Interesting video. He does mention around the 5:00 mark that many people use “up beat” instead of “off beat”, although it’s not strictly formally correct.
What he should have said is “guitar players use upbeat” Like I mentioned earlier guitar players relate everything to their guitars and don’t realize these terms apply to music in general not just guitar.
Interesting videos (and topic), thanks for having shared them.
Yes, terminology can be a bit shaky. For example, when the “and” was brought up by @Tbushell, I wanted to point out that the “and” is the off-beat and it is part of the beat, not something separate. So, when he mentioned “the “and of 4” (or 3)”, he stated to think in terms of subdivisions and 1/8 notes, adding another twist to the discussion. That’s why I said that in 3/4 the upbeat is on beat 3 as that includes the hypothetical “and”.
Apparently, the terms Downbeat and Upbeat do originate from the movements made by orchestra conductors (as I had vaguely recalled):
Seems like these terms are mainly used in Classical circles.
Wrt counting 1 + 2 + 3 etc being ridiculous I had to laugh. If you’re a ballroom dancer you learn to count (even more ridiculously) + 1 + 2 + 3 etc. The initial “and” is movement before foot placement (which is on the beat).
That’s interesting …
In musical terms, if there is something preceding bar 1, beat 1, it is often called a pick up, officially called an anacrusis.
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