Measures
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Breaking down a song into sections is not very strict (for the reasons described in the previous lesson) however, once a conversation about a song section occurs among musicians, there is a definite need for everyone to have the same understanding of various terms or concepts so that everyone can be on the same page. Lyrics are simple enough to understand since you can literally refer someone to specific words however when music is instrumental things can get a little tricky if we don’t all use the same language. As the term implies, ‘measures’ is a way of ‘measuring’ music from beginning to end so that you can easily jump to the section in question.
Imagine a song laid out on a whiteboard and that a ruler or ‘measuring’ tape is stretched out for the length of the song. With the help of the ruler you can now direct another musician to the 2nd centimetre … which represents part 2 of the Intro section (for example).
The timeline of the intro in the example above is divided into 8 equal sections (8 centimetres). In musical terms, these subdivisions are called ‘measures’. The 8 measures are now numbered therefore allowing you to direct someone to a particular point or to play from measures 1 to 4 or 5 to 8 for example. Here is an example of how this would look on an actual chart where the verse is made up of 8 equal parts.
Often, you’ll hear the term ‘bar’ instead of the word ‘measure’ which is generally understood to mean the same thing. In context, you might hear phrases such as : “let’s play the first 8 bars” or “let’s play the first 4 measures of the verse”.
The vertical line that separates one measure from another however is a ‘bar line‘ and definitely not a ‘measure line‘. Since the start and end of a measure occur at the bar lines, it would be correct to refer someone to the 4th bar as it would still point someone to the 4th measure. A measure however refers to the complete occurrence, which includes the bar lines and the notes in between and not simply the bar ‘line’. Since there are different types of bar lines that mean different things, it’s important to refer to a measure as either a bar or a measure and not a bar line as that would direct attention to the bar line itself.
The measures/bars are at equal distances from one another. Even if a particular song will show that one measure looks smaller than another, it is safe to assume, unless otherwise indicated, that the duration of time between one measure and another is similar. If a measure is in fact physically wider than another it may simply be that more space was required to fit more notes between the bar lines however the duration of the measure is still the same.
In the example above, the 4 periods between each bar line … or … inside each measure have been added to show that all the measures are evenly apart from one another. Using this example, you can say that if each period represents a beat, then there are 4 beats per measure. But how would you know this? And what kind of notes are expected? Whole Notes, Half Notes, Quarter Notes, Eight Notes etc? This is accomplished through something called Meter which we will explore in the next lesson.
