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Re: delay tricks & Indian classical music



Chris said:
>Here's a method I learned in tabla lessons, which helps me hear and
>"internalize" some of these polyrhythms:
>
>I'll use your example -- 5 : 2  --
>
>1. Use your hands to count the 5:  Clap on the 1, then strike your fingers
>of one hand , (alternately), on the palm of your other hand to count the 2
>through 5.
>

>
>Do this slowly for a bit, at a steady pace, until you don't have to think
>about it.
>
>Now the other side of the polyrhythm will be done with your voice:   
>Choose
>a repeating note/word sequence, with one sound per count (of the 5).  For
>example, the traditional 5 count tabla note sequence goes:
>TA  KAY  TA  KEE  TA.
>

In college I took a class in West African music performance. (Taught by
C.K. Ladzekpo at UC Berkeley)  What is interesting is that he taught
polyrhythms in a similar way, using voice and clapping. It says something
about human nature that different cultures happened upon similar methods
for effective teaching, doesn't it?

In order to pass the class, one thing we had to do was clap the basic
gonkugui (sp?) bell pattern, which is a four beat, three vs four
polyrhythmic pattern that underlies much of the traditional music from
Ghana. While clapping this, we had to count 2 bars each of every possible
eighth and triplet beat division of the 4 beat bar. So: whole notes, half
notes, half note triplets, quarter notes, triplet quarters, eighth notes,
triplet eighths, sixteenths, and sextuplets. It took me the whole semester
to be able to do this at all, and I still wasn't very good.

I started that class thinking that I knew something about rhythm since I
had been playing music for a long time. I was humbled very quickly! In a
good way though. I learned that I knew almost nothing about rhythms, other
than the very basic structures in western music. It pushed me, and showed
me how important a rhythmic language is to expression in music. Gave me
just enough tools to get started learning more.

One thing that western listeners often miss in rhythmically based music is
that emotions are expressed through the rhythm patterns themselves, rather
than in harmony. Cross rhythms and syncopation are used to generate
tension, which is resolved with more "consonant" rhythms falling on regular
beat intervals. Different rhythmic patterns are used compositionally to
represent different emotional feels, in much the way western music tends to
use particular harmonic progressions to impart emotion.

A while back there was a thread involving tension and resolution, where
someone was talking about how looping doesn't have tensions and resolutions
and therefore represents a form of music beyond what can be explained by
standard western music theory. I'm not sure I totally agree with such a
statement (which I probably have totally wrong here), since it seemed to be
focused on harmonic tension.  But it made me think about the ways tension
and resolution do occur in repetitive and looped music. Since looping
enforces the regular occurance of events in the loop, rhythm seems to be
much more important, at least for me.

One thing that happens in West African music, and I imagine elsewhere, is
that tense polyrhythms will occur in one part of the pattern and resolve
into even rhythms in another part. So you might have several instruments
pulling against each other while playing a complicated cross rhythm over
beats 1, 2, and 3, and all come together on the beat for 4 and 1. This
tension-release pattern will repeat for that section of the song, and the
next section of the song will have a different repeating pattern.

This sort of thing works really well in looping, since it is easy to add a
lot of odd rhythms in one part of the loop while another part is nice and
even. You can even slowly begin emphasizing one part over the other with
multiple overdub passes. So each pass might include a percussive note
played on the same beat each time, reinforcing the feeling that everything
comes together at that point. Or each pass may include a different part of
polyrhythm, making it more complex and tense with each pass. Undo lets you
remove the emphasis again.

Another thing that I have found to be very interesting about looping is
that a very non-rhythmic event, by virtue of being repeated in a regular
interval, becomes rhythmic! Naturally I discovered this by accident,
because I totally blew something I was trying to play, but let it loop
anyhow. By itself, it was rhythmically horrible, but as a loop, it became a
fantastically weird rhythm. It produces a great kind of tension, because
you have a terrible time predicting where it happens in the loop yet it
always happens in that same spot! I've done this a lot since, both
accidentally and intentionally, and it makes a great effect.

kim





______________________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
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