Songs that use Polyrhythms & Polymeters

this video is sponsored by Squarespace use the promo code in the description to get 10% off your first purchase a polyrhythm is when a bar of music features more than one regularly spaced pulse at the same time for example if we have a song that's in three four then we have three evenly spaced beats in each bar but what if we superimpose four evenly spaced beats on top of this so we now simultaneously have three beats dividing the bar and four beats [Music] this is a polyrhythm a 4 over 3 polyrhythm an example of this particular polyrhythm in action is the song fake Empire by the national [Music] the left hand of the piano is playing three evenly spaced beats per bar [Music] but the right hand is playing for evenly-spaced speeds on top of this this gives us a four against three polyrhythm [Music] during snarky puppies recent MPR tiny desk concert michael league got the audience clapping a four against three polyrhythm he instructed half of the room to clap three beats a bar and then the other half to clap for on top from this side of the pillar over here you're gonna be the three side this side of the pillar you're gonna be the four side we're gonna do a polyrhythm one two three one two three the four side you're gonna put four beats inside of that three the first beat will be with them the other three will not so I'll sing it for you so that you can hear it's easy so one two three one you're gonna go one two three four one two three four one two three snacky puppy then use the resulting polyrhythm as the foundation for their song Charlie [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] another common polyrhythm is three over two this is sometimes called a vertical hemiola this is potentially the most common and easiest to play polyrhythm daydreaming by Radiohead uses this rhythm the right hand of the piano plays three evenly spaced beats in the time that the left hand plays two evenly spaced beats [Music] the examples we've looked at so far use a polyrhythm as the foundation of the piece of music this is sometimes referred to as a cross rhythm but Polly rhythms don't have to be used for the entire song they can just as easily be an occasional feature perhaps just appearing for one or two bars at a time for example during the organ solo on light my fire by the doors the drum starts marking triplets this creates a 3 against 2 polyrhythm because for each of these 3 beats we get in the drums we get two beats from the rest of the band [Music] a similar example is from Gloria buy them during the guitar solo the guitar plays triplets over the bands straight fall for pulse [Music] really anytime a quarter note triplet is used above a straight four for pulse that's a 3 against 2 polyrhythm a more extensive example is the chorus melody of is this love by Bob Marley one of my favorite examples of polyrhythm is Chariots of Fire by Vangelis the song starts with a regular eighth note pulse on the synthesizer but when the signature piano part enters it includes these triplets this creates a brief three against four polyrhythm because we have four eighth notes playing on the synth as the piano plays three evenly spaced notes on top [Music] note that a three against four polyrhythm is actually different from a four against three the second number in a polyrhythm is the main beat the prevailing pulse so dough Empire example that we had at the start the main pulse here is free beats per bar hence the time signature of three four [Music] in Chariots of Fire though the main pulse is four beats per bar as made clear by the pulsing synth line as you can imagine poly rhythms are extensively used in more progressive types of music like jazz classical and prog rock the band tool are well known for their use of poly rhythms a good example is there some lateralis the drums are playing a 6-4 time signature but the vocals are playing an evenly spaced pulse of eight beats per bar so this is an eight over six polyrhythm [Music] cell [Music] Jacob Collier is also a big fan of polyrhythms his song ha Jenga features a three against four polyrhythm the verse section is in 12 8 compound time so put simply we have four prevailing beats per bar but in the second verse between each line of vocals our drum kit enters playing a three against four polyrhythm [Music] [Applause] the kick drum is maintaining a post of four beats per bar however the snare and cymbals are hitting three evenly spaced beats over the top of this Jacob really takes advantage of the disorienting sound of this polyrhythm here if these three against four polyrhythm continued throughout the verse our ears would be able to accommodate it into the groove and we'd get used to it but because this drum part only plays for two bars before it then disappears again the polyrhythm that it's playing doesn't get a chance to become a cohesive part of the song's overarching pulse and instead each time it comes in it sounds just as disorientating and dramatic as it did the first time the drum part hangs around just long enough to get our attention but not long enough for ears to really latch on to what it's contributing to the rhythm a different but similar concept is poly meter poly meters and poly rhythms are often confused so let me explain what the difference is polyrhythm like I said at the start is when we have more than one evenly spaced pulse at a time we might have a post of four evenly spaced beads shoved on top of another pulse of three evenly spaced beads but with a poly meter we only have one pulse what makes it a poly meter though is that we have more than one time signature it's in the name poly meter so this is what a four against three poly meter would sound like [Music] so in this example the bass is playing in 4/4 however the snare drum is playing in 3/4 [Music] a four against three poly meter like this is actually used in Kashmir by Led Zeppelin the drums are playing a solid 4/4 time signature however the string melody is in three four [Music] even though the drums and strings are in two different time signatures because they're playing at the same tempo with a single unified pulse they work together note that even though I said we have two time signatures playing at the same time we actually only have one time signature written on the page this is because it's impractical to actually write two signatures down at the same time so instead we have to choose one of them and the other part has to be forcibly written into that signature another example of poly meter is let down by Radiohead the guitar part is in groups of five eight however the drums and bass are in a clear four for this means that almost immediately the two are out of sync creating a chaotic cascading effect [Music] [Applause] [Music] another example of poly meter is the aptly named five for by the gorillas which is in 5/4 time this is made clear by the guitar riff at the start of the song however when the drums enter the disorientation begins because the drums are in 4/4 so we have a five against four poly meter poly rhythms can be a particularly difficult subject to get your head around so hopefully this video has made some sense and if you know of any other examples of poly rhythms and songs then do put them in the comments down below and a massive thank you goes to Squarespace for sponsoring this video if you're trying to get your new project off the ground then you don't want to spend loads of time and money getting the website going Squarespace is a great solution for creating a good-looking user friendly website quickly and affordably for example if you want to showcase your own music on your website all you have to do is use their pre-built SoundCloud embedder do you link up your SoundCloud account start building your website today with the free trial and then when you're ready to make your first purchase use the promo code in the description to get 10% off thank you and as always a big thank you goes to my patrons who make 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Channel: David Bennett Piano

Views: 712,331

Keywords: music theory, rhythm, metre, polymeter, poly, polyrhythm, how to, examples of, songs with, pop, rock, metal, prog, jazz, drums, guitar, piano, lesson, sheet music, david bennett, examples, 3 over 2, 3 against 2, 3 over 4, 3 against 4, 6 over 8, jacob collier, snarky puppy, radiohead, the national, the doors

Id: GVDGxWL9oOo

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020