Songs that use Polyrhythms & Polymeters 

😉

Are you here to watch him play piano?

@@theivory1 nah we got 1000000 piano players on youtube but only 1 david bennett

David Bennett Piano 5M sub piano reveal?

@@frmcf lmao

Ive got scars on my brain

They can be really complicated to get to sound right, but it's AMAZING when a plan fits together 😎

Graham Douglas that’s a pretty good way to describe it 😀

Ooooh

But both don't have to start on the first beat of the measure so it's a good way to think of it but not to apply or teach as it could become confusing

@@xdude2011 Indeed. I was merely trying to provide an aide-memoire to remember which was which, not construct an entire thesis.

On a polymeter, the 1st accents will eventually line up after so many measures, when you reach the first common multiple of the two meters. So for 5/4 and 7/4, at the 35th beat the meters will merge again on the 1st accent of their respective measures, before going off and diverging again. It creates a cool, weaving in and out effect. I recommend looking into the Fripp-Belew-Levin-Bruford era of King Crimson to hear some examples of this.

if u have been diagnosed with Vertical Hemiola you may be entitled to monetary rewards call 1 800 3/2

Every year, hundreds of babies die because of Vertical Hemiola Together we can stop this

Tired of the burning and itching of vertical hemiola? Use Preparation H.

And ask your doctor if Horizontila is right for you.

At least it's not ligma.

Discipline is also entirely written in Polymeter! Each section of the song takes on a new pairing, creating unique and complex melodies interwoven with each other. I saw a whole list of meter used, and it's honestly too much to summarize in a single comment, amazing what those boys could get up to

Wow that's amazing! Since you are great detecting that complex arrangements, I have a question that I need to ask. What is it called if the drums play 4/4 just like the drums in Blitzkrieg Bop by Ramones, but the percussion play a little bit swing, like Still Standing by Elton John. I'm sure it sounds clashing but I like it, my band have that one song that play like that. I wanna know what it's called 😆

Discipline would've been the best example for polymeters but it wasn't on this list.

Thanks to Jake Lizzio I hear 3:2 as "not difficult".

Same!

I learned it as "pass the salt and pepper" years ago and have never been able to shake it whenever I hear it

My professor in music school during my last year of music theory, taught us this pass the god damn butter. It don't bother me swearing but as a drum instructor I can't (at least with some students lol) So I ended up using instead Pass The Peanut Butter

I don't know how old "pass the god damn butter" is, but I learned it at UC Berkeley in 1970.

IF WRITE ANYTHING ON YOUR COMPUTER YOU NEED TO GET GRA-

lmaaooo

Pass the goddamn butter.

4:30

@4 S C E N D E D For real though

Always the first thing that comes to mind when polyrhythms come up

there's definitely a reason it's called "poly"gondwanaland. It's also got some amazing polymeter parts, especially crumbling castle (which is just about exclusively in polymeter).

Crumbling Castle's intro is just amazing imo And I'm surprised they can play The Fourth Colour live lol

great suggestion! I can't believe I missed that one!

March of the Black Queen, too. That's in the instrumental part in the middle of the song - around 3 minutes in

I'll add the Rush songs "Limelight" (in 3/4) and "Freewill" (back and forth between 4/4 and 7/4, I think), and Pink Floyd's song "Money" (7/8, then 4/4). I was waiting for those, but didn't hear you mention any of them.

@@philipclayberg4928 that's changing time signatures, not the same as a polyrhythm/polymeter. Besides, the main money bass riff is in 7/4, not 7/8.

Philip Clayberg Changing time signatures isn’t the same as a polyrhythm or polymeter

Same. It's quite funny to me that that is actually the only moment I remember from all of the 2012 Olympics

@@TheDutchCreeperTDC the Queen jumping out of a helicopter with James Bond?

Hahaha same! Rowan Atkinson rules!

Going to search for that clip now :D Definitely rewatched it a few times back then

Wow that stuff about the Beatles was really interesting

People should really check out Snarky Puppy. Their 2012 video album "We like it here" is some of the best music I've heard in ages.

Also Chopin's fantasie impromptu! A crazy 4:3

Listen to "Everything's Alright" from the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. It's effortless. It was years before I realised it's 5/4.

Tut Tut Child - Queen of Your Heart as well

Clint Eastwood as well

The Patient by Tool makes 5/4 sound completely effortless.

xxxtentioncable The Patient is an absolute masterpiece, such a slept on Tool song. Definitely in my top ten by them.

Thanks! That really means a lot 😊

@@DavidBennettPiano Dream Theater - Dance of Eternity ? Would be massive on this channel ...

and "supremacy" by Muse

I got here a year later. Just watched this vid for the first time and my first thought was Animals, by Muse

Plus the abrupt time signature changes! Amazing.

I can't particularly remember seeing seven sharps. They usually notate the music in Db or Bb minor to avoid it, even when modulating directly from C# minor to C# major, they normally switch to Db flat instead.

Yeah, as a violinist, once I see more than five I'm terrified!

@@mvmarchiori I just assume every note is sharp lmao

Somebody convince me why it's necessary for a keyboard piece to be written in 7 sharps. Why choose that particular key, when shifting up or down a half-tone would simplify?

@@paulbadertscher The piano uses equal temperament, and it results in some tonalities getting scales and intervals without "brightness", and/or too dull. Try listening (playing live would be better) the third Impromptu, in G flat Major, by Schubert. Now play it in G Major. It changes completely; gets darker, and less interesting. I'm sure someone can give you an better answer, though.

My grandpa and uncle played music, but my dad says that he can only play the radio, and not even that well.

😂

I love that

or if not Radiohead then the Beatles

True.

And with Chopin at the end of the Ballade No.1 ?

its true

Apparently you misunderstand the term "progressive"

Kin3tic 0n3 who

@@dolan5685 not you, other guy lol

I don't think he ever heard about them

Do you mean the djent grandfathers?

Or any progressive metal song, these are not real polyrithms, those are different distribution of notes, the polyrithms is something different, and you can analize them in anh Meshuggah song or any progressive rock/prog metal songs

@@nbecerra17 Yeah, thats why OP said polymeter and not polyrhythm.

No - If Meshugah's music was poly metric then it wouldn't sound like it does. They stopped using poly meters after Destroy Erase Improve. Most of their music after Chaosphere is in 4/4 or 12/8. They deliberately stretch the riffs across the bar lines in a way that sounds like multiple meters, but it's all in 4/4, hence the bands name - Meshugah, meaning crazy. "Cycles" of phrases in 4/4 time.

First thing I thought, but I'd argue it's more because of the sound of the instrument than the rhythm itself.

Thank you so much! 🙂🙂

So much 7/4.

If I had the time, that band would be my PhD thesis.

Anything in polygondwanaland would be great in this video. Just to make people lose all hope

@@athomeinventions7266 I hate to use the word genius because it can be a cliche, but I think that's a very appropriate word for those guys.

literally all of nonagon infinity lol

Thom Ol' Reliable Yorke

**HIM**

@@DavidBennettPiano wha-

Thank you! 😀😃😃

And for "Discipline" substitute almost any recently-ish Crimson title...

Frame by Frame, on that same album too!

I love the wikipedia description: "During the piece the two guitars of Belew and Fripp, respectively, move through the following sequence of pairs of time signatures: 5 /8 and 5/8, 5/8 and 4/4, 5/8 and 9/8, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 10/8 and 20/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16, 12/16 and 12/16, 12/16 and 11/16, 15/16 and 15/16, 15/16 and 14/16. Throughout the composition the drums play in 17/16."

no mention of discipline really shocked me

you guys had me intrigued, so I did a search for the track. Now I'm getting all sorts of weird shit in my recommends!

frogindeed pretty sure they meant to create their music that way.

@ In either case, I defy our friend David Bennet to analyse any of it.

what song? don't tell me it's my fucking dog foot foot.

listen to Palberta!

very good example, I wonder if they ever played a song the same way more than once?

That 4/4 drum beat is known as a backbeat. Pretty common in progressive metal and djent.

I couldn't hear any polyrhythm in the murder by numbers intro, i think its the 3 8th note anacrusis which throws you off, plus some interesying syncopated high hat hits

@@sinklar1224 The accents on the snare rim together with the kick happen every 3 beats. It's only when the full band comes in halfway through the verse that you get the context to realise so. In the chorus it makes even more sense as you get the regular rock/pop pattern with a kick on beat 1 and 3 and a snare on 2 and 4.

"Killing In The Name" uses quarter note triplets, not eighth note triplets.

Aren't those polymeters?

Ironically, the label didn't like the polyrhythms in Polyrhythm and made a radio edit that excludes them.

Vital signs

Fripp called it "Western Gamelan" after the marimba music of Bali.

@@jcf1963 nice, learned something new. Going to check out that music.

I think of it as lyrics deciding to solo lol

that part always hits real hard, the offset time makes it really fun to listen to

I think Ringo may have just recorded the drum track in 4/4 and the rest of the band changed the time signature over the 4/4 beat

🙂🙂 thank you!

And the metamorphosis are pretty as well. But I love playing mad rush so much.

Thanks! 🙂🙂

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thank you

So basically 4:3

@@ukkovuorela4196 The pattern has a 4:3 feel, but the 4/4 rhythm is 16 beats long. So it takes 48 beats for a full cycle, where both rhythms realign again on beat 1, meaning it's actually 16:3

There is SO much more cool and often complex rhythmical weirdness to be analysed in so much of Tool's stuff. In I think Lateralus, in a break near the end, Danny Carey plays a continuous, repeated, rhythmic ostinato of "s-s-q, q, q, q", where 's' is a semiquaver and 'q' is a quaver, in a short, quick, 5/8 pattern. He then begins filling in on top of this with a sort of groove in 5/4. What's really cool is that this is all taking place over the top of the song's current, base time signature of 6/8 (or 4/4 - I'm honestly not sure because the feel of the rhythm changes between the two continuously - a fact which adds to the rhythmic weirdness and excitement of the piece. I think at this point the piece is actually in 6/8 with a 4/4 polymeter on top), with a repeated rhythm in 6/8 in the bass of "q, q, q, q, -, -,", where '-' is a quaver rest. What's so cool about 5/4 or 5/8 over 4/4 or 6/8 is that, whereas 3:2/2:3 and 4:3/3:4 mathematically fit very neatly over the top of one another, 5:4/4:5 and 5:6/6:5 do not, and the effect of this is that the two rhythms in the polyrhythms found at this point in Lateralus do not "sync up" anywhere near as cohesively or as frequently as in all of the examples of polyrhythm found in most popular music. Here the rhythm feels characterised by the fact that the two rhythms almost never seem both to arrive back at beat 1 at the same time, as the most popular polyrhythms do, whereas in most examples of polyrhythms they are characterised by the fact that they arrive back at beat 1 together very frequently, which prevents them from sounding rhythmically disjunct (or overly complicated) and in fact causes them to take on the impression of sounding like their own, new, distinctive, cohesive rhythmical motif, which is good but also limits how complex and interesting and divergent the rhythm can be. In The Grudge there are frequent moments where there is a sort of "rhythmic acceleration" which I've basically never heard anywhere else, in which the instruments begin playing repeated crotchets all together in unison, but then the drums peel away from this unison sound and begin playing progressively smaller note sizes, the notes decreasing in length in a mathematically logical way, going down in order of size from one note size to the next. I.e. the drums go from playing continuous crotchets to playing (this may not be 100% accurate but it is something at least very similar to this) continuous quaver triplets > quavers > semiquaver triplets > semiquavers before ending this "acceleration" by cutting out with a cymbal crash. It's an incredibly cool and unique-sounding effect that I can't recall hearing anywhere else. Jesus - sorry for the essay!

There are a few excellent drum videos on RU-vid that break that section down.

It's also somehow really groovy despite being that complex.

David Dieffenderfer thanks David! I’m glad you enjoyed the video! 😊😊

The polyrhythmic stuff actually seems very normal to me. It's only when I listen to the explanation of it that it sounds confusing. I think performers probably don't think too much of the theory or if they do they must have developed good rhythm and timing, much better than the average person.

Thank you!

Thank you Red Dwarf!

Mister Flibble's very cross! Oh my God I thought of that episode so many times during the COVID quarantine. Lol. "Oh we couldn't possibly do that... who would clean up the mess?" I actually re-watched the whole series during quarantine because I hadn't watched the more recent seasons and movie. Wow, such an amazing show. It's cool that it came back.

@@DavidBennettPiano I love that show!

Thank you! 😊

I laughed

hAHAHAHAH

Thank you!

Thanks!

Thanks 😊

A F T R T H A T thank you!

Francesco Fusco 🙂🙂🙂🙂

Snoopy à la Guerre fantastic!

This is a good one. 3 over 5 over 7

just a little polymeter indeed ahah

This is a God-tier example. They don't just spin their wheels either, the way it resolves into 3/4 at the end is some really intelligent composition. The second half of Mellotron Scratch is also a real earworm of a polymeter.

Porcupine Tree Halo has a 17/16

@Natalie Kirk that just means he’s got good taste

Lines42 which part? I don’t see it.

@@limposwe The marimba plays a repeating F#-E-C#-B-C# line after every synth line in the intro. You know, the *dunnn, dun dun d-dun dun dunnnnn*

Daniel Kubacki thanks!

Thanks!

Abelardo Elizondo 🙂🙂🙂🙂