Is there a name for this famous “memeish” rhythm?

Question

I wonder if there’s a name for the famous rhythm heard many times around the web. I’d like to know its origins but I can’t google it without a name. I wrote it down but I can’t describe anyway differently, so here it is: It should be one of the three here, where those mysterious signs are just pauses (sorry for the bad handwrite).
Than to everybody.

Edit: I’m now thinking that probably the last note is doubled and the last pause isn’t there.

Can't believe the number of views this simple question has encouraged. — Tim, May 15 '21 at 18:04
@Tim I think it has something to do with the title. I've seen that happen a lot of time with Travel Stack Exchange site, where they ask about identifying a location, using uncommon vocabulary. Some stuffs that give you the urge to just see what the question is about. — Clockwork, May 15 '21 at 19:28
@ToddWilcox I think it falls into the same category as [Name for this common rhythm in Latin music?](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/111884/name-for-this-common-rhythm-in-latin-music) and [How do I describe the rhythm in these songs?](https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/56169/how-do-i-describe-the-rhythm-in-these-songs). IMO, close enough to a "terminology" question, and well-defined enough not to run afoul of other close reasons. — Aaron, May 17 '21 at 17:00
@Aaron Good point. Personally I’m not a huge fan of those other questions, but if the rest of the community is ok with them then that’s ok with me. — Todd Wilcox, May 17 '21 at 19:47

Aaron · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-15T15:59:35.853

51

The "Shave and a haircut — two bits" rhythm...

X: 1
T: Shave and a Haircut – Two Bits
T: Rhythm
K: clef=perc stafflines=1 middle=B
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
B B/2B/2 B B | z B B z |]
w: shave and a hair- cut, two bits!

...goes back at least to Charles Hale in 1899 according to Where does this famous rhythm pattern come from (oftenly used to knock on a door)?, which references Wikipedia: Shave and a Haircut.

The history is well described in the linked MusicFans.SE post; so, this being MusicPerformanceAndTheory.SE...

All three of the notations in the OP are correct; there is no canonical notation, just a set of rhythmic relationships, all of which are expressed. The eighth notes (or sixteenth notes: i.e., "and a") can be played straight or swung.

The traditional/characteristic "melody" is...

X: 1
T: Shave and a Haircut – Two Bits
T: Melody (standard)
K: none
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
c G/2G/2 A G | z B .c z |]
w: shave and a hair- cut, two bits!

...or sometimes...

X: 1
T: Shave and a Haircut – Two Bits
T: Melody (variant)
K: none
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
c G/2G/2 _A G | z B .c z |]
w: shave and a hair- cut, two bits!

...and also...

X: 1
T: Shave and a Haircut – Two Bits
T: Melody (variant 2)
K: none
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
c (3G/2^F/2G/2 _A G | z B .c z |]
w: shave and -a hair- cut, two bits!

The final rest is sometimes replaced with a "stinger" — an instrumental accent to end a piece.

X: 1
T: Shave and a Haircut – Two Bits
T: With "stinger"
K: none
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
c G/2G/2 A G | z B .c .!>!C |]
w: shave and a hair- cut, two bits!

edited May 15 '21 at 15:59

answered May 14 '21 at 20:11

Aaron

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I note that at least the last note (and the stinger) is usually staccato. – trlkly May 15 '21 at 04:39
2

Great answer, but I usually hear this with the middle two eighth-notes "swung"; that is, played as a triple without the middle note. "And" is a twelfth-note, then a twelfth-rest, then "a" is another twelfth note. Is that just understood when playing the two eighths? – JounceCracklePop May 15 '21 at 05:54
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["No 'toon can resist the old 'shave and a haircut' trick".](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ds6w7SkHyw) – Michael Seifert May 15 '21 at 12:04
BTW these days you often hear it described "shave and a haircut two **cents**" - if you're googling – Fattie May 15 '21 at 12:55
@Fattie I've never hear that, and a quick Google search didn't show anything. Could you post the search you did? – Aaron May 15 '21 at 14:32
@Aaron - you're absolutely right, a quick google search shows "bits" dominates. perhaps it was just a local thing where I lived as a kid or such. Cheers. – Fattie May 15 '21 at 15:28
1

It is definitely Shave and a Haircut, though an early memory for me is the chorus line to the 1955 jazz tune [Cloudburst](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMNFnwRKRF0). – user138719 May 15 '21 at 16:49
@user138719 How interesting they use it to open the tune! It's such a cliche ending that to hear it up front catches one's attention. – Aaron May 17 '21 at 04:17
I can't sight-read most music, but I figured this one out pretty quickly from the rhythm. :P – Mateen Ulhaq May 17 '21 at 06:49
1

`"No 'toon can resist the old 'shave and a haircut' trick".` - I feel old now, @MichaelSeifert – AnoE May 17 '21 at 12:29
Someone pointed out this looks like a music identification question, which would be off-topic on this Stack Exchange. Now that I think about it, it does look like an ID question. – Clockwork May 17 '21 at 13:29
@MateenUlhaq I figured it out from seeing the title in the HNQ! – shoover May 17 '21 at 17:13
@clockwork Should I do something to change the Stack Exchange? – puccj May 18 '21 at 21:05
1

@Daniele No need. Your question is consistent with other questions here. A couple of examples are in my comment on your original post. – Aaron May 18 '21 at 21:07
Known to Terry Pratchett fans as "Shave and a haircut, no legs!" - the jingle of the Guild of Barber-Surgeons. – Chowlett Jun 14 '21 at 09:08

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '21 at 19:53

13

It's known as "shave and a haircut".

answered May 14 '21 at 19:53

ojs

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6 bits (I think) – May 14 '21 at 23:30
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@ggcg That's a variant — usually 2 bits. – Aaron May 14 '21 at 23:46
14

I learned it as 6 bits. Inflation i guess – May 14 '21 at 23:59
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Roger Rabbit said "two bits", so I reckon that's definitive :-) – Mark Bluemel May 16 '21 at 19:41
I remember that I first heard it as "two cents" but "two bits" seems to be most common – ojs May 17 '21 at 09:47
Two bob where I come from... – RedSonja May 17 '21 at 11:22
1

@ojs More inflation. For those unaware, 2 bits is equal to 25 cents - fun fact: they used to divide the dollar (which was a coin in those days) into 8 bits - this is actually where we get the 8-bits-to-a-byte conversion which is used in computer science to this day. It's also related to the pirate saying "pieces of eight", because they would literally slice coins into 8 pieces. I believe the pound coin was subject to the same treatment in the UK, which might be where "bob" comes from? – Darrel Hoffman May 17 '21 at 13:29
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@DarrelHoffman source please, I highly doubt that. In the early days there also could be 6bits (among other values) in a byte, depending on the hardware. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte – Swedgin May 17 '21 at 15:27
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@DarrelHoffman 'Claude E. Shannon first used the word "bit" in his seminal 1948 paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication".[7][8][9] He attributed its origin to John W. Tukey, who had written a Bell Labs memo on 9 January 1947 in which he contracted "binary information digit" to simply "bit".' ([SOURCE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit)) See also: https://www.etymonline.com/word/bit and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte. – Aaron May 17 '21 at 15:29
@Swedgin Alright, I stand correct on computing bits - the rest is pretty much true though. It actually comes from the Spanish dollar originally, which predates US or UK usage. Just a coincidence that computers also later settled on 8-bit groupings as the de facto standard. Though for similar reasons - you can easily divide something in half (whether a coin, a chunk of computer data, or for that matter a musical beat or a scale) 3 times to get 8, so powers of 2 resulted in the same value in multiple instances. – Darrel Hoffman May 17 '21 at 15:51

Is there a name for this famous “memeish” rhythm?

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