The Sound of Numbers

Category: Ch 2: Video Examples

  • Taylor Swift’s 22

    Listen for a 4 against 3 polyrhythm around 1:28

  • Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a La Turk”

    Brubeck’s composition uses the rhythmic structure 2+2+2+3 repeated three times, followed by 3+3+3.

  • Tabla playing

  • Manjul Bhargava and tabla playing

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zomqzNPiWtI

  • Stone Temple Pilots: Vasoline

  • Ghanaian drummers

    We experience time as simultaneously linear (on a timeline) and cyclic (on a clock)–a fact that turns out to be interesting mathematically.  How is this music organized in time? What are the roles of the individual drummers?

  • Tāla in Carnatic Classical Music

    Carnatic classical music from south India uses a collection of rhythmic structures called tālas.  Each tāla is cyclic and organizes time in a particular way, including the number of beats per cycle.  In this video, the performer’s hand gestures indicate the tāla. These same gestures could accompany any piece using this tāla. Compare also the hand gestures used in the American tradition of shape-note singing and this…

  • James Brown’s Groove

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV95pdw3pDw James Brown, “The Godfather of Soul,” discusses grooves in his music in this 2005 interview with Terry Gross of NPR (starting around 3:00). He compares two versions of the “I Got You” groove.  He also describes how his groove shifted with his 1965 song “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag.” 

  • Knee Play 1 by Philip Glass

    Philip Glass wrote Knee Play 1 for his 1976 opera “Einstein on the Beach.” Glass has said that numbers were sung to help the chorus learn the difficult rhythm patterns.  He intended to eventually replace them with other lyrics, but changed his mind.

  • Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”

    The guitar and drums play what’s called a 3-against-4 polyrhythm in Led Zeppelin’s 1975 song “Kashmir.”  To practice it, count “ONE TWO three” with the guitar while a friend counts “one two THREE four” with the drums. The upper case letters indicate claps and the lower case letters indicate taps or silence. The resulting pattern repeats after…