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Polyrhythms are the most overrated music theory concept. amirite?

98%Yeah You Are2%No Way
vcsandfecess avatar Music
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As a music geek, I appreciate this lol

I absolutely love hearing about drama in niche disciplines.

DueBodybuildes avatar DueBodybuilde Yeah You Are +5Reply

polyriddim

Some-Noname-idks avatar Some-Noname-idk Yeah You Are +4Reply
@Some-Noname-idk polyriddim

That song is about nested tuplets, the polyrhythm is just the result.

vcsandfecess avatar vcsandfeces Yeah You Are +3Reply
@Some-Noname-idk polyriddim

not that song 💀

Openeyess avatar Openeyes Yeah You Are +1Reply
@Openeyes not that song 💀

Yes that exact song. The masterpiece of this century.

mattyh2433s avatar mattyh2433 Yeah You Are +4Reply

Imo, it's fugues. I love fugues, I wish there were more of them. But the way some people speak about and over analyze them is atrocious

jodzdzownicas avatar jodzdzownica Yeah You Are +4Reply

Listen to Tool

@teknogreek Listen to Tool

Why is everyone talking about Tool?

They use them, but it's not a King Crimson and polymeters situation.

vcsandfecess avatar vcsandfeces Yeah You Are +3Reply
@teknogreek Listen to Tool

I love Tool, but Tool also totally proves his point about the music not being nearly as complex as they make it sound.

Tldfonats avatar Tldfonat Yeah You Are +1Reply

Sure, throw in Gamelan tuning, just C (non tempered) and "microtones" while you're at it.

Apartlavishnesss avatar Apartlavishness Yeah You Are +2Reply

This seems WAY too niche for it to either be an unpopular or popular opinion. An unpopular opinion needs to be more accesible to most people than this.

mattyh2433s avatar mattyh2433 Yeah You Are +2Reply

Ever listened to Tool?

@vcsandfeces Yes.

Watch Tomas Haake from Meshuggah perform "Bleed"

Tldfonats avatar Tldfonat Yeah You Are 0Reply

So I'm going to assume that polyrhythms are something that you have been over exposed to. Which is understandable. There are a lot of people who have been exposed to music theory relatively recently thanks to the internet, and are now coming across techniques that seem novel. Polyrhythms being one example. They're easy to understand, trivial to implement digitally, and sound exotic. And so people experiment, which rarely creates something compelling, though that's besides the point. It's more that they are one more in a line of techniques to expand someone's musical vocabulary.

If a composition was rhythmically exclusively a polyrhythm (e.g. an unvarying 4:5), then i would agree that it is necessarily not very complex. But of course an uninspired use of polyrhythms is uninspired - that's a tautology. However, it would be (necessarily) more complex than 4/4 or 4/5 in isolation. One could easily make the same argument that odd time signatures or tuplets are more overrated, as they are more common, and an entire piece composed purely of one of these techniques would be similarly "monotonous". Most of your points seem to be arguments against a lack of imagination in realising a technique, rather than an argument against the technique itself.

Iapetus-11s avatar Iapetus-11 Yeah You Are +2Reply

Bold statement to make, when you only know about western music.

opensofiass avatar opensofias Yeah You Are +2Reply
vcsandfecess avatar vcsandfeces Yeah You Are +4Reply

Polyrhythm is a main component of Latin-caribean music ( like salsa) and African music.

"Things I'm not capable of are overrated."

Someone needs to start listening to Tool.

stevnev88s avatar stevnev88 Yeah You Are +1Reply

Tool fans disagree brother

I'll just take your word on it...

Professor-kaosss avatar Professor-kaoss Yeah You Are +1Reply

Is fioana apples "hot knife" an example of this? What are examples?

Openeyess avatar Openeyes Yeah You Are +1Reply

OP needs some Car Bomb in his life right about now me thinks…

Vic8760s avatar Vic8760 Yeah You Are +1Reply

I'm a professional drummer and educator and could not agree more. They do sound cool given the right context, but generally there are better things to focus time and energy on.

Pass the goddamn butter

vcsandfecess avatar vcsandfeces Yeah You Are 0Reply

Delay pedal, done.

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