar asks, the next answers. Leaving the answer out is how everyone knows it was there. > Lesson 12 of 12. > > - You learn: To hear a rhythm as a question and an answer, and to count the silence as part of it. > - Why now: It comes last because it is what the rest is for: once you can read and hold rhythms, you use them to talk to someone. It also shows that a rest has a length. > - You need: Lesson 3: hits off the beat. ## Call and answer ### 1. Shave 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. **Shave and a haircut** hits x . x x x . x . . . x . x . . . 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. ### 2. Two, 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. **Two, four, six, eight** hits x . x . x . x . x x x x x x x . 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. ### 3. Ba-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. **Ba-dum-tss** Cymbal . . x . . . . . Snare x x . . . . . . 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 ### 4. Stomp, 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. **Stomp, stomp, clap** Clap . . x . Stomp x x . . 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. ### 5. A 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. **Beethoven's Fifth** hits . x x x x . . . 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 ### 6. The 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. **Stadium clap** Clap . . . . . . . . x . x . x x x . Shout x . x . x . x . . . . . . . . . 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. ### 7. A 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. **Seven Nation Army** hits x . . . . . x . x . . x . . x . x . . . . . . . x . . . . . . . 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 ### 8. A 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. **La Cucaracha** hits . . . x x x x . x x x x x . x . . . 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. > The rest is part of the rhythm. A hit is a hit; the silence before the next one has a length too. ## Self-check - 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 - Drums: A fill is the answer to the groove's question: call, then a one-beat reply. (The one-beat fill) All instruments: apply.html