The Rhythms of Tigran Hamasyan 

TIGRAN IS SO DAMN GOOD. thanks man for this video! mockroot was a revelation when I first heard that album. so good

How Tigran writes an album: 1) Sits at the piano, press record and beatbox while he composes 2) Send the recording to a bassist and drummer telling them to copy his left hand and his mouth respectively 3) Wait a year for them to be able to transcribe what he played 4) Record in a studio together

What's mind-boggling about this is that the music is actually enjoyable

Thank you for this!!!! YESS!!! 🙌🙏🙌 Amazing as always.

Tigran is one of those artists that came out of nowhere and blew me away. It's not just the mind blowing complexity he can navigate, or even that he can do so while retaining his style and the emotion of he melodies, but also that he can do all this, and then switch to a tune like 'Holy' or 'Lilac' or 'Kars 1'

Tigran's live Vardavar performance playing the Hello Kitty toy piano made my head explode, which lead to more listening and joy. This video really helped me understand what I was hearing in Vardavar rhythmically, in several rhythmic ways actually. After this video I now understand a framework that Tigran has used, and I feel I am a better listener now. And, all words aside, Tigran does so much rhythmically, melodically, harmonically, and culturally it is beyond... beyond...

40% Joy, 40% Confusion, 20% Awe

I discovered Tigran this yearr and I've fallen in love with his style of music. Guy is a beast

I'm now realizing that Tigran is my favourite modern composer. Because those rhythms give me life. Good that I still have much more his pieces to listen to.

Tigran hamasyan is my all time favourite pianist and composer and i have analysed his work in depth the last 3 years. To expreience the care and professionalism that you put into your content is humbling. This kind of research and respect for artists and music in general is quite rare on youtube, and you are really a great inspiration. Thanks for a great video!

Never heard of this guy, but absolutely going to check him out now. I'm a big Meshuggah fan, love my jazz and happened to train as a classical sitar player in Varanasi. I'm really glad I found this channel - it started off with mostly discussions about classical pieces, which is great because I like composing pieces for the local church choir in my spare time and it's really helped me become more ambitious in my attempts, but it's gradually branched out to more and more unusual topics. Never thought we'd be talking about Meshuggah here, which is about as extreme as you can get. I'm learning a lot and discovering lots of great music. It's nice to be in company of people who just like music - doesn't whether it's metal, opera, (d)jazz, choral, carnatic, whatever.

I've literally never clicked on a video this quick

Damn that rhythmic concept of keeping shapes of beats based on their own tempos is something I've experimented with. I didn't think it was actually usable in modern music. This musician Hamasyan is brilliant.

thank you so much for introducing me to this fantastic artist, and great breakdown of the sound world as usual :) but more importantly - PIANO DJENT

The re-ordering of shorter sections like a pattern of 5/16th notes within 4/4 brackets is what Drum & Bass and more specifically Jungle rhythms are all about. It being dance music it rarely goes too far beyond reaffirming the 'one' every few bars. It goes back to the function on samplers where you can slice a sample into chunks and then play each chunk via MIDI. If you chop a 2 bar breakbeat loop (with all the inherent shuffle and swing) into 8 parts, you can then rearrange them in whatever fashion you like. The rhythmic effect of having the 5/16ths repeat before a silence and then a drop is not unheard of in these genres of music. Another area where these kind of rhythms are common is Modular Synthesizer patches which use clock divers at various ratios as clocks, resets or other functions. All kinds of complex relations between fractional parts and 'bars' can be achieved this way, and more often by ear and feel on the actual instrument rather than calculation and notation.

Nice, the "big, big, small" idea reminds me of how balkan dancers digest the "complex" rhythm of dance pieces in 9/8 or 7/8, etc (long steps and short steps)

I love your shirt! Wintergatan is brilliant

I love Tigran! He's one of my top three pianists!

Awesome video. Love the Marble Machine X the shirt as well!

So glad somebody put this into words. I've had a feeling this was going on in these songs, but was unsure how to articulate it. Stellar job, David and Yogev (and Tigran)!

One of my favorite musicians of recent years, and you're my favorite youtube music channel for sure! Good to know that the things he's doing are confusing even to a composer with a bunch of experience and I'm not just missing something simple.

Hamasyan in general and Vardavar in particular have been blowing my mind for years now. I clicked on this video the instant I saw it, your analysis is fantastic and very insightful. It's still unbelievable to me how someone can ideate and maintain these crazy rhythms live... Hamasyan's performance in the Montreaux Jazz Festival is otherwordly to me. Thanks a lot for the video!

Wonderful! Saw Tigran three times in Dublin over the past few years.... stunning every time! Soulful and mindful! Great video David.

"Joy or confusion?" Yes

Yes David! I've been waiting for something like this, cheers!

I met Tigran at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. My pick for amazing out of all the headlining acts that year. Thanks for a clip looking at someone who I hold in very high regard. Talking about his beautiful space phrasing in compositions was a lovely side. Isn't it wonderful how this master can make 4/4 sound jarring and 'odd'. I appreciate your clips David. I always learn things I am interested in even if I didn't know I was interested in them before I watch. You open my ears and eyes.

Excellent. Your videos have been a pleasure to discover. Keep it up!

I definitely fall on the JOY side of the fence! How Yogev woodshed that... damn, that is dedication.

Thank you for introducing this artist to me. Enjoyed the deep analysis and breakdown. Awesome teamwork!!

Love this and all your videos, I am always excited to see notifications from your channel

His music/rhythms still bring me tears of joy when I return to them, I don't know why. I am a drummer but come on why is it so emotional hahaa :)

I ‘ve been waiting for this video !! Thank you

Great video, thanks so much!

LOVE it. Thank you so much for your meticulous work David.

What an amazing video! Thank you so much for putting it together! Loved it from beginning to end, killer concepts

That´s a great video Bruce, thanks a million for your work!!

I was lucky enough to be in the crowd when Tigran played this, I remember being mesmerized. As for the last question, I remain confused by the rhythms, but that's a type of confuse that I enjoy.

brilliantly put together analysis of some amazing music. Thanks for this!

This video is amazing! Thanks for your effort. It's one of your most interesting video. Bravissimo

Thank you so much for making this video! Tigran is one of my favorite musicians and it was great to get a detailed look into his rhythm.

It’s just fantastic❤️ thank you for such an interesting video👍

Thank you for this video! All the best

Thank you so much for this video, amazing!!

Great channel. Thanks for introducing me to these musical talents!

Absolute joy for me!! Thank you for such an interesting take on Tigran's rhythmic patterns.

Great video! I'm so happy to see people showing genuine curiosity and research toward my all-time favorite musical artist. I have some comments and related examples. --- About Double Faced: The '5-based poly-syncopated groove' comes in at 0:10, and the drums properly accent the backbeats with snare hits. When continuing to count along, the "pause" lines up to actually be the downbeat (or "kick drum space") of the 1st measure of that whole phrase. Your transcription placed the pause at the end of the last measure, rather than the beginning of the first measure. Tigran is loyal to the rock trope of respectively using Kick & Snare as forward-beat and back-beat when establishing the foundations of his more complex structures. --- About Vardavar: I refer to the concept Yogev is explaining as "Pattern Redivision", which I think Tigran actually invented. I created a graphic to illustrate it here: tinyurl.com/pattern-redivision He explained it perfectly, but when you were introducing that groove from the end of Vardavar, you called it 4/4. The pattern with the chords over the new hi-hat beats is actually 5/4, but with the Kick & Snare continually alternating so every second measure happens to start with a snare. You're correct when you say there's an effort to keep the "rough shape" through warping, because these 'beat length ratio changes' Tigran does are *technically* impossible without altering the real-time lengths of some of the beats. The ratio of lengths from 5 to 3 is not mathematically equal to the ratio of lengths from 3 to 2. 5/3 =/= 3/2. This shows Tigran is subtly finagling the lengths of things (usually whichever beat lengths aren't played first in the pattern) to maintain the illusion. Pattern Redivision is illusionary and Tigran exploits the subtle human errors and microrhythms in peoples' sense of rhythm to glue it all together. === Other Tigran events of interest [which can be found here: music.gisher.org/artists/449/ ] --- In "Sibylla" from Aratta Rebirth: There's a polymeter that's not particularly eyebrow raising, but grandiosely ballsy, and has a cleverly mischievous moment at the end. The majority of the song plays in 5 groups of 3, or a 15-subdivision framework. There's a recurring riff that guitars, the bassline, and kick drum play throughout these measures of 15 subs. At 5:05, the drummer begins to play recurring groups of 4 subs on the cymbal, adding a snare backbeat to every other one. Based on the 15:4 polymeter that is then established, it takes 15 cymbal hits for the pattern to realign itself, but the drummer still keeps playing snares as backbeats. So, the 15:4 polymeter sequence is then repeated, so the backbeat in the drummer's hands realigns with the pattern. Usually with big poly-structures like this, musicians enjoy triumphantly emphasizing the following downbeat as proof that they stayed together and conquered the passage they just played. Here, Tigran is cheeky and follows up that big poly structure with a repeat of a previous phrase that remains silent for the first subdivision, instead emphasizing the second one. It seems like there was a gap between measures/phrases. That gap could potentially throw off a lot of listeners who are following with the poly-framework and wanted the satisfaction of hitting the commonly following downbeat. --- In "The Court Jester" from Shadow Theater: The second half of the song has a fantastic high-energy pattern in 4 bars of 6/4 at quarter note=131 BPM. There are a lot of slippery, ornate flourishes to its composition and performance. The drums start indicating a stable meter through it at 4:12. There are two different groove interpretations (6/8 on the hi-hat then later 3/4 on the ride cymbal) and the first downbeat is displaced forward by 1 eighth note (2 subdivisions). That's maintained through the two different aforementioned groove interpretations. The real head-scratcher here is how the whole band slows down in sync from 131 to ~110 BPM to finish out the last couple bars, before the drummer then quickly counts 2 rim shots in the original tempo to get everyone onto that displaced downbeat and keep playing the phrase back in the original tempo. They even do it again at 5:13. When I first heard it, I thought there must have been some metric relationship between the new slower quarter notes (110bpm) and the old faster ones. Knowing Tigran, I thought it must a metric modulation rather than just a guided slow-down, but I couldn't feel any meaningful relationship. When I aligned the different grooves by their downbeats in my DAW, I saw no strong metric relationship. The new slower quarter notes are almost long enough to be quarter-note triplets in the previous tempo, but not quite. The BPM relation of 13/11 is so irregular, I don't think there's actually a metric relationship. I'm surprised, but intrigued, because this seems to be Tigran's only rhythmic trick that doesn't have particular metric thinking behind it. === The side of the fence I fall on is absolutely joy. He uses these complex structures narratively and purposefully, not just to bask in the awe of it but to use them to embolden his musical storytelling.

Wow, thank you for this video, I definitely have to check out his music! And your video is great, as usual, thank you for this in-depth analysis!

Thank you so much for making this video. It is incredibly interesting.

So glad you made this video. So glad I got to discover Hamasyan.

Loved it, Vardavar is one of my favourite pieces of music ever. The first time I heard it I was bloooown away lol. I've had quite the struggle demystifying some of his work, but one can learn a lot from it!

Thank you very much for doing this. I've always known he was doing crazy stuff, but having more details into all of this is really insightful (and scary!). Thanks!!!

I think it is amazing that you are giving some exposure to Tigran. I don't think he has enough already for the level of genius he is. I have been listening a lot to "Mockroot" (album and live version) and the rhythm trickery is just insane, astonishing, clever. Some times, even though he is playing in these very oddly split note sections, it sounds very square and rhythmically pleasant even for someone without musical and/or rhythm orientation. His music is ridiculously alive and lush. It makes you feel grateful to be alive and being able to listen to that beautiful musical madness. PS. look up his live performance of "What The Waves Brought" for more rhythmic beatboxing insanity.

Oh my gosh thank you so much for this video! I really, really appreciate your attention to detail and care, and for you to turn your attention to one of my favourite pianists is amazing! Absolutely made my day when I first saw you had uploaded and I'm glad and amazed that you found a very usable compositional concept that I will probably yoink for my own purposes too!

This is crazy! Thank you and Yogev for this!

Best video so far!!! Please give us some more or this profound stuff :)

Hugely inspirational!!! Thanks for picking this apart! Warrants many viewings!

That was just facinating. I'm thinking Frank Zappa would have thoroughly enjoyed this. Thnx David

Thanks Bruce for providing some (strongly desired ;)) understanding of Tigran's work! Awesome video and good luck with making more!

I'd never thought you would make a video on Tigran Hamasyan, my favourite contemporary musician Thanks for this video

This was a wonderful assessment. So glad I can across your research. Thank you!! 😊❤️👍

Oh sweet heavens, I’ve been waiting for this for so long!

"I realize that for some people this will just come across as confusion" Hello there But I got to say, confusion has never sounded that awesome!

Awesome video, thanks for sharing this!

very good work !!! thanks

Brilliant! A thousand thanks for your insights....

Thank you Mr. Bruce. Loved the vid.

Thank you for making this video, because of it I found out Trigan and it's just SO GOOD

my third time watching this video, thank you so much David 🙌 and Yogev!

I love Tigran Hamasyan s music he is a genius.Greetings from Turkey.

Thank you very much for the class!!! Very educational.

Thank you so much for this video!!!

Finaly, someone breaks down Tigran's amazing rhythms. Loved the video, David!

Really love this. It's a very valuable tool for the ones that have love for the rhythm.

Thank you for bringing Tigrans magic to the attention of more people, really loved seeing some of his stuff explained. I find loads of joy in trying to "feel along" when listening to him. So rewarding once you get a rythm down!

Wow! That was mindblowing. Still is, acutally! Thanks a million times for that insight!

Thanks ever so much for sharing your knowledge and curiosity with us. This is a clear, crisp, and very informative document, containing extremely precious information. I take my hat off to you Sir. I'm subbed !! Greetings from France.

Thank you for this video! Very interesting topic and analysis

This was very stimulating for me. I enjoyed and now, I'm a new subscriber.

David Bruce. Thank you very much for explaining to the online audience, especially the young people, the inregular musical times. With your excellent way of explaining, you can get the RU-vid audience to understand and appreciate the talents and quality that musicians like Tigran Hamasyan's have. Keep going! You are a great RU-vidr.

Thanks so much for this video! I’ve always admired Tigran’s chops despite his music not really being up my alley. But now having some insight into the way he writes is opening my ears to more possibilities!

I really appreciate your videos David.

Great video, thanks David. Subscribed!

So amazing!! Thanks for this awsome content!!

Really loved this video David! I especially appreciate your clear and simple diagrams and explanations of very complex concepts. I can't really get into Tigran's music (yet?) but I can certainly appreciate the artistry, genius, and awesome skills behind it!

DUDE. By FAR one of my favorite of your videos. Please do more rhythmic videos

Fantastic! Thank you!

Joy. Tigran is one of my favorite artists for sure and your investigations have brought a whole new meaning. The music is both aesthetically beautiful and intellectual. Art!

As always, an incredible insight/journey into the different horizons of music! 🙌👏 Your works are simply mind-expanding David and I really appreciate your effort and love which you put in every work of yours! As a jazzhead, I am a huge fan of Tigran Hamasyan ("What The Waves Brought" is killing me) and I think he is one of the most powerful responses (along with other magnificent ECM Records artists and one and only Kamasi Washington) to those who claim that "Jazz is dead!". This week, I've been very interested in the early, rare electronic instrument "ondes Martenot" and its other close relatives which Jonny Greenwood use frequently, and it blew my mind, so my request from you is to make a video about rare instruments and their use in scores, orchestral compositions etc. There are countless things in this life to discover and as Rachmaninoff said wonderfully: "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music." Thank you again David, we can't thank you enough!! I'll always support your insightful content and I think it's time to back your works up via Patreon, too! 🎶💥😊🙏 Greetings from Turkey! Peace!

Truly amazing! Yogev is a fantastic drummer and Tigran is just insane! For me rhythm is a very interesting topic and I like the straightforward way you explain such complex things.

What an amazing explanation. My mind is blown with Hamasyan's brilliance and equally with your explanation. Thank you!

Thank you so much for this breakdown of Tigran's wonderful music!

It boggles my mind that someone can feel music rhythm to that degree of complexity. He Must be a genius

Thank you! Love it!

Thank you so much for this video! It will help me a lot adapting some of Tigrans songs on the guitar. But I have to watch it at least 10 times more before I get it :D

Beautiful analysis video, it's thanks to you that I've discovered Tigran Hamasyan. Also, I really liked seeing you wear a Wintergatan t-shirt!

I'm speechless!! This kind of rhythmic complexity, performed so musically is preternatural! Thank you David for this excellent exploration of Tigran's work

Excellent video, sir. Your drummer consult has also very good chops and understanding. I've loved TH's music ever since I heard it, would be a pleasure to see his group live.

Total enjoyment! Thank you.

Your video introduced me to Mr. Hamasyan's music, the only analog I have is when I was introduced to Pat Metheny's music in 1986; there was a time in my life before exposure to genius and the time after. Even disregarding the rhythmic brilliance you blessedly teach here as a wonderful concept on which to practice, hearing Tigran for the first time is a blessing that rarely comes in a lifetime: there are too few artists where I scream "Eureka" (I have found it!). So I see this video BEFORE beginning to listen to his works. What a great service you and your friend have performed in breaking down the rhythm for we students. Thank you so much!

Mate I love you thanks for covering this legend.