"Eight to the Bar"
wavem...@my-dejanews.com
40's, mean.
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Evan Kirshenbaum
> What does the phrase 'Eight to the Bar', found in many songs in the
> 30's and 40's, mean.
This refers to the musical style known as "boogie-woogie", which
MWCD10 defines as
a percussive style of playing blues on the piano characterized by
a steady rhythmic ground bass of eighth notes in quadruple time
and a series of improvised melodic variations.
The phrase refers to the fact that the bass line consisted of eight
notes in every measure ("bar").
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
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N.Mitchum
-----
> What does the phrase 'Eight to the Bar', found in many songs in the 30's and
> 40's, mean.
Many? I know of the title "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" and
the line in "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," but I hadn't realized the
phrase was used so very often.
In any event, it's a musical expression. The "bar" is a bar of
music, a measure. The "eight" indicates eight beats or notes.
Together they mean a fast, snappy kind of music.
----NM [If replying by e-mail, please heed my address]
JNugent231
>wavem...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>> What does the phrase 'Eight to the Bar', found in many songs in the 30's and
>> 40's, mean.
>Many? I know of the title "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" and
>the line in "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," but I hadn't realized the
>phrase was used so very often.
Oooh, yeah.
"When you hear that whistle blowin' eight to the bar..."
>In any event, it's a musical expression. The "bar" is a bar of
>music, a measure. The "eight" indicates eight beats or notes.
>Together they mean a fast, snappy kind of music.
Well, accurate as far as it goes, but not "musicianly". I prefer to think of it
as one of a group of similar phrases which accurately characterise the music
business; more particularly, the activities of most musicians immediately after
a gig.
"Two to the bar" for duos;
"Three to the bar" for trios;
"Four to the bar" for quartets;
............... but you are getting the picture already.
Armond Perretta
N.Mitchum wrote: ... wavem...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
>> What does the phrase 'Eight to the Bar', found in many songs
>>in the 30's and 40's, mean.
>>
>The "eight" indicates eight beats or notes. Together they mean
>a fast, snappy kind of music.
I think another writer implied it but for clarification this
particular (musical) phrasing refers specifically to 4 sets of 2 beats
(all quarter notes) in each bar. I believe the term is "couplets."
If syncopation is employed one gets a "bluesey" kind of rhythm.
s/v Kerry Deare of Barnegat (remove "BOAT")
Lloyd Zusman
Actually, these would actually be eighth notes (in 4/4 time), not
quarter notes ... or if the music is in 2/4 time (likely if it's
snappy), they would be sixteenth notes. In 4/4 time, the syncopated
version would be 4 dotted-eighth-sixteenth pairs, and in 2/4, the
syncopation would result from 4 dotted-sixteenth-thirty-second pairs.
--
Lloyd Zusman
l...@asfast.com
Armond Perretta
>Lloyd Zusman wrote: ... Actually, these would actually be
>eighth notes ... [etc] ...
Whoops, you're quite right of course.