How would you describe this drum beat?

Bakerman said:
The drum beat isn't really swung at all. Maybe this mismatch/flamming between drums and (swung) guitar upstroke on the "and" of beat 3 is a thing you noticed.
Click to expand...
Yea.

We've been playing around with the swing and have arrived at a similar conclusion through trial and error at this point.
 
Last edited:
Steve's got the beat! It's in Jerk time!

the-jerk.gif
 
TG3K said:
Interesting beat indeed. I'd call it half time with a touch of swing. He's hitting on the 1, 2, and the and of 4. It's that and that makes it feel behind the beat to me.
Click to expand...

It didn't feel odd to me. From the beginning I started listening to it as 4/4 at 72 bpm. The beat always falls into the 3rd beat.
 
iaresee said:
If you had to use words to describe the drum beat in this song, how would you describe it? Is it half time relative to the tempo (tempo is 144 bpm)? Is it slightly behind the beat? I'm pretty sure it's not swung, but there's a feel to it I don't have the right words to describe.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Good balance of attack, resonance, depth and control on a bass drum.
 
Sixstring said:
Ha It looks like the Bass player was invited to the wrong gig! I feel that this vid should be mashed up to modern music!
Click to expand...
There is a version of this video with Foo Fighters (I think) over top, which is where I first became aware of it. Hysterical it was, and it sent me on a two-hour Google Fu odyssey to figure out the source video and Reg Kehoe.
 
Thought of it in 8/8 and it seemed to make more sense to me- 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 1.... Basically the same feel as 4/4 but the instrument accents on the '1' in 8/8 made it easier for me to follow and wrap my head around.
 
Sounds like some of the acoustic or bluegrass/folk one man band kinda thing. Where there's a single kickdrum stomped on, usually by the guitar player to keep time.?
 
USMC_Trev said:
From a scoring standpoint though. if I wrote 8/8 on the staff my profs would have laughed me off campus.
Click to expand...
That's why I mentioned up above it's actually easier to count it in double time due to the syncopation. The brain wants those claps or whatever to fall on the beat. I think that's caused the confusion over the actual tempo of the song.
 
USMC_Trev said:
From a scoring standpoint though. if I wrote 8/8 on the staff my profs would have laughed me off campus.
Click to expand...
It's an odd meter and may not be theoretically sound but it's how I would describe it and be able to count it while playing.
 
JoKeR III said:
It's an odd meter and may not be theoretically sound but it's how I would describe it and be able to count it while playing.
Click to expand...
Odd meters are by definition where the denominator and numerator do not match. 6/8. 5/4, etc. You can leave 6/4 and 12/8 as is. When it's 8/8, though, just like in fractions when writing music you reduce to the lowest common denominator. If you're writing 8/8 and then calling for a super largo tempo, it's technically incorrect. You write 4/4 and the appropriate tempo for the song.

In other words, writing 8/8 with a super slow tempo in order to squeeze the entirety of the drum phrase into one measure is counter to the standard for writing music to paper. It's got nothing you do with how you'd verbalize it.

I'm not actually trying to have an argument with you, I'm just pointing out the nuances of writing this stuff to paper or Sibelius or whatever.
 
USMC_Trev said:
Odd meters are by definition where the denominator and numerator do not match. 6/8. 5/4, etc. You can leave 6/4 and 12/8 as is. When it's 8/8, though, just like in fractions when writing music you reduce to the lowest common denominator. If you're writing 8/8 and then calling for a super largo tempo, it's technically incorrect. You write 4/4 and the appropriate tempo for the song.

In other words, writing 8/8 with a super slow tempo in order to squeeze the entirety of the drum phrase into one measure is counter to the standard for writing music to paper. It's got nothing you do with how you'd verbalize it.

I'm not actually trying to have an argument with you, I'm just pointing out the nuances of writing this stuff to paper or Sibelius or whatever.
Click to expand...
'Odd' can also mean 'strange and unusual', too....
winona-origin.jpg
 
I remember being taught that the top number represents the number of beats in a measure, and the bottom number tells you which note gets the beat. But then when I started reading more complex music, in which measures switch from say, 4/4 to 7/8, but the beat and tempo doesn't change, then this definition was either wrong, or incomplete, or the music really should've been written as 8/8 & 7/8.
Personally I think the rules aren't completely consistent, based on I how I see music scored and notated.
I mean, if the pulse of the music doesn't change from measure to measure, and the beats are clearly on the eighth notes, then why wouldn't it be correct to notate the time signatures as 8/8 & 7/8? That's what I either don't understand, or doesn't make sense.
Maybe someone knows of a universally accepted rule that explains how the meter is supposed to be properly notated by the time signature...?
 
JoKeR III said:
It's an odd meter and may not be theoretically sound but it's how I would describe it and be able to count it while playing.
Click to expand...
You're saying the same thing I was by counting it in double time. All you're doing is assigning one beat to every eighth note. That's gonna make it feel like the tempo is twice as fast as it actually is though.
 
Last edited:
USMC_Trev said:
Odd meters are by definition where the denominator and numerator do not match. 6/8. 5/4, etc.
Click to expand...
I haven't seen that definition before. IME odd meter usually means groups of different length (twos and threes) at some level within a measure. 6/8 is two beats, both the same length (three eighth notes). 5/4 is 5 equal beats, but at the quarter note level you have 3/4 + 2/4 or 2/4 + 3/4, so it's odd.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom