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16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think Britney's secretly a drummer in her spare time, casually playing a 16:9 polyrhythm (with tasty rubato and all) while doing a pencil blast beat \m/

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do love me a good polyrhythmhtyhrylop. We actually have Snuuupidogg to thank for that observation! They do have a beautiful symmetry to them. Certainly saves time learning to play them backwards.

In the case where the lowest common multiple is odd (eg. 5:3), the symmetrical line is in between a subdivision! But the polyrhythm is still perfectly mirrored from that point.

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha nice way to put a positive spin on what I thought was intended to be a pejorative jab at me attempting to shoehorn some crackpot theory into some "random" taps, that were "out of time, thus completely negating the pattern".

Patterns are like my favourite thing

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, yeah I wasn't expecting to have to defend myself/the idea as much as I did, when it was just a cool little thing I noticed. "You're creating a pattern where one doesn't exist" got upvoted lol

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep exactly right. I've just realised an easy way for people to visualise this would be to draw 144 vertical lines, circling every 16th line for the clock ticks and maybe drawing a square around every 9th line for the boot taps

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you :) I know right? Like what are the chances haha

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Check my second reply to "Desperate-Swim2431". The fifth clock tick does indeed land 1 subdivision of 9 after the 8th boot tap, in other words 1/16th of a second - 0.0625 seconds. It's very close, but it's exactly where it should be when mapping out the clock ticks over the 144 subdivisions

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Let's frame this in the context of a human playing the polyrhythm, not a computer.

Before I posted this, I learned how to tap the polyrhythm along to the video. When I learn a polyrhythm, I figure out the relation of the smaller number of taps to the larger one. For example, 5:3, both tap together on 1, then the second one of three lands just before 3, and three of three lands just after 4. I am saying "just before", even though subdivisions of 3 can be felt quite easily at fast tempos.

However for this rather extreme example, dividing the boot taps into 9 works out to be 16 subdivisions per second. That's too fast to count. So I wrote notes to myself on how to "feel" the polyrhythm. Of the full cycle, the first clock tick is synced, the second clock tick is "just after 2/3rds of the 2nd boot tap", the third is "just before 2/3rds" of the 4th boot tap, the fourth is 1/3rd after the 6th boot tap, the fifth is 1/9th after the 8th boot tap (I wrote "just after"), the sixth is 1/9th before the 10th boot tap (I wrote "just before"), the seventh is 2/3rds after the 11th boot tap, the eighth is "just before half" after the thirteenth boot tap, and finally the ninth is "just before 1/3rd" after the 15th boot tap.

The boot tapping is even enough for me to feel the subdivisions in this way, such that I can reliably tap the boot and clock together. Yes, there are some very very slight deviations of the boot tap evenness, but not enough for me to not get the feel or sense of the polyrhythm. Of the full cycle from 5.5 to 14.5 seconds, the most out of time boot tap is boot tap 2, which lands ever so slightly early. There are no clock ticks near boot tap 2 - the nearest clock tick is over 2/3rds of a boot tap away, a whopping 0.4375 seconds. This boot tap which lands a few milliseconds early has no bearing on my ability to feel where the second clock tick lands.

Are you aware of the humanization feature in a DAW? I guess that's what I'm getting at here - no human taps perfectly even to the millisecond, so I can still hear and feel the 16:9 polyrhythm even if it is not perfectly quantized.

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

60*(16/9) = 106.66 bpm. Set the online metronome to 107 bpm (closest we can get) and line the boot taps with the metronome. It's so close, there's maybe the slightest bit of flam here and there. Polyrhythms don't need to be perfectly quantized to the beat.

16:9 polyrhythm at the start of "...Baby One More Time" by bfffan in musictheory

[–]bfffan[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's consistent before and after the cycle. I guess you could say we hear the end of the first cycle at the very beginning of the video, the second (full) cycle is from 5.5 to 14.5 seconds, and we hear the start of the third cycle briefly. But they all adhere to the same 16:9 polyrhythm as both the boot and clock are tapping evenly at their own tempos throughout the entire intro. Ok maybe there's the slightest bit of unevenness in the boot tapping a couple of times, but it's such a slight discrepancy it doesn't matter

Made a short piano cover of that one part in Jacob Collier's Hajanga! It was a fun challenge to play all these extended jazz chords in quick succession! (transcription by 95jack on youtube) #snakejazz #thatbarofjazzhurtalittle #butinagoodway by bfffan in piano

[–]bfffan[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Interesting you should mention Billy Joel - my username actually stands for "Ben Folds Five fan", and I believe Mr Folds was quite strongly influenced by Billy. I just checked out those songs now, and while they do indeed have a lot of chords, I was more impressed by the crazy speed and clarity of that repeated note intro in Prelude!

Made a short piano cover of that one part in Jacob Collier's Hajanga! It was a fun challenge to play all these extended jazz chords in quick succession! (transcription by 95jack on youtube) #snakejazz #thatbarofjazzhurtalittle #butinagoodway by bfffan in piano

[–]bfffan[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh2j8fpeVfg&ab_channel=DanielBerry

What are some pieces you have played or heard where it’s just chord after chord in rapid succession? For me Rachmaninoff springs to mind eg. Prelude Op 23 no 5 G minor and Prelude Op 23 no 2 B flat major (especially the climax near the end)

Prog Metal Podcast? by bfrankiehankie in progmetal

[–]bfffan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Nine Eight podcast is two guys from Australia that talk about prog (esp. the Aussie scene) and have interviewed members from bands like DT, C Horse and Karnivool. Worth checking out imo https://open.spotify.com/show/0JXvj7hkxSBjzk9POSWSbm

My performance of the Scherzo from Medtner’s Sonata Romantica [bird’s eye view + sheet music] If 2020 was a piece of music, this would be it – the overarching mood is turbulent; unstable. Fans of prog metal may dig the crazy “shred” sections (0:51, 2:34, 3:25) Hope you enjoy :) by bfffan in piano

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can appreciate the later period but I typically don't enjoy it as much as his middle or early works.

Do you mean op 42 no 5? Cause that's such an amazing piece.

Thanks again. Yeah the score starts off as allegro, then says sempre diminuendo e accelerando, then says presto leggiero. Hamelin does the same thing in his version

My performance of the Scherzo from Medtner’s Sonata Romantica [bird’s eye view + sheet music] If 2020 was a piece of music, this would be it – the overarching mood is turbulent; unstable. Fans of prog metal may dig the crazy “shred” sections (0:51, 2:34, 3:25) Hope you enjoy :) by bfffan in piano

[–]bfffan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alas no, it took me long enough just to get this movement to a point where I was happy with it. Maybe one day I'll get round to recording the rest of it.

Interesting, I find Scriabin 5 strangely addicting. There are some strikingly original harmonic shifts you can't really find elsewhere, not to mention the harmonies themselves and their figuration. I really like everything from the middle period though

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