Terminology - the & of 3

Question

I found myself telling someone to accent "the & of 3". This just seems a really awkward way of wording it, but I don't know a better way. Beat 3 and half or the 6th 8th note sound even worse.

Is there proper terminology for the positions between the beats?

Answer 1

"The & of 3" is proper terminology and is very specifically tied to how you would count out the music. A very similar alternative you could say is "the offbeat of 3" which means the same exact thing as "the & of 3". You could also say the following, but they are much more wordy:

• Halfway between 3 and 4
• An eighth note after 3

Answer 2

This is part of a pretty common set of terminologies used to communicate sub-beat patterns. These are, for the case of X/4 time sigs:

a) quarter notes: one, two, three,... b) eighth notes: one-and, two-and, three-and c) triplets: one-and-ah, two-and-ah d) sixteenths one-eee-and-ah, two-eee-and-ah, e) quintuplets: you're on your own :-)

For any of these patterns, the composer may have indicated emphasis on one or more of the on- and off- beat notes.