What is "half-time"

also halftime, half time, indicating "half of the time," 1640s, from half + time. Tempo sense is by 1880. In football, from 1867.

n. (alternative spelling of half time English)

adj. involving half the standard or customary time for an activity; "he had two years of half-time training"

adv. for less than the standard number of hours; "he works part-time" [syn: part-time] [ant: full-time]

In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time teams swap ends of the field of play, in order to reduce any advantage that may be gained from wind or a slope to the playing surface, for example.

While it exists mainly to allow competitors to rest briefly and recover from the play of the first half, half-time also serves a number of other purposes. It also serves as an intermission for spectators, and it often features entertainment, such as cheerleading performances, tifos, performances by school marching bands (particularly in high school and collegiate sports in North America), or concerts featuring popular music acts (particularly in major events, such as the Super Bowl). On games that are broadcast on television and radio, it also provides broadcasters with an opportunity to give a recap of the first half of the game, air highlights of other games in progress, air commercials and other advertisements, provide analysis on the game, or air game-related festivities (such as an aforementioned half-time performance). In the NFL (National Football League), halftime is usually around 12 minutes. Although major events like the Super Bowl have around 30 minutes of halftime featuring a musical performance.

In popular music, half time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially doubling the tempo resolution or metric division. Thus approximates . It is not to be confused with alla breve or odd time. Though notes usually get the same value relative to the tempo, the way the beats are divided is altered. While much music typically has a backbeat on quarter note (crotchet) beats two and four, half time would increase the interval between backbeats to double, thus making it hit on beats three and seven (counted out of an 8 beat measure [bar], common practice in half time):

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 3 4

Essentially, a half time ' groove' is one that expands one measure over the course of two.

A classic example is the half-time shuffle, a variation of a shuffle rhythm, which is used extensively in hip-hop and some blues music. Some of the variations of the basic groove are notoriously difficult to play on drum set. It is also a favorite in some pop and rock tunes. Some classic examples are the Purdie Shuffle by Bernard Purdie which appears in " Home At Last" and " Babylon Sisters", both of which are Steely Dan songs. " Fool in the Rain" by Led Zeppelin uses a derivation of the Purdie Shuffle, and Jeff Porcaro of Toto created a hybridization of the Zeppelin and Purdie shuffles called the Rosanna shuffle for the track " Rosanna".

It is important to realize that while in half time, the feel of notes are chopped in half, but the actual time value remains the same. For example, at the same tempo, 8th notes (quavers) would sound like 16ths (semiquavers). In the case of the half time shuffle, triplets sound like 16th note (semiquaver) triplets, etc. By preserving the tempo, the beat is stretched by a factor of 2.