How to Count Bars in Rap | Examples Included
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How to Count Bars in Rap | Examples Included
How To Count Bars in Rap Music
Knowing how to count musical bars is extremely important in rap music. It gives you general guidelines on where to drop rhymes, how much space you have before the verse ends, and will help you learn how to flow.
Now, there has been a lot of confusion on what exactly a bar is, so for this discussion we will specifically be talking about a musical bar, not as an amount of lines, but as a length of music. Most rap music is in a 4/4 time signature. This may sound confusing, but what it means for counting bars is that there are generally 4 counts per bar.
So as the beat goes along you would count,
1, 2 ,3 ,4
And at the fourth count that would be a bar.
So lets try it with some music:
1, 2, 3, 4.
One more thing I wanted to add is that as we count up bars, it's common practice to add one to the first number for each additional bar.
For example
1, 2 ,3 ,4
2, 2 ,3 ,4
3, 2 ,3 ,4
4, 2, 3, 4
5, 2, 3, 4
And so on. Using this first number to count allows us to know how many bars have passed so far.
I've included some examples of counting bars while music is playing. This is a vital skill, learn it and practice it. It'll help with flow and writing.