How Do You Count Rap Bars?
Rap music, like all other music, is made up of bars or measures and phrases or a group of measures. Each section or measure has the same number of beats or counts in rap or popular music. The goal is to figure out how many beats are in each bar or measure. Usually there will be four. This is called a time signature of 4/4.
A time signature informs you of what type of note gets one beat. In most cases it is a quarter that will receive one beat, giving you exactly four beats per measure. These facts will allow you to count the bars in most pop music.
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Instructions
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Begin by playing the rap song with the bars you wish to count.
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Play it all the way through, if necessary, to get the feel of it.
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Notice that there will be a strong beat followed by softer ones. The strong beat is called the downbeat. This pattern will usually repeat throughout the song. Each one of these sections is called a phrase.
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Play the song to get the feel. Play the song again.
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Count to the beat. Count "1" each time you hear a downbeat this time.
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Count "2" each time you hear the next beat and so on. Therefore, each measure will be counted as 1-2-3-4.
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Clap along with your count to help you keep the rhythm.
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Try counting for a third time. This time change the counting structure. On the first measure, when the song begins on the first downbeat say 1-2-3-4. On the second downbeat say 2-2-3-4. On the third downbeat say 3-2-3-4 until you get to the end of the song or verse if you are only counting the verse, which is likely your goal when counting rap bars.
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Write down a scratch line or other simple counting system on a piece of paper each time you start another measure.
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Write down the number of bars you counted. Count your scratch lines at the end of the verse. You will usually come up with 16 or 32 for the verse and 8 or 16 for the hook. This is the number of rap bars.
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Tips & Warnings
You may want to use a song you know well to help you feel comfortable with the beat sooner.
Try not to rap along with the rapper. Concentrate on the downbeats.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit sheet music image by Dianne Burridge from Fotolia.com compact disk image by Adam Borkowski from Fotolia.com numbers image by Amer Delibasic from Fotolia.com taking notes image by Charles Jacques from Fotolia.com
