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Pattern / rhythm


Nico@Bass
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How would a bass pattern be called in the following two songs from periphery?

In the song 'Absolomb' this pattern / rhythm start @1:36
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdP3O8L_MV4

And in 'Prayer position' @ 1:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91eAE7GMBBk

Can somebody describe what the bass is doing here like: Double 8th's staccato in xx measure or ??
I have no theory background and would like to describe this to the drummer to add into our music.

Thanks in advance for the help!

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In the absence of terminology, often finding a drum play through video can help. Thankfully on this occasion, Matt himself can demonstrate :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whUy9s7jeqE

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[quote name='Nico@Bass' timestamp='1502292582' post='3350510']
I have no theory background and would like to describe this to the drummer to add into our music.
[/quote]

It's difficult to explain the rhythmic ideas in both examples without some sort of reference to music theory, but here's what I heard...

Firstly, Periphery are one of my favourite bands, so it was nice to have an excuse to give them a closer listen. There's a great British band called Sikth that Periphery have 'borrowed' a lot of ideas from.

Broadly speaking, both examples are interesting because they use syncopation and rhythmic displacement to move the accents away from the downbeats. I don't claim to have transcribed exactly what's going on, but it should give you an idea of the concepets that they're using.

'Absolomb' has the guitar playing a pattern of five 16th notes which creates an accent that shifts by one 16th note on each repetition (top part of the notation below). The bass and the kick drum also have a rhythmic phrase that shifts by one 16th with each repetition (bottom part in the notation):

[attachment=251172:Absolomb.jpg]

'Prayer Position' uses a triplet subdivision, but almost all of the accents are syncopated, which stops it sounding too much like a regular 'shuffle' groove:

[attachment=251173:Prayer position.jpg]

Get a metronome, start at a slow tempo and get comfortable with clapping the examples against the metronome click; with the triplet example it's helpful to start by clapping every single 8th note in the bar until you can feel where the accents should go.

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It's a five beat phrase played over a four beat grooove so it resolves in the wrong place every time creating a lovely tension. A simple device. I used similar ideas throughout this....

https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/theres-a-reason?in=robert-palmer-1/sets/rob-palmer-compositions

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