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? and 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
6

"No 'toon can resist the old 'shave and a haircut' trick". – 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. – 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
@user138719 For me, it will always be Pan Tau (Mr. Tau). He even taps his hat in the rhythm whenever he's doing magic. – Divizna Jan 09 '24 at 00:11

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

3,243
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6 bits (I think) – May 14 '21 at 23:30
3

@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
6

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
2

@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) 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
@DarrelHoffman there were 20 bob in a pound. I'm fairly sure nobody was cutting pounds into 20 pieces -- it's not particularly easy to divide a circle, half circle, or quarter circle into five pieces. Wikipedia says that the origin of the term is uncertain but there is speculation that it derives from the name of Robert Walpole. – phoog Jan 09 '24 at 10:47

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

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