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Lee Knight

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WTF happened to the BEP? I used to
love
those guys. And then they started tuning Fergie. Fergie does not need tuning.


But hemlines go up, hemlines go down. I guess the BEP are more slaves to fashion than true to their art...



One thing that never goes out of fashion is...
good taste...

 

:)

 

Another inspiration for me this week has been the force feeding of radio pop I've experienced resort poolside.

 

To realize the current array of radio pop is essentially techno music in sound and arrangement, not R & B/Hip Hop as it was so recently. Then to analyze as I tend to do. Techno's builds, its breaks, its sounds (with the addition of a heaping helping of NI's newer Massive and FM8 synths), married to pop song form. The hybrid of trad pop form and techno pacing is interesting.

 

It's easy to scoff at and tempting as hell, I'll grant you. But a week of tequila and LMFAO/Rihanna/et al tends to open your mind a bit. Or melt it, I'm not sure.

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A simple polyrhythm being the 3 against 2. See the straight 1 2 3 4 below and see a pitch pattern below that. A B C aren't specific pitches, as in the notes A B and C. But rather just a representation of the pitch
pattern.
now accent each "A". This puts the accent first on beat 1, then 4, then 3 and so on. Polyrhythm and syncopation.



| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |


| A b c A | b c A b | c A b c | A b c A|


 

 

So kinda like the rhythm is in 4/4 and the melody is in 3/4? Am I reading you right?

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So kinda like the rhythm is in 4/4 and the melody is in 3/4? Am I reading you right?

 

 

 

 

Exactly. It's a rhythm mostly associated with ragtime and later jazz. But it's a polyrhythm that came right off the plantation and into "Cakewalk" music first.

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That is my main dude Jon Brion producing that unreleased version. I love it as well...

 

[video=youtube;Dn2xTqykW5M]

 

And producer here too...

 

[video=youtube;EwBhjxeG_1s]

 

Producing and playing the majority of instruments here...

 

[video=youtube;4c48vs4lwgc]

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The Russian Rag by George Cobb. A rag is a style based on early efforts to bring in some serious syncopation to turn of the century popular music. Where the previous Cakewalk had simple syncopation, the next step was just going too far! Those crazy kids and that damn rhythm! A "rag" is based on the idea of ragged rhythm. Syncopation. Get it?

 

So the story. George Cobb and friend at a restaurant. Cobb makes the bold statement, "I can rag any tune. Doesn't matter. I am the master of the rag and there isn't a melody or song that I can't rag." The friend dares him to try and rag Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# minor. A fairly dark and haunting melody, a popular piece at the time. Impossible! But not for Cobb. He walks cross the restaurant, sits at the piano thinking about the Prelude in C# Minor. Then begins... and does an amazing job. To Cobb's surprise but not his friend's, Rachmaninoff was dining at the restaurant. Rachmaninoff walks over to Cobb and loud enough for the establishment to hear every word deadpans, "Nice tune, but the rhythms all wrong."

 

I really love what he later writes down, arranges and releases. His best known piece.

 

[video=youtube;Ni9KkfwVi64]

[video=youtube;wXQCPAR0EHo]

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And BTW, in the Russian Rag above, at :17 through :19, that's a great example of the 3 against 4 polyrhythm I was talking about in the Cakewalk post. And for a more obvious example, go to 1:54...

 

| 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |

 

| A b c A | b c A b | c A b c | A b c A|

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