# Is there a name for this effect in music?



## alanfarwell

Okay, so I didn't know what category to post this in, so if someone could please redirect me to the correct place to ask this question, I'd very much appreciate it.

Alright, so this has been frustrating me for quite a while. I've been analyzing a lot of the music I like listening to to see what exactly it is that makes me like them. I've noticed 2 common things:

1) I've noticed that I like listening to pieces where there are rapid changes between low notes and high notes. I've tried looking up what the name of this effect is, but all I've found is Tremolo, which is rapidly switching between 2 different notes, and that's not the same thing I'm thinking of. I guess another way to think of it is a note bouncing up and down. Danny Elfman does a lot of this. In most of his pieces, he plays a really low note on one end of the piano and then immediately follows it with a higher pitched one. Here are some audio examples:






























So hopefully I've given enough examples that you know what I'm referring to. I've noticed that most of these are either a shift from a low note to a high note on the piano or a low, deep brassy sound (most likely a Tuba) to a quick ascending note on a string instrument

2) The other thing I've noticed is a little more complicated to explain. It's almost indescribable, but I'm going to try my best. There's this sort of low "roaring" sound, almost like a saw cutting something or a dog barking. It's usually hidden behind some loud brass instrument. Here is an example:

https://clyp.it/3v3b3oag

after fiddling around with the equalizer, I was able to pinpoint the sound quality that I'm trying to describe, and amplified it around the 500 range.

https://clyp.it/qa134fao

Now, this is a bit different, but since it's within the same types of songs, I'd figured I'd add this too. I'm almost willing to bet that this is a string instrument, but I've been proven wrong on here multiple times so I can't say for sure. Somehow it sounds like a violin, guitar, accordion, harmonica, and horn all at once (or at least to me anyway). It has a sort of "buzz" to it that makes it sound like de-tuned strings on a guitar being strummed. Other times, it sounds like strings on a violin being bowed and then distorted. It can also sound sort of "wheezy" like an accordion or harmonica, and it also kind of reminds me of those guys that climb mountains while blowing through those long horns, making a wailing call. Here are some examples:

After the loud brass womps in the beginning, you can hear a tail at the end of each one that sounds a bit like a squawk or an accordion letting air out. Then that same instrument (I think) plays by itself and goes back and forth between sounding like an out-of-tune guitar being strummed to a violin being bowed in an unusual way:

https://clyp.it/cui1hwif

I'm also fairly sure this is the same instrument. Sort of has that buzzing, loose strings sound to it...

https://clyp.it/3bq4owrf

Although I don't think this is the same instrument, you can hear that same sound quality in the background of this if you listen closely:






Anyways, thank you in advance to anyone who can help me figure this out. I've been chomping at the bit to know for the longest time.


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## Phil loves classical

I liked that Beetlejuice theme as a kid. I don't believe there is a technical name. It is just a left hand bass accompaniment pattern alternating between the notes of the minor third with a few variations. Sort of like the boogie woogie but slower. The second one is even more ambiguous. It is a deep brass instrument like a tuba playing staccatos along with a riff.


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## alanfarwell

Thank you so much. Is there any chance you'd know the name of the instrument that sounds like a guitar or violin being strummed or bowed? I've also heard this effect in the beginning of this song too:


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## Phil loves classical

That's chopping on a few higher strings like violin or viola. The real low sound resonating is a double bass.


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## AeolianStrains

alanfarwell said:


> Thank you so much. Is there any chance you'd know the name of the instrument that sounds like a guitar or violin being strummed or bowed? I've also heard this effect in the beginning of this song too:


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## Alfacharger

alanfarwell said:


> Okay, so I didn't know what category to post this in, so if someone could please redirect me to the correct place to ask this question, I'd very much appreciate it.
> 
> Alright, so this has been frustrating me for quite a while. I've been analyzing a lot of the music I like listening to to see what exactly it is that makes me like them. I've noticed 2 common things:
> 
> 1) I've noticed that I like listening to pieces where there are rapid changes between low notes and high notes. I've tried looking up what the name of this effect is, but all I've found is Tremolo, which is rapidly switching between 2 different notes, and that's not the same thing I'm thinking of. I guess another way to think of it is a note bouncing up and down. Danny Elfman does a lot of this. In most of his pieces, he plays a really low note on one end of the piano and then immediately follows it with a higher pitched one. Here are some audio examples:


I think the term you are looking for is "Ostinato". Some Danny Elfman examples.






One of my favorite examples of the use of ostinato by Bernard Herrmann. His compositions also influenced the music of Elfman.


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## LezLee

Well, I can’t answer your questions but I really like all your examples!


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## alanfarwell

Thank you so much. This is what I've been looking for!


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## alanfarwell

Not the effect I was thinking of, but I still like that type of rhythm too. I'm referring to 2 notes or staccatos that go from really low to really high. In the Beetlejuice example, it's the mallets hitting the strings at the low end of the piano, which is immediately followed by a higher piano note with tambourine rattle layered over it.


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## alanfarwell

Thanks for listening. Glad we have similar tastes.


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## tdc

I think what you are describing is a type of syncopated rhythm derived from polka music.


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## Larkenfield

If it’s being written out and composed anyway rather than being spontaneously improvised, why does it need a technical name? But if the effect needed to have one, I would describe it as a ‘bouncing baseline’ because it’s done with the left-hand on the keyboard or is essentially in the base register when being orchestrated and basically alternates between two notes in a rather wide interval.


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## tdc

If you think about that syncopated polka rhythm it naturally creates a kind of 'boom - bah' sound. I think the high and low note sequences the OP is describing are just a by-product of that particular rhythmic inflection. Ragtime music uses similar syncopation.


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## alanfarwell

Listened to the polka music. They do have similar characteristics. I just wanted to know if there was a technical name for it so I could find more music with that effect in it, since typing in "boom bah music" probably won't give me the results I want.


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## tdc

alanfarwell said:


> Listened to the polka music. They do have similar characteristics. I just wanted to know if there was a technical name for it so I could find more music with that effect in it, since typing in "boom bah music" probably won't give me the results I want.


I see what you mean, because it is such a widely used technique even though 'syncopated polka rhythm' is essentially a correct technical term, (or just 'polka rhythm') it is not specific enough and probably won't lead to you easily finding precisely what you are looking for. Maybe there is another term I am not aware of.

This kind of rhythm is prominently used in polka, ragtime and a multitude of other music as you have noticed. I think there are similar rhythms sometimes used in some Italian Opera like Verdi and Puccini. The track "Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)" on The Doors debut album uses the rhythm for sure. The issue here isn't so much a lack of a technical term, but the varied and widespread different uses of the technique in a lot of different styles of music. It is so ubiquitous that I think people often use it without knowing what it is, and it wouldn't surprise me if it pre dates polka music. That is just the earliest form I can directly trace it to.


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## alanfarwell

Just listened to "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)" and Yes! That's exactly the kind of stuff I've been looking for. Thanks a ton for sharing.


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## Roger Knox

1) In jazz it is stride piano, played by the left hand -- top players included Thomas ("Fats") Waller and Jack Johnson.


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## alanfarwell

Been listening to jazz music with the stride effect, and I sorta hear it. It tends to go from low to high at a slower tempo, where in my examples, it's more like rapid bouncing.


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## Roger Knox

Yes there is a limit to how fast a single hand of a pianist can go back and forth.


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