Difference between "Bar" and "Measure"
I was taught musical theory in the UK where I grew up. I was taught what a bar is. In my experience, the terminology "measure" is not used in a musical sense in the UK.
Since living in the US, I have generally found that "measure" is a direct synonym for "bar". However I hear some people here use both terms, which has confused me.
In the US, are the terms "bar" and "measure" exactly equivalent, or is there some subtle distinction between the two?
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I've studied music in both the US and the UK (piano lessons in the UK at age 14, majored in piano in the US), and bar and measure are used interchangeably in both in my experience. Jazz and blues musicians tend to say "bar" more often than "measure": 12-bar and 16-bar blues, for example. Also, you'd never hear a jazz musician say "He stepped on four of my measures" if someone came in four bars early while he was improvising for an allotted number of bars. Nevertheless, they mean the same thing, both in the US and the UK.
It is true that "measure" is used synonymously with "bar" in North America. Christopher Hasty, in Meter as Rhythm (1997) makes a compelling case for ceasing use of "measure" (in short, that he wishes to use the notion of "measure" more flexibly than the usage synonymous with bar, since in the process of making sense of rhythmic activity we use "measures" of a variety of lengths). While he advocates the use of "bar measure" as a surrogate, this hasn't caught on, to my knowledge; however, his case for reserving the term "measure" for the purposes he states is a compelling one for rhythmic theory. (On the topic of metric terminology, he also advocates the use of "meter signature" rather than "time signature," for obvious reasons. This is a practice followed by other careful thinkers on meter, including those who predate Hasty (e.g., George Houle, 1987), although many or most North Americans continue to use the term "time signature.")
Strictly speaking, a bar is the vertical line which defines a set of notes. This set of notes constitutes the measure. When we say "start at bar 10" we actually mean start at the bar at the beginning of measure 10. You can also say "start at measure 10"
I feel there are 4 beats to a "measure" or "Bar"....I used to think as the dividing line between "beats" as a bar....and a measure being the complete line...say of 4 beats....then to say there are 4 bars to a measure....even though I know that the terms bars and measure are used interchangeably, as well as, in Jazz and Blues they use the terms...12 bar and 16 bar phrases or lines...(Also as Bob Rodes above says 12 bar and 16 bar Blues...Joe Murphy (Drummer) S.W.FL. orig. J.C.NJ
Bars and measures are the same thing but we (in the States) use them to talk about 2 different things when writing music. In 4/4 there are 4 beats per bar and 4 bars per measure. So this can change how many measures are in a song because one song has 4 bars per measure vs an 8/4 time song that has 8 beats per bar and 4 bars per measure or 6/5 time which has 6 beats per bar and 5 bars per measure. Now not every musician looks at it this way but I know plenty who do.
A "bar" is actually the graphical entity separating measures. "Let's start at bar x" is probably what led to "bar" becoming a substitute for "measure" in some usage. After all, "measure" has a lot of meanings already, and some of them in contexts close to music (a "at measured pace", the dance "measure", possibly also used for "phrase" generally). I'd not be surprised if dancers called a basic dancing step (depending on the metre, one or two beats) a "measure": at least German dancers confuddled me a lot by what they choose to call a "Takt".
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