Can anybody help? (how to findout how many bars in a loop)

I am not good on picking up how many bars are in my loop. For example I have a nice jazz piano loop but cant tell if its 1 or 2 or even 3 bars. Can somebody give me a good technique?

?

You're likely just going to have to use your ears and count, man. You should be able to hear the musical phrases or repetitions start, end and repeat. It will usually feel natural and finished when the phrase is done. It really depends on the meter of the song or part as to how many beats will equal a bar or measure of music though. Jazz is probably not the best form of music to start with if you can't count the beats and bars yet, as in Jazz sometimes the meter is only implied and other times it's even in odd meters or has time signatures (metering) changes. I really have no tips other than to just use your ears. A person could probably talk you through counting quarter (crotchet) note beats and bars in a 4/4 time, but it probably won't teach you much until you really start to understand and recognize the musical beats, phrases, etc by ear. Nodding your head, snapping your fingers, or tapping you feet to the rhythm may help with counting, until you really get use to it, if you haven't done so already.

This is very basic, and we all had to learn it, so it's OK if you don't know it. I'm sure this has been covered many many many times though, so do a Google search or forum search. Sorry if that doesn't help.

I can tap out the tempo of a song perfectly each time though so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Okay tap out the tempo perfectly (like you said) and ever 4 taps its a bar

boxcutter butta wrote:Okay tap out the tempo perfectly (like you said) and ever 4 taps its a bar

If the content is in 4/4 time, yes. If not, then it likely won't be a bar...especially since he's dealing with Jazz samples.

Ahhhh right right sorry

Well if it is in 4/4 timing (4 beats = 1 bar)

What i usually do is count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 that's 1 bar if i am looking for a 2 bar loop i count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8. 12 beats in 3 bars and 16 beats in 4. Remember this is all 4/4 timing.

I just make sure my counting is consistent with the tempo Example: Fast loop i count fast slow loop i count slower.

I dunno if that helps but yeh

Yeah it does help. I get the general idea but I just needed a method like that, thanks!

Lets say your chopping up a 2 bar drum loop this is how it would generally work out

Kicks would be on the 1 3 5 7

Snares on the 2 4 6 8

and the hats on the and or something like or that i forget

Trouser Trout

Lampdog wrote:All that music you make and you can't figure out how to count a bar, dammit man,

Before you count the bars you'll need to identify the time signature of the music.

If you are not sure of the time signature, look out for the accenuated kick that would 'normally' hit on the first beat of each bar, regardless of the time signature.

Don't always assume music is written in 4/4, even in hip-hop/ R&B producers like to mix it up a little to make stand-out beats.

Also be on the look out for double-time programming, that could confuse a novice tryin' to work out the number of bars and/ or the time signature of a piece.

You may find it easier to use the snare hits to establish the TS or bar length in many cases, give it a try.

Lampdog wrote:All that music you make and you can't figure out how to count a bar, dammit man,

huh whats with the picture?