In music, a stab is a single staccato note or chord that adds dramatic punctuation to a composition. Stabs are usually provided by horns (real or synthesized), thus the term horn stab, or an orchestral sample and usually occur on a 1-beat. Stabs are used in a wide variety of music genres including jazz, rock, classical, funk, freestyle, trap, EDM, metal and ska. There is no standardized notation symbol to specifically indicate a stab. They are most commonly notated as a short note value with a staccato dot, sometimes with the verbal marking "stab".
There's a rule of thumb in funk music that says short sounds are better than long: thus the drier the guitar hit, the tighter the horn stab, the slappier the bass, the more clipped the clavinet etc, the better. It's the bits of silence in-between these short events that builds anticipation for the next one - the tension/release principle in rhythmic form.
— Steve Lodder
Stabs are also used in electronic music in the form of very short snippets of a song used as rhythmic accents in a new composition. Early breakbeat hardcore, such as Prodigy's "Fire", and hip hop in general made use of stabs.
See also
References
- Lodder, Steve (2005). Stevie Wonder: A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums. Backbeat. p. 106. ISBN 0879308214.
- Weinel, Jonathan (2018). Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-visual Media. Oxford University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0190671181.
- David M. (3 December 2013). "History of UK hardcore rave music". Toucan Music. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- Marshall, Wayne (2002). Producing the Real: Hip-hop Music and Authenticity. University of Wisconsin–Madison. pp. 50–51. OCLC 608820774.
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