rhythmic riddles
The trip to L.A. was AWESOME -- I'll be putting some photos up, hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm writing fight music for Mortal Kombat.
Because so much of the MK stuff has an Asian/ethnic flavor to it, I wanted to work in a mixed-meter groove, but not lose the "common touch" -- that classic, four-on-the-floor, 4/4 time that our Western culture has deemed the ONLY time signature for popular music.
So I've come up with this pattern for the A section:
and for the bridge:
Go ahead and clap it out. Ees moy phunki.
So here is the question: in spite of these wacky odd/mixed meters, why does this still feel "comfortable" to the average listener?
And for you smarties out there, here's the bonus question: the bridge of my tune (12/8-2/4) shares the same groove as the transition from pre-chorus to chorus in what 80's bubblegum pop-rock tune?!?!?
Because so much of the MK stuff has an Asian/ethnic flavor to it, I wanted to work in a mixed-meter groove, but not lose the "common touch" -- that classic, four-on-the-floor, 4/4 time that our Western culture has deemed the ONLY time signature for popular music.
So I've come up with this pattern for the A section:
7/8 (divided 3,2,2)
9/8 (unusually divided 3,2,2,2)
and for the bridge:
12/8 (the classic 3,3,3,3)
2/4 (umm... 2,2...)
Go ahead and clap it out. Ees moy phunki.
So here is the question: in spite of these wacky odd/mixed meters, why does this still feel "comfortable" to the average listener?
And for you smarties out there, here's the bonus question: the bridge of my tune (12/8-2/4) shares the same groove as the transition from pre-chorus to chorus in what 80's bubblegum pop-rock tune?!?!?
6 Comments:
In clapping out the rhythm (is muy funky indeed, senor!), I noticed that it the same rhythm could be written out in straight 4/4 with no remainder, which, given your compositional aim for this tune is probably intentional. Those people who listen to the finished piece (and have some musical background) would probably think that you simply wrote the piece as being in 4/4 the whole time.
Do I get a cookie?
Oh, btw, the 12/8 to 2/4 prechorus to chorus is in Rush's "Tom Saywer" but I doubt that's the answer you're looking for...
The "Tom Sawyer" answer is correct! But it was not the tune I was thinking of... anyone else wanna get in on this action?
Tom Sawyer is Bubble Gum rock?!
::gives weird look::
???
1. Tom Sawyer is not bubblegum rock.
2. READ CAREFULLY - no one said or inferred TS was bubblegum rock.
3. READ CAREFULLY AGAIN - I said TS was not the tune I was thinking of.
4. TS was written and recorded in the 70's and the bubblegum pop tune I was thinking of was from the 80's.
Sorry about that last response... I really need to switch to decaf. The tune I was thinking of was "Simply Irresistable" by Robert Palmer.
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