Tosin Abasi On Polymetric Music And Composing

[rippingthroughmetal]

Is the tone of his guitar here slightly different than in the original song, or is that just me? :\

[TheHaiiiJuan]

...Sorry what?

[jollincones]

Thanks for posting this... Definitely insightful to hear polymetric music explained the way he does.

[MrSeemby]

So basically he's saying if I have one part playing 12/8, and I want to add a part that's 11/16, I should put 4 bars of 11/16 (making 11/4) I should line them up by placing one bar of 1/4 at the end? (Sorry for the long winded example)

[jmdenogean]

Behaving Badly?

[Rockyroopam]

@jmdenogean tempting time :) i can play it !

[SASLEAD666]

lol imagine this guy in the harlem renaissance. There would have never been a civil rights movement

[JacoTheSkunk]

Haha, he said "beat off" at 2:07...

[GlockenspielSAS]

Chris Garza doesn´t deserve to be in the recommendations.

[MajesticMist]

The master at work

[DimebagDisciple]

"Let me see something" ... World Explodes.

[MorganRNReid]

the reason why it isn't easy to explain is because one part is simple.. play whatever odd meter guitar riff.. over 4/4... but based on how the riff ends up sounding shorten the 4/4 drum to fit with the new 1 of the guitar riff!

[FlamencoPassion]

he actually explained the concept really well, it's not easy to describe how two riffs can be of completely different rhythm and yet they still align somehow.

[bustabo23]

you guys interested in understanging time and polyrithms should check the "yardistick of time" by victor wooten and anthony wellington.

[IceGene]

so do I have it right, you do 8 7/8 measures and 16 4/4 measures to get it to end on the same beat? I'm very intrigued about polymetrics :D

[YearsBecomeDays]

@IceGene

Nope. You can make it easier for yourself like this: the lower number shows the value of a beat note and the upper one shows how many beats there are. I'd suggest making the lower numbers the same which in this case instead of 4/4 would be 8/8 because that's the same. To make the notes "meet" the UPPER number has to be the same after all measures are through. 8*7=56 and 16*8=128, so they won't meet. For example 8 6/8 measures and 6 4/4 (8/8) will meet. Hope it makes any sense

[IceGene]

@YearsBecomeDays wow, I wish I'd listened well to my music teacher in highschool. So in the example you gave, both end at 48 counts, am I right? When you say value, what does that mean? (never really understood that part well enough) I remember my teacher saying in a 4/4 signature, a whole note gets 4 counts. so in an 8/8 a whole note gets 8 counts, half gets 4 and so on?

[YearsBecomeDays]

@IceGene

Yep, both end at 48, that's where the parts meet and begin again. You're right about the value too I think. I'm not a teacher, so it's kind of hard to explain, I learned it all myself. I'd recommend searching for some music theory basics on the net, I'm sure you'd find plenty. I remember there is something in Guitar for Dummies book.

[IceGene]

@YearsBecomeDays I did find a few back then but i find it a little bit hard to understand the sheet music they always show. thanks for the tips!

[deoxyribonucleic777]

if more people saw this, more would appreciate djent

[luke666808g]

@deoxyribonucleic777 there's a lot of half arsed djent coming out now though, it's easy to just copy the tone of the guitars and leave out the poly-rhythms if you lack the skill to do it properly, which to me is basically deathcore on an 8-string.

Tosin Abasi has evolved past the limits of djent anyway.

[deoxyribonucleic777]

@luke666808g yes I agree on both counts, alot of bands are making grody, value menu style music that you find everywhere and AAL isn't quite djent but I'm not sure what to call it. Perhaps soon AAL will become a genre too XD

[nofx989]

@deoxyribonucleic777 Yeah man spread the word, "Djent" is the shit!!!!!!

[mysteriousDSF]

thank you, Tosin, everyone, check out Meshuggah for more stuffs like that. their polymetric patterns aren't very difficult but very picturesque.

[fallenoffthestage]

Excellent!