3 ms·

Has this guy never heard of a bar or measure? Reading through the first section where he describes the song as sections of 16 beats makes me cringe, and this is

Has this guy never heard of a bar or measure? Reading through the first section where he describes the song as sections of 16 beats makes me cringe, and this is coming from someone admittedly horrible with music theory. Edit: I was turned off by his constant usage of the word “beats”, not phrase.

Sander_Marechal 8y ago
Actually, a phrase is a common term in music theory.
spiralganglion 8y ago
Phrase is actually the appropriate term. A bar would be 4 beats (for this song, which is in 4/4). The main phrase of the melody is 4 bars long. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_(music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_(music)
- vonseel 8y ago
  Good point. I miswrote the original comment, anyways, I meant beats. I thought a bar is 4 beats, a measure is 4 bars (in 4/4)? Going to have to look this up but is measure == phrase == section? Or I guess, a section can be arbitrary number of bars depending on song structure.
  - conqueso 8y ago
    bar == measure
  - spiralganglion 8y ago
    There's a fair amount of looseness in how these terms are used, in practice, depending on the context. 4/4 means 4 beats per bar, and we'll use a quarter note to represent a beat when writing notation. Another example would be 7/8, which is 7 beats per bar, and we'll use an eighth note for the beat when writing notation. Looking at music in terms of bars or measures only really matters when creating traditional western sheet music notation. If we're writing computer code, or playing by ear, or looking at other kinds of music notation, those terms like "bar" and "measure" become less meaningful, and other terms become more useful or appropriate for describing the structure of the music.
alexbainter 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback. I figured people who understood music would feel this way, but I deliberately chose to omit as many musical words as possible so that readers who weren't familiar with them wouldn't get lost. I would have felt obligated to define "bar" and "measure" if I used them, and ultimately I decided they weren't necessary. Sure, I could have defined what a measure was, that there are four beats in a measure (in this particular case), that each phrase is four measures instead of 16 beats, and what time signatures and quarter notes and eighth notes are. However, I believe all of this would have bloated the article and alienated readers who aren't as familiar with music theory as you and I are. As is, the article is still perfectly readable to someone who does have an understanding of music theory, and all we have to put up with is some non-traditional terms like "half-beat."

Sander_Marechal 8y ago

Actually, a phrase is a common term in music theory.

spiralganglion 8y ago

Phrase is actually the appropriate term. A bar would be 4 beats (for this song, which is in 4/4). The main phrase of the melody is 4 bars long. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_(music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrase_(music)

vonseel 8y ago
Good point. I miswrote the original comment, anyways, I meant beats. I thought a bar is 4 beats, a measure is 4 bars (in 4/4)? Going to have to look this up but is measure == phrase == section? Or I guess, a section can be arbitrary number of bars depending on song structure.
- conqueso 8y ago
  bar == measure
- spiralganglion 8y ago
  There's a fair amount of looseness in how these terms are used, in practice, depending on the context. 4/4 means 4 beats per bar, and we'll use a quarter note to represent a beat when writing notation. Another example would be 7/8, which is 7 beats per bar, and we'll use an eighth note for the beat when writing notation. Looking at music in terms of bars or measures only really matters when creating traditional western sheet music notation. If we're writing computer code, or playing by ear, or looking at other kinds of music notation, those terms like "bar" and "measure" become less meaningful, and other terms become more useful or appropriate for describing the structure of the music.

alexbainter 8y ago

Thanks for the feedback. I figured people who understood music would feel this way, but I deliberately chose to omit as many musical words as possible so that readers who weren't familiar with them wouldn't get lost. I would have felt obligated to define "bar" and "measure" if I used them, and ultimately I decided they weren't necessary. Sure, I could have defined what a measure was, that there are four beats in a measure (in this particular case), that each phrase is four measures instead of 16 beats, and what time signatures and quarter notes and eighth notes are. However, I believe all of this would have bloated the article and alienated readers who aren't as familiar with music theory as you and I are. As is, the article is still perfectly readable to someone who does have an understanding of music theory, and all we have to put up with is some non-traditional terms like "half-beat."