Counting BArs

ManDAmyth

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Can anyone give me an example of an eight bar verse or what one bar of lyrics is.

I've never fucked with that. I always just wrote, even when beatmaking everything is intuitive.

I'm going into the studio to record 8 bars with some kat.

I'm not a hundred percent sure what that is exactly. I don't want to go in and have to re-work my whole verse cause I'm an idiot.

I think I'm overcontemplating this. I've been rhyming for 12 years but I've never conciously counted bars.

thanks a thousand times in advance.
 

o-a-ksavage

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Yours is lightweight complicated, but check this out.

I'm sittin in my room makin a beat,
tappin the floor with a broom and shakin my feet,
My boy wants to leave he says "fool let it go,"
So I close FL as well as Cool Edit Pro.

That would be four bars, it's that simple.
 

Enigma

Member
ill o.g.
Alright, well the concept of couting bars or 'measures' is actually quite simple. In a time signature of 4/4, there will be 4 beats in one measure, or bar. So listen to a song, and count of 4 beats, or how many times it hits. 1 set of 4 beats is a measure, given that we're in 4/4 time. If we were in something like 3/4, there would be 3 beats in the measure.

So like stated above, one line of his lyrics, would be 1 bar, because it goes through a cycle of 4 beats.

Hope that made sense
 

nonie

Kohie
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 4
^Same here. That's what I do. With emceeing, I think 2 lines equals a bar or 2, it all depends on the length of the lines because a dude that writes short lines could fit 2 lines in a bar, but a guy with long lines couldn't fit 2 in a bar unless you rap incredibly fast. And for those people with longer lines use a bar for 1 line so it would be easier to have a ABAB pattern if you have long lines.
 

PhleX

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
o-a-ksavage said:
Yours is lightweight complicated, but check this out.

I'm sittin in my room makin a beat,
tappin the floor with a broom and shakin my feet,
My boy wants to leave he says "fool let it go,"
So I close FL as well as Cool Edit Pro.

That would be four bars, it's that simple.

that is actually two barz for rapping..

1.
I'm sittin in my room makin a beat,
tappin the floor with a broom and shakin my feet,

2.
My boy wants to leave he says "fool let it go,"
So I close FL as well as Cool Edit Pro.


it is four barz if you are talking about beats..
 

Enigma

Member
ill o.g.
Yeah, but what if the beat has some syncopated pattern with multiple snares in the measure? lol jk jk
 

Vince

2Cool2BeAHebrew
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
Man, how do you make beats if you don't know what a bar is?
Just tap your feet to the beat, every fourth beat is a bar.
 

sYgMa

Making head bangers!!!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 26
2 snare = 1 bar.... or if you want, if there are a lot of snare hits or some missing, lets say that if you would be hand clapping to the beat, 2 claps = 1 bar.
 

o-a-ksavage

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
PhleX said:
that is actually two barz for rapping..

1.
I'm sittin in my room makin a beat,
tappin the floor with a broom and shakin my feet,

2.
My boy wants to leave he says "fool let it go,"
So I close FL as well as Cool Edit Pro.


it is four barz if you are talking about beats..

Bars for rapping coincide with bars for beats. Logically it would make no sense if the two didn't connect, cause rappers and producers would just confuse eachother.
 

sYgMa

Making head bangers!!!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 26
If you wann work with a producer or if you wann be one, you better learn about bars, cuz, normally a track has a certain bar arrangement (I'm french, sorry for the bad english)

A track is normally

4 to 8 bars intro
16 bars verse #1
8 bars hook
16 bars verse #2
8 bars hook
8 bars bridge
8 bars hook...

Most producer want a song to be like this. Of course, rules can be broken, bla bla bla, but all in all, listen to tracks you like and count the bars, you'll see what I mean.
 

Vince

2Cool2BeAHebrew
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 1
I have no training in music either, I just tought knowing what a 4/4 count is, was common knowledge.
 

ManDAmyth

ILLIEN
ill o.g.
After the explanation. I've always known what bars are, I've just never had to express that knowledge outside of my inner thoughts.

Thanks for the clearing that up.
 

andreas

Iller Than Most
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 3
Yeah man(damyth), I don't think you have to think about it to much. An ordinarly hook/chorus is 8 bars. Unless you flip it strange. But in 99,99% of all Hip Hop tracks the Chorus is 8 bars. So just make a chorus :D

Think of it that way

Good luck also. Showcase it when you'r done.... p's
 
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