First of all, I saw the GDYO Wind Symphony with UNT's Symphonic Band today. It was really good. I didn't get to see much of Symphonic Band, but I always enjoy them, and the piece I heard was pretty spectacular. And the GDYO Wind Symphony did a very good job.
I had to leave early so I could get a little cash and go to Dan's Silverleaf to Miles Okazaki play with Colin Hinton and Mike Luzecky.
Miles is a guitarist, kanjira player, and composer who's really influenced by South Indian music. Oh, and he's studied at Harvard, Julliard, and the MSM, not only for music, but to study literature, mathematics, and visual arts. He's a an all-around boss.
He taught Advanced South Indian on Wednesday and explained how a couple of his songs work before I heard them today. He really likes to play with the shapes of rhythms, and he told us how to create rhythmic dissonance, and how it takes much longer to resolve but creates an even more powerful effect.
Take this beat for example, which is in 6/4: (o=bass, x=snare)
| |-| | | |- | |-
o o o x o o x x
Miles took a beat off of the beginning 5 times, to create a bar of 6, a bar of 5, a bar of 4, a bar of 3, and a bar of 2; then he added them back on, a bar of 3, a bar of 4, a bar of 5.
| |-| | | |- | |-
o o o x o o x x
|-| | | |- | |-
o o x o o x x
| | |- | |-
x o o x x
| |- | |-
o o x x
|- | |-
o x x
| |- | |-
o o x x
| | |- | |-
x o o x x
|-| | | |- | |-
o o x o o x x
This makes 6 + 5(2) + 4(2) + 3(2) + 2 = 32 beats, or 8 bars of a nice 4/4 groove.
So, that's what the drummer plays. If the bass player can play it inverted, starting on the 2/4 bar, this makes some pretty heavy rhythmic tension, but it always resolves in the same place. I think it's really neat.
I have a pretty busy weekend, but certainly a fun one. Mahler tomorrow, and one (possibly two?) Senor Fin shows. I'll let you know where those are.
M
hey thanks, that kool as hell. i really like to see the rhythm layed out like that, (reminds of math rock)
ReplyDeleteany ways thanks, please post more dissections like that(as a math major i find that stuff very kool)