Stab (music)

In music, a stab is a single staccato note or chord that adds dramatic punctuation to a composition. Stabs may be provided by horns —a horn stab—or an orchestral sample—an orchestra hit—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 music|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".
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 The Prodigy's "Fire", and hip hop in general made use of stabs.