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When counting beats in a song, in English we would say "1 and, 2 and, 3 and" etc. where 1, 2 and 3 are beats and "and"s are spaces between them. You can also split the rhythm into smaller pieces by adding short words or vowels, like "1 a and e, 2 a and e" etc.
What would be a typical way to split a beat like this in Mandarin? I'd imagine English numbers become Mandarin numbers and "and"s turn into "he"s. But what about the sounds that come between numbers and "and"s?
My wife is a violinist and I just asked her. So this is what she said:
一嗒 二嗒 三嗒
or
一嗒嗒 二嗒嗒 三嗒嗒 based on the tempo she wants( just add more "da").
嗒 is just a sound as "da" in English.
Since all Chinese numbers < 11 only have one syllable, it is quite easy to do.
I'm not sure if all musicians use this method but this is what she said :)
