Castellano Català

WHAT IS THE 1?

As we have explained in detail at the section identifying and following the beat, the beat is the unit for measuring music. These are periodic marks regularly repeated throughout a piece of music to determine the length of the notes and the speed of execution of the piece.

The beats are organized into groups of two or more pulsations. Each of these pulsation groups is called a bar. The first beat of each bar is accentuated, we perceive it as stronger than the others.

The fact that we perceive it stronger can be due to the fact that it has been played more strongly or that there is a contrast with the preceding beat that makes us feel it as more marked, differentiated from the others.

Bars with two pulsations are marches or the two-steps. In this type of bar there is a strong pulse followed by a weak one.

In the video we have marked the 1s. Try to hear how the first beat of each bar is stronger than the second one.

If you want, now you can listen to the whole piece. Note that sometimes identification of the strong beat is not quite so clear.

Gallito-L'Harmonie la nèhe.

When the strong beat occurs every tree pulses, then we have the bar that is common in waltzes.

Listen to this video and try to perceive the accentuated beat we indicate as a 1.

Now you can listen to the whole waltz and try to hear one strong beat followed by two weak ones.

Voices Of Spring-Strauss.

You will have seen that in this waltz the beat that we perceive as accentuated is not always the loudest one. If you listen to music with great attention, for example by using headphones, you can feel the basic accompaniment that marks the three beats very well, accentuating the first one; but if you listen to music more generally you will notice that, at some moments, the first beat even sounds weaker than the other two. But, for this very reason, because it is different from the other two, we perceive it as distinct.

Finally, when the strongest pulse is every 4 beats the resulting structure is like this:

Note that the third beat is also a little bit accentuated, but not as much as the first one. This is because, musically, a bar with four beats is considered to be a composite bar. In this case it is formed by the union of two bars of two beats. For this reason, the third beat retains some emphasis.

This is the kind of bar that the swing music uses.

Listen to Flying Home-Lionel Hampton and try to hear how there is an accentuated beat every four.

But, from the point of view of musical expression, four beats is a too short a space to explain things. This is why, in swing music, two groups of 4 beats are used as the basic unit of expression. This is what we call an eight (obviously we say eight because it has 8 beats).

In order for the musical discourse to be better understood, the musicians accentuate the first beat of the second bar a little less (corresponding to the fifth beat of the eight).

Remember that, from a musical point of view, although we think of eight beats, in the music score this occupies two bars of 4 beats each (1-2-3-4 / 1-2-3-4).

Try to identify the change in the pulse energy heard in the 1 and the 5 of this piece.

You can listen to the whole song at this Spotify link:

Good Queen Bess-Duke Ellington.

In some pieces, even though there is some difference, it is much more subtle. Sometimes they sound very much the same as the melody -which dominates over the rhythm base- taking advantage of the accents of the beats. At other times one can differentiate a strong 1 and a semi strong 5.

Now you can listen to the whole song:

Mr. Gentle & Mr. Cool-Duke Ellington.

Well, now that we have a basic knowledge of what the 1 is, let's analyse different strategies that can be used to identify the 1.