Lateralus Piano Tutorial (Polyrhythms)

[grvgrl24]

You are absolutely incredible.  I can't help but be completely turned on by you when you play this.!!!!!!

[docfmfnavy]

I been playing guitar, drums, and bass, and the piano is something i always wanted to learn to play. Thanks for the tips bro!

[Slagathor11]

FREEEEBIRD!

Just kidding I have at least half a brain

Tool - lynyrd skynyrd

[Daniela2010ism]

hey i want to learn how to use the piano and my piano only as 54 keys so what could i do ....lol

[Low21Key]

@Daniela2010ism i only have 49 keys, but its plenty of room to play, especially when ur just learning.. 49 is still 4 full octaves. if ur trying to learn a song where someone uses the whole piano, just keep ur hands closer than their's are... u still have 2 full octaves for each hand, that's really all u need

[mofogachoga]

When i do polymeters on a guitar.. i really have to seperate my mind on 2 different parts, keep a steady motion with one, and concentrate on the other beat. it sounds awesome.

[DantrainSmoothRide]

just makes me wanna play music, thank you :)

[logicalrat]

I think your a savant! hahah i tip my hat to you!!!

[Lostagain70]

@logicalrat Do you know what savant syndrome is? You're essentially calling him retarded/autistic.

[logicalrat]

savant doesn't always refer to savant syndrome kiddo.

Have a good day buddy.

P.S. Lostagain, I finished the 5th season of lost last night. It was really good. Your name just reminded me of it.

[Lostagain70]

I've never seen the show. The name doesn't relate to it.

[claytonsaurus]

@Lostagain70

You are blatantly incorrect.

[Lostagain70]

How about you do some research before you look like a fool.

[claytonsaurus]

Sigh. You want research? Savant is from the French savoir "knowing". It literally means "knowing person", an apt description in itself of monroe12478. Adopted into the English lexicon in the 18th century, it has meant "a learned person, esp. a distinguished scientist" since. The term "Idiot Savant", now politically corrected to "Savant Syndrome", is not a recognized medical diagnosis, although I understand it's relation to mental disabilities.

[Sheepproductions]

I'm pretty sure that is a polyMETER.... not a polyrhythym

[82drumhead]

Well there is such thing as a polyrhythm though. Its more of a term used in percussion that I've seen.

[Sheepproductions]

@82drumhead Yep, with a polyrythm, the different timings line up every measure. A poly meter of.... say... 4/4 and 3/4 will line up on every 12 beats (4 measures of 3/4 or e measures of 4/4)

[82drumhead]

Ah haa. I was wondering what a poly METER was. I guess the name says it all...im an idiot!

[Sheepproductions]

@82drumhead Sweet playing, though. I'd be interested to see you lay down your 5 beat riff on top of a 6 beat drum track. Keep it up!

[krazjazzfan]

Can you really play two seperate time signatures in each hand? I'm not completely sure, but either that section of the song is in 4/4 and he is playing triplets with the left hand and quintuplets with the right, or the time signature is 6/8 and the left hand is eighth notes and the right is quintuplets. This is one of tool's most complex songs and it's not easy to follow, so PLAYING it must be insane.

[krazjazzfan]

Oh! I get it now, he isnt playing quintuplets in the right hand, it's just a 5 repeated 8th notes over a 6/8 time signature, accenting the first note of every measure. It looks almost like ragtime.

[Anionn]

wow thats harder than i would have thought. I've played guitar for 11 years and piano for 2 months now and I tried to get a hang of this but no improvement yet (in 5 minutes haha). Gonna try again when i wake up.

[disposition073]

it doesn't come easy even if you're a savant

[csmithrun2]

I really hope you're joking, he has the entire song on another video (look to the right side of the screen). Also this was a Polyrhythm tutorial on how he translated Danny Carey's insane timing from Drums to a Piano. I'm sure he doesn't have time to just write these songs out and just hand it to all the people demanding stuff from him on Youtube.

[fleetwoodsucks]

i agree

[NinjaOnWeed]

lol My piano teacher said piano translates to all other instruments :P

[muquesko]

except for drums.

[ROAHHHH]

@muquesko

no drums too! and drums translates to all others as well.. if you can play piano and drums.. woah! people better look out

[TehSeig3]

@NinjaOnWeed Yeah it does. my first instrument was the guitar, and I am starting to learn the keys, but I am translating all the notes, cords and scales from guitar to piano. it's kinda strange.

[chopinandliszt]

you demontrated well, but you gotta show us where to start from the rudimentary, just showing us how a polyrhythm is played isn't helpful. Explain all the counting you did, please.

[thumphrey05]

you could try this. the left hand is 6 beats per measure and its played with 4 D's and then 2 beats off. instead of playing DDDDXX to start practicing, just play the note D on all 6 beats in the left hand. DDDDDD DDDDDD. then develop a pattern in the right hand that uses 5 beats and repeat it over and over. try playing DEFEF DEFEF DEFEF over and over. start very very slow then work your way up, then take one of the extra D in the left hand out then take the other. patience my son

[chopinandliszt]

I still don't understand completely. I deal with 3 against 4, for instance, by counting 12 beats and playing the RH/LH every 4 beats, and the other every 3 beats. When I don't do this, the hands aren't even. Can you explain more?

[thumphrey05]

this isn't 5 against 6 in the sense that theres 5 beats against 6 beats.

LH

DDDDXXDDDDXXDDDDXXDDDDXX

RH

123451234512345123451234512345

The timing for left and right hands are the same. i see your name is chopin, this isnt the same as fantasie impromptu, where you play 4 notes in the right hand for every 3 in the right hand. The timing is the same, its just the phrase in the right hand is one note shorter, so it takes 6 rounds of playing the 5 note right hand riff before it matches up again

[thumphrey05]

just match up that little diagram i just wrote out.

For LH start by playing

DDDDDD DDDDDD DDDDDD

for each note above, match it with one of these 123451 234512 345123

make 1=D 2=E 3=F 4=G 5=A to practice

once you get the basic down you can start to improvise in right hand

[STPfan007]

Both you and Danney Carey are gods

[GuitarRHCPfan]

Yeah rythym is most important...for me I played guitar for 7 years, now I am playing piano and ive been playing it for about a year and I feel like ive been playing it forever, the first song I learned fluidly and all the way through was mad world-gary jules...it took me about a month to get there. Now l am translating pink floyd-comfortably numb and shine on you crazy diamond on piano. Tool translates well on piano, I will look into more of their stuff.

[unknownbassist67]

Im a bass player now, but i played percussion before and that really helped me with The Pot as a bass player, also some strumming techniques gave me a boost.

[kristofori]

I just knew you were a drummer xD

[AzrealDIZ]

great tutorial!!! but you should cover the entire song!!! me and my band played and they said where the fukk i got that polyrythm shit at...and i told them to look you up....

[growlingmetal]

oh he did

[TomConger]

I had a really hard time getting polyrhythms with drums, but once you get them, it's hard to forget.

Fantastic stuff, man!

[muzakfreak]

Polyrythems are fun once you get them =]

Thanks for this great tutorial!

[gredangeo]

What part is this? at that bass section he's doing quick notes on the D. The whole section is in 4/4. Also, the chorus is in 3/4 and the verses are in 5/4. That's the tabs I got anyways, and everything sounds right.

[sldrmr21]

the chorus for lateralus (over thinking over analyzing) is in 9/8, 8/8, 7/8 repeating until the verse. the drum part after the 2nd chorus is in 5/4 and continues to be until Adams guitar "solo". the bass is in 6/4 for this part like he says.

[rustyeagle]

i know i'm a little late on the initial comment but.....it's the middle section of the song. all he's doing is taking the hi hat part and playing it on his right hand and giving it a melody.

[nathanomgnathan]

what part of lateralus is that polyrythm at?

[sldrmr21]

right after like the "first part of the song with Justin playing just the bass, then Danny comes in with his hi-hat and thats the part that he's imitating.

[Musiquefan23]

Uh-mazing, thanks man, this helps with the polyrhythms in this song quite a bit

[tabithamoniq]

that's amazing. I've tried it and I'm still having a hard time but I'll probably get it eventually. If at first you don't succeed......^_^

[Henhouse2005]

awsome

[unicursalhex]

pretty cool. Great poly

[A7XDudeDrums]

its true about drums/percussion and everything else, i am a drummer but now am starting to learn keyboard and rhythm is everything and the fact i know drums makes learning keyboard easier! awesome stuff man!!

[GDGspire]

Tori Amos NEEDS to cover Lateralus. That would be fucking sweet.

[0pethMetal]

agreed!

[yummycars]

opeth is awesome. just thought id throw that out there. like their porcelain heart.

[MorkaGraven]

Agreed but Keep of Kalessin (although black metal) are better.

[yutubeesunamierda]

Muy generoso de tu parte.

[TeebisSmokeytheBear]

Wow. I had always just deemed this concept as simply infeasible. Now that you've shown it's possible maybe I shall give it a try.

[drummerjonathanp]

So were you a drum set player to begin with?

[monroe12478]

no actually I started with keys. I picked up drums later which really helped out with every other instrument I play

[RoperPryde]

Nice turorial, thanks!

Deviant1853:

Before going to that level I recommend practicing music by Bela Bartok and/or Philip Glass. After that you should make work something like Lateralus way more easily. :)

[Deviant1853]

I've been trying to play Lateralus for about 6 month now, and I'm no where near it. Watching this really does help though! thanks alot for sticking a tutorial up for this :D

[mp3guy]

Very impressive, but it's a polymeter, not a polyrhythm

[monroe12478]

thanks for the correction

[Tryscair]

It can be called polymeter or polyrhythm, but polymeter is the more...professional term, I guess you could say.

[Ho0chie]

lol "professional term", its the american term... both fine tho

[Altered6Chicken]

How do you practice just keeping time in your head while also focusing on the melody. I have a hard time doing that when I play guitar. Do you ave any suggestions?

[monroe12478]

A lot of musicians tap there left or right foot. You can try doing that. Also if you make it a point to ALWAYS practice "in time" and at the correct tempo. Use a metronome if necessary. Hope that helps

Adam

[bano363]

it would actually make my year if u did a tutorial of orestes!! its just so gud on piano!!

[jaycorpstudios]

Cool!!! You should show a Tutorial onhow to play Vicarious Song ;)

[undacheese]

Dude please show a tutorial on how to play rosetta stoned and 3 libras. Thanks this help me alot.

[mflagg19]

hurray for 5 over 4

[pepporonipie87]

5/8 over 6/8 man =]!

[kadung]

Great stuff! You're truly gifted and talented and im sure you work hard at it! Thanks for the tip.

[Raedan23]

my friend is getting angry with me because i'm hijacking her piano in order to learn this song. she's in for some bad news tomorrow.

thank you so much for this.

[thumphrey05]

good job