Yeah, check out Ben Eller, he has some killer Mastodon lessons (and hybrid picking). Not sure if I'll do a full tutorial on it but never say never. And when you need some great jazz, check Jen's channel.
I reckon one opf the funkiest time signature bits from mastodon is in Cirlce of Cysquatch at about 2:15. They do this rad djent chug rhythm thats a sequence of increasing beats over 4 seperated by 4/4. So its 4/4 3/4 in the first sequence. then 4/4 4/4, then 4/4 5/4. got a sweet groove, very head bangable and chuggy.
Yeah, Mastodon and Tool go well together, somehow. I guess what they share most of all isn’t a specific sound, but rather an approach or ethos: I love how inventive both bands are. I saw them on the same show once (Mastodon were supporting Tool, both were great). I prefer Mastodon of the two, probably because I appreciate how varied Mastodon’s stuff is. Hearing a new Mastodon album is always a sonic adventure, always surprising. Tool seem more about evolving and exploring their very particular sound and obsessions, which is cool in its own way. I prefer how with Mastodon there’s huge contrast between light and shade as it were, whereas with Tool, it’s tonally usually very similar. I found Fear Innoculum kinda underwhelming - too much of the same Toolishness for me, especially given the huge gap in their output. Some great playing but I find it hard to appreciate the new stuff as songs. Felt kinda underwhelmed by it all and even a bit beaten down by the epic length the songs, a bit bored even. I didn’t super-love Emperor of Sand either, though. Felt a little bit tired and somewhat of a retread, idea-wise. That said, I loved the funky gloomy weirdness of the Cold Dark Place EP and think Rufus Lives is a genuinely fun song.
I always thought sludge was slow in some parts, relating it to doom metal, so hearing of Mastodon classified as sludge confused me a lot. All their music sounded like prog to me, and Remission was the first one I heard.
I know this comment is 2 years old but Remission is definitely straight sludge metal, and Leviathan. But they definitely had a prog edge, I think most people would agree that Blood Mountain is where they really went full on prog with their sound.
Could you please do a similar video for some Opeth songs ? Especially Beneath the Mire, Ghost of Perdition, Heir Apparent, Porcelain Heart & the outros of Deliverance & Harlequin Forest
I can't even comprehend cappilarian crest. That riff looks so impossible to play. Man, fuck trying to play guitar, i'd have more luck trying to get laid. Awesome stuff btw. takes a fucking wizard to play these riffs.
Here are the riifs: 1.Blood and thunder 2.Capillarian Crest 3 .Where strides the behemoth 4.Megalodon 5.Aqua Dementia 6.Oblivion 7.Crusher Destroyer 8.March of the fire ants 9.Divinations 10.Curl of the burl
Brad Titanium I seriously doubt Brent or anyone is counting like that. Most musicians don’t. At least in rock. It’s just feel. I bet he has no idea what time signature he’s playing in. Probably playing from melody.
Brendan McDonald That’s cool, man. Just link me to the interview where Brent talks about counting while he plays live or records. I looked for it myself but couldn’t find it, but you sound like you have some solid proof, there, so just post the link. I’d appreciate it.
Yes, I have an old project that's available called STEM. There are some songs on this channel. Search my initial videos. I will also be releasing a couple of different things this year as well!
In my opinion, triple metres (like 3/4) and compound ones (like 6/8) are not Odd time signatures. They aren't very common in rock/metal genres, but that doesn't mean they're odd. We've been listening to them in popular and classical music for hundreds of years.
Yes, it's not "odd" as it's uncommon and I'm well aware that compound meters are not odd either. Click bait my man. Time Signatures of Mastodon (or Tool) just doesn't ring the same, you know? For the purposed of this series, though not proper pedagogy, anything outside of 4/4 is fair game. Really just showing how bands shift through different times.
Bung The Booce Well yeah dude obviously haha but when you reduce it becomes 3/4 so I think it’s still considered odd because of that. I’m not a music theory genius but I think that’s the reason. But some people think of odd as anything other than 4/4 which I don’t think it’s the true definition but hell it might be lol again I’m not a music theory expert
I think we can consider both the meanings of "odd" for a time signature. 6/8 is odd because is unusual, 3/4 can be odd also because 3 is an odd number.
How about the intro riff from We Built This Come Death? A lovely little diddy from Mastodon’s seminal EP Lifesblood. (also on the Call of the Mastodon release)
Difference between 6/8 and 3/4 [edit: typo] can be subjective. I wouldn't call either "odd" time sigantures though. Similarly, I really don't see 12/8 being a weird time signature.
Can you please make a video on Roots Remain by Mastodon ? I love the solo. Would be better if you a lesson video on that. I hope the guys will like it.
Maybe someone already posted it, and it's nit-picky at best, but the "Where Strides the Behemoth" riff does not groove in 4+4+5 The counting is *technically* correct, but the intention of the riff sounds closer to a 7+6 or 4+3+6 or even 4+3+2+4 if you wanna break it down into smaller sections. Yes, it all seems arbitrary, but counting the way he's presented it as, the first 4 is fine, but the second 4 overstays its welcome by a beat, and the downbeat of the 5 section sounds unnatural.
Are you an Animals as Leaders fan? If so have you considered making a video on them? Also do you think you can do an odd time Metallica, Periphery, or Meshuggah riffs?
Yeah, AAL is fantastic! They would be a good I'm sure, though my "thumping" skills aren't very impressive, haha. I'm probably going to do Opeth next. Metallica and Meshuggah are mostly 4/4, the latter use rhythmic permutations around a 4 beat. I have a couple of Meshuggah videos, here's the latest ruclips.net/video/9iVY_LsgiOk/видео.html
I don't know if I'd call some of these "odd time." Odd riffs or odd emphases more likely. I'm just nitpicking though. Very good work on learning those riffs!
James Bargar I agree, though I’ve been told that 12/8 is just the correct way to notate a triplet feel, rather than 4/4 but specifying everything is in triplets.
These are some great riffs. By the way, the notes that you're playing around beat 5 of Capillarian Crest are wrong. They also most clearly outline the "melody" if you could call it that for me so it sounded different than the riff. Ben Eller has a great tutorial on how to play it.
axeofcreation Yeah you are oops. The notes I weren't hearing were at the part where you go from fret 10 on the B(A) string to fret 11 on the G(F) string. It doesn't ring that loudly but it's there. You're definitely playing it right sorry man I didn't mean to be an ass.
How I remember the megalodon riff is it goes 5-7-6-7//5-7-6-9. I don’t know what that translates into times but that’s what I count out in my head to stay on time. What are your thoughts
great video!! i a have a question , do you think that mastodon's musicians knows about odd signatures or music theory when they compose this kind of riffs? or is actually a intuitive process?
I think they're pretty accomplished musicians, afaik they were in math metal and rockabilly bands before Mastodon. They probably know what they're doing, though whether that drives composition is another story.
I do remember reading an interview with the band talking about their newer & more "accessible" stuff, in which they also told, how they were purposely adding beats to their earlier songs just for the sake of making them odd. So I guess they knew pretty exactly, what they were doing. Also even though Brent always seems to be supper drugged out, that Dude sure does know his shit.
I'm not sure but I think Capillarian Crest stays in the 4/4 timeframe yet the whole band plays quintuplets. Sorry but I can't be bothered trying to confirm it. Sick video btw.
I know very little about time signatures and all so I've been trying to figure out this madness. For example, the first song plays on 5/8 + 6/8, that means there is a compass made up by 5 counts and another by 6 counts right ? However, how does a note with value 8 (or x times 8) fit in 5 counts ?
Ahh, I guess I got it. An eighth lasts for less time than a fifth or a fourth for example, right ? If one were to play half as many notes in 5 counts it would be 5 fourth notes ?
It comes from "bars". The standard for time signatures is that you measure the speed of the song in crotchets. These are often called "quarter notes", because they would fit four in a bar - never more or less, and this means they are a quarter of the full bar. A bar = One, so these are "quarter notes". You have to always think of music in bars, which is a standard block of time; talk about bars, count in bars, wait in bars, etc. (A "line of music" is very often four bars, for example - a chorus of a song might be four bars, repeated four times over) Time signatures tell you what you can fit in that bar (this is fixed, not an optional max/min range). But we're missing something. At the top of every piece of written music is a little note that says how long each note will last for (as a fraction of how many you can fit in a minute). So it might say "crotchet = 120", which means you know that each bar of 4/4 music will last exactly four 120'ths of a minute (2 seconds). Now, if I write it as 5/4, then my bar will last exactly five 120ths of a minute (2.5 seconds). Or I could write 8/4 and my bar would last eight 120ths of a minute (4 seconds), all the while having the pace of a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... rhythm (though the notes could be any length or tone - and rhythm is often defined by the drummer, who is less likely to piss about) If I want a swinging feel (dancing feel), then I might write a song in 3/4, which means that there will be three beats to the bar, each lasting a 120th of a minute. But.... IF I wanted to have lots of shorter notes that define the pace of the song, I might want 8ths, instead of quarters (they're called quavers in music). So I keep the same speed, over all, but now I'm in 6/8, instead of 3/4. This is different to just doubling the "crotchet = 120" speed. Because in the 3/4 time signature, the song has a feel of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3... The pace just feels that way. But maybe I want my pace to feel like a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1 ,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, with changes on different beats here and there and the emphasis very often goes on the 1. The bar and song last the same length as before, because the 8th note still applies to that "crotchet (quarter) = 120"... Everything comes from classical music and monks and all sorts, centuries ago, and whatever they thought would fit their needs best is what stuck. It's not a great system. Music is often all kinds of bullshit, but it's a language that was refined by professionals over the centuries, so to understand why all these ridiculous things exist, you need to check out the old way of doing things. It's a long deal, but wikipedia says it better than me en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_note Start with the Semibreve, often called the whole note, then read up on minims, crotchets and quavers. Then go to bars, time signatures, scores, treble clefs, and all the other odd things. All the best. x
Rage of the Turnip wow, thanks for the lecture. I didnt know there was a way of defining how many seconds a note will last. Always thought songs could be played at any speed as long as the "proportion" was right. I also struggle with the nomenclature because I first learned about in portuguese, my mother language.
Otavio Cordeiro ... No worries.... Remember, it's not how long the note will last, but how long the quarters of the bar will last... Notes can be anything, from 64th notes to 12 bar held notes. Anything. The beats per minute is called a tempo... It dictates how long your bars of music will last, by defining the length of a quarter note... I know it's a pain... Even being English doesn't help... Most of music is written in Italian and refers to old Greek concepts... Other things are mad, like why are there only five lines on a stave (look up stave if you don't know). We obviously need more than five as it covers barely one octave, but there we are.... Big hint. Learn to read real old music... Not like play old music songs on the guitar, but learn how to read the language... like on Wikipedia or something.. So many modern guitarists never get that insight And miss out on how to speak to other less contemporary musicians... Good luck.
I feel bad for this guy. Doing an awesome job playing guitar and people just nitpicking the fuck out of him in any way possible. If you’re such an expert, why are you watching this and not listening to the real song or playing the music yourself?
The only Mastodon I've listened to really is Leviathan, so just speaking from that standpoint, it sounds like you're playing Blood and Thunder wrong rhythmically
Cool video with smooth playing - you obviously know what you're doing...., but are you absolutely sure you know how time signatures work? - Can you imagine writing this score out, with long sections where every single bar has it's own time signature? Aren't time signatures meant to resort the most naturally fitting but simple option? I.e. Why would divinations be a 12/8 when the drums are clearly playing 4/4? - It seems like you're just counting out the beats of the guitar, rather than getting the song's signature. You play great though.
Rage of the Turnip Also, yes, I can imagine sheet music with all those changes. I've seen lots of them. 20th century classical music was fll of experimentation. Also, Dream Theater 😃
axeofcreation ... Cool, you seem sure enough. It's good enough for me... Any chance there's some subjectivity in how timing is interpreted without the scores? Like... Could it be 13/8 instead of 6/8+7/8???? I just always revert to the simplest form as a habit...
You can tell that Brent Hinds has a background in Banjo.
BronzDano yeah I love how he mixes a metal style with country, sounds really unique which is quite uncommon in metal music these days
He is a fool with it 😂
Mastodon riffs are really some of the best and most quirky riffs around! 👍
Yes! Time to do a Mastodon hybrid picking lesson!
axeofcreation Sweet
I don't really do Mastodon lessons on my channel, sorry
Put a comment down for Gregory, and maybe ask Ben as well?
Yeah, check out Ben Eller, he has some killer Mastodon lessons (and hybrid picking). Not sure if I'll do a full tutorial on it but never say never. And when you need some great jazz, check Jen's channel.
Easily one of the most underrated bands of our age. Brent and Bill write some of my favourite guitar rifts
How are they underrated??? Their name usually comes up 1st when ppl talk about metal today.
their great but not underrated
Nowhere near underrated, but still amazing
I discovered them 2005 (the old way) on headbangers ball, been in my top 5 ever since
@@Cole-li7hq *they're
These riffs are tasty as fuck when you throw Dailors drumming into the mix it just creates that world-class badass music.
and he sings!
I reckon one opf the funkiest time signature bits from mastodon is in Cirlce of Cysquatch at about 2:15. They do this rad djent chug rhythm thats a sequence of increasing beats over 4 seperated by 4/4.
So its 4/4 3/4 in the first sequence. then 4/4 4/4, then 4/4 5/4. got a sweet groove, very head bangable and chuggy.
Smith
I love that part! I'm surprised that isn't here. Same with that weird shit in The Last Baron.
RealGamerManz Yes. This Mortail Soil should be here too
Yeah man it’s a breakdown
Tool and Mastodon favorite bands by far for me.
Shane S I love Zep amd Floyd as well. Learning Wish You Were Here right now on guitar lol
You know about music men
Andrew Levister I think there’s a ton of crossover between fan bases!
Yeah, Mastodon and Tool go well together, somehow. I guess what they share most of all isn’t a specific sound, but rather an approach or ethos: I love how inventive both bands are. I saw them on the same show once (Mastodon were supporting Tool, both were great). I prefer Mastodon of the two, probably because I appreciate how varied Mastodon’s stuff is. Hearing a new Mastodon album is always a sonic adventure, always surprising. Tool seem more about evolving and exploring their very particular sound and obsessions, which is cool in its own way. I prefer how with Mastodon there’s huge contrast between light and shade as it were, whereas with Tool, it’s tonally usually very similar.
I found Fear Innoculum kinda underwhelming - too much of the same Toolishness for me, especially given the huge gap in their output. Some great playing but I find it hard to appreciate the new stuff as songs. Felt kinda underwhelmed by it all and even a bit beaten down by the epic length the songs, a bit bored even. I didn’t super-love Emperor of Sand either, though. Felt a little bit tired and somewhat of a retread, idea-wise. That said, I loved the funky gloomy weirdness of the Cold Dark Place EP and think Rufus Lives is a genuinely fun song.
0:43 Brent is a goddamn animal! He's been motivating me to learn hybrid picking. Good job on nailing it man.
I always thought sludge was slow in some parts, relating it to doom metal, so hearing of Mastodon classified as sludge confused me a lot. All their music sounded like prog to me, and Remission was the first one I heard.
yeah, id classify them as prog as well....theyd toured with some sludge bands in the early years, maybe thats how they got classified that way
I know this comment is 2 years old but Remission is definitely straight sludge metal, and Leviathan. But they definitely had a prog edge, I think most people would agree that Blood Mountain is where they really went full on prog with their sound.
I'm a big fan of lots of gain and scooping mids, very big fan of Dimebag's tone, but jeez your tone is fantastic for that style of playing
No wasted energy in any of your movements. Amazing...
These clean "covers" of those beautiful riffs make me wanna go listen to them immedieately! Thank you for making this video, I love it
Could you please do a similar video for some Opeth songs ? Especially Beneath the Mire, Ghost of Perdition, Heir Apparent, Porcelain Heart & the outros of Deliverance & Harlequin Forest
Opeth is a great idea.
Anything related to Opeth is a great idea :D
Oh, yes, please :-)
Maybe some Steven WIlson/Porcupine Tree while your at it? ;)
great idea indeed bro
I can't even comprehend cappilarian crest. That riff looks so impossible to play. Man, fuck trying to play guitar, i'd have more luck trying to get laid.
Awesome stuff btw. takes a fucking wizard to play these riffs.
Amazing hybrid picking, I guessed you will put circle of cysquatch, end is so sick, probably the best outro of entire mastodon songs
Another great AoC video, you rock. I like Mastodon but nobody does odd time like Tool, they make it feel so natural and not forced.
Here are the riifs:
1.Blood and thunder
2.Capillarian Crest
3 .Where strides the behemoth
4.Megalodon
5.Aqua Dementia
6.Oblivion
7.Crusher Destroyer
8.March of the fire ants
9.Divinations
10.Curl of the burl
Mastodon riffs took me one step further as a player. Thank you for this video!
Great vid but isn’t blood and thunder in D standard?
Man u made an awesome workshop for us! Thank you so much.
This is awesome!
I would love to see more Mastodon riffs on your channel
Sick, ..Thank you, Axe, this one was super interesting and well presented!! Loving the Mastadon Riffs!
really dig your tone here, good stuff!
Seriously impressed by Capillarian!
Was looking for a new Odd Times video!
These are really good to show to my friends and explain time signatures to them thanks dude :D
Phenomenal video and an amazing band. 🤘
Brent Hinds and Billy K. Best guitar duo in all of metal rn.
Crazy madness in some of that. Thats alot of counting.
Brad Titanium I seriously doubt Brent or anyone is counting like that. Most musicians don’t. At least in rock. It’s just feel. I bet he has no idea what time signature he’s playing in. Probably playing from melody.
I can confirm, i can play that oblivion verse, never noticed it was in 3/4 actually, just learned to play the riff and then repeat it
JB P you're just wrong, dude. Lol
Brendan McDonald That’s cool, man. Just link me to the interview where Brent talks about counting while he plays live or records. I looked for it myself but couldn’t find it, but you sound like you have some solid proof, there, so just post the link. I’d appreciate it.
Do you have original music out?
Yes, I have an old project that's available called STEM. There are some songs on this channel. Search my initial videos. I will also be releasing a couple of different things this year as well!
wtf, ruby adobe
Well done!
Blood and thunder is also tuned a step down, (DGCFAD) not drop d
In my opinion, triple metres (like 3/4) and compound ones (like 6/8) are not Odd time signatures. They aren't very common in rock/metal genres, but that doesn't mean they're odd. We've been listening to them in popular and classical music for hundreds of years.
It’s still “odd” though because it isn’t divisible by two although I completely agree with you
Yes, it's not "odd" as it's uncommon and I'm well aware that compound meters are not odd either. Click bait my man. Time Signatures of Mastodon (or Tool) just doesn't ring the same, you know? For the purposed of this series, though not proper pedagogy, anything outside of 4/4 is fair game. Really just showing how bands shift through different times.
WHATDA458 6/8 is divisible by 2
Bung The Booce Well yeah dude obviously haha but when you reduce it becomes 3/4 so I think it’s still considered odd because of that. I’m not a music theory genius but I think that’s the reason. But some people think of odd as anything other than 4/4 which I don’t think it’s the true definition but hell it might be lol again I’m not a music theory expert
I think we can consider both the meanings of "odd" for a time signature. 6/8 is odd because is unusual, 3/4 can be odd also because 3 is an odd number.
9 of the best riffs ever
Ah man! You missed out the mental bit near the end of “Sleeping Giant” the “infinite path, carved with unrivalled skill” part
Blood and Thunder is D standard, not drop D
Nick Dow glad someone other than me noticed that.
If you put attention you can see the diferent tunings that Mastodon use in their songs up to the left in the video
He's playing the riff in completely the wrong place too, or at least miles away from where I learned it (on 5 string miles further up the fret board).
I was the 1000th like on this video. Pretty rad!
Great video!
How about the intro riff from We Built This Come Death? A lovely little diddy from Mastodon’s seminal EP Lifesblood. (also on the Call of the Mastodon release)
This helps immensely
Stuff like this is why I love Mastodon!
love the BtBam shirt!
Good Lord, how they play all this riffs live with all those tuning changes?
Ole' Nessie is another one that stays in 3/4 pretty much exclusively. Not that it's a terribly odd time signature, but it sure is nice to listen to!
You have good taste my friend.
some BTBAM tutorials next? :)
All of Capillarian Crest constantly shifts time lol. Come to think of it, most mastodon songs do
Mastodon is just so good its ridiculous
Hahaha, Curl of the Burl odd time sig. ^^ Fantastic.
What about the "verse" of Sea Beast?
I'm sure there are many, many more moments we could've shared.
Excellent video Greg!
Thank you!
I was counting the Oblivion riff as 6/8..Could you please explain where was I going wrong !?
Try this? ruclips.net/video/bestW9Cw5GU/видео.html
Thanks a lot man ! That helped !!
Well, he's actually wrong. The snare is on the first of the second group of 3 so it is (compound) 6/4.
I don't think it's that absolute. The riff is accented on the 1 and 3, which is typical of 3/4. That's the beauty of it, that it's malleable.
Difference between 6/8 and 3/4 [edit: typo] can be subjective. I wouldn't call either "odd" time sigantures though.
Similarly, I really don't see 12/8 being a weird time signature.
Can you please make a video on Roots Remain by Mastodon ? I love the solo. Would be better if you a lesson video on that. I hope the guys will like it.
That was fantastic. Any chance you could do a full Mastodon song lesson like you do with Tool songs.
Awesome
Well done for putting the counting 1234,123 etc makes it easier to understand
Sweet shirt!
Maybe someone already posted it, and it's nit-picky at best, but the "Where Strides the Behemoth" riff does not groove in 4+4+5
The counting is *technically* correct, but the intention of the riff sounds closer to a 7+6 or 4+3+6 or even 4+3+2+4 if you wanna break it down into smaller sections.
Yes, it all seems arbitrary, but counting the way he's presented it as, the first 4 is fine, but the second 4 overstays its welcome by a beat, and the downbeat of the 5 section sounds unnatural.
Are you an Animals as Leaders fan? If so have you considered making a video on them?
Also do you think you can do an odd time Metallica, Periphery, or Meshuggah riffs?
Mr.Meeseeks he’s definitely an AAL fan. He’s done another year when he got his Keisel 7. I second some periphery as well!
Yeah, AAL is fantastic! They would be a good I'm sure, though my "thumping" skills aren't very impressive, haha. I'm probably going to do Opeth next. Metallica and Meshuggah are mostly 4/4, the latter use rhythmic permutations around a 4 beat. I have a couple of Meshuggah videos, here's the latest ruclips.net/video/9iVY_LsgiOk/видео.html
Most of meshuggahs stuff is in 4/4 it’s just littered with polyrhythms
We need a Karnivool episode!
i'd count the pre-chorus in oblivion as 6/8
like the BTBAM shirt :). It shows that playing Mastodon is simple LOL
Mastodon being djenty in crusher destroyer before it was cool
Between playing those riffs and programming all those drums this must have taken forever to put together!
Can you teach us some of these songs master?
I still dont know how to count time sigs
I don't know if I'd call some of these "odd time." Odd riffs or odd emphases more likely. I'm just nitpicking though. Very good work on learning those riffs!
Why
Wait, Blood and Thunder Is in D Standard? Because I saw it was Drop D
Divinations really just is 4/4. Nothing really weird about triplets.
James Bargar I agree, though I’ve been told that 12/8 is just the correct way to notate a triplet feel, rather than 4/4 but specifying everything is in triplets.
Do Periphery please!
These are some great riffs. By the way, the notes that you're playing around beat 5 of Capillarian Crest are wrong. They also most clearly outline the "melody" if you could call it that for me so it sounded different than the riff. Ben Eller has a great tutorial on how to play it.
GrayEcho I'm playing it the same way my man Uncle Ben plays it.
axeofcreation Yeah you are oops. The notes I weren't hearing were at the part where you go from fret 10 on the B(A) string to fret 11 on the G(F) string. It doesn't ring that loudly but it's there. You're definitely playing it right sorry man I didn't mean to be an ass.
Mastodon riffs and a btbam shirt
Fuck yeah
My other favorite band 😊
you should do a baroness one.
How complicated the riffs are the pioneer is dream theatre the credit goes to them
How I remember the megalodon riff is it goes 5-7-6-7//5-7-6-9. I don’t know what that translates into times but that’s what I count out in my head to stay on time. What are your thoughts
That head stock (heart)
Capillarian Crest is the best song to play for someone who isn’t into metal just to see the confusion on their face lol
great video!! i a have a question , do you think that mastodon's musicians knows about odd signatures or music theory when they compose this kind of riffs? or is actually a intuitive process?
I don’t think they are schooled musicians so they might not know how to call the odd meters, but i’m sure they know that they are irregular.
It's probably both but I'd say the latter when composing. Naturally letting riffs flow an extra beat here and there. Works for me.
I think they're pretty accomplished musicians, afaik they were in math metal and rockabilly bands before Mastodon. They probably know what they're doing, though whether that drives composition is another story.
I do remember reading an interview with the band talking about their newer & more "accessible" stuff, in which they also told, how they were purposely adding beats to their earlier songs just for the sake of making them odd. So I guess they knew pretty exactly, what they were doing. Also even though Brent always seems to be supper drugged out, that Dude sure does know his shit.
Try some of leprous !
Isn’t blood and thunder in D standard?
I'm not sure but I think Capillarian Crest stays in the 4/4 timeframe yet the whole band plays quintuplets. Sorry but I can't be bothered trying to confirm it.
Sick video btw.
I know very little about time signatures and all so I've been trying to figure out this madness.
For example, the first song plays on 5/8 + 6/8, that means there is a compass made up by 5 counts and another by 6 counts right ? However, how does a note with value 8 (or x times 8) fit in 5 counts ?
The bottom number is the note (rhythm)that gets the beat. In this case, the 8th (8). So it's 5 eighth notes then 6 eighth notes.
Ahh, I guess I got it. An eighth lasts for less time than a fifth or a fourth for example, right ? If one were to play half as many notes in 5 counts it would be 5 fourth notes ?
It comes from "bars". The standard for time signatures is that you measure the speed of the song in crotchets. These are often called "quarter notes", because they would fit four in a bar - never more or less, and this means they are a quarter of the full bar. A bar = One, so these are "quarter notes".
You have to always think of music in bars, which is a standard block of time; talk about bars, count in bars, wait in bars, etc. (A "line of music" is very often four bars, for example - a chorus of a song might be four bars, repeated four times over)
Time signatures tell you what you can fit in that bar (this is fixed, not an optional max/min range). But we're missing something. At the top of every piece of written music is a little note that says how long each note will last for (as a fraction of how many you can fit in a minute).
So it might say "crotchet = 120", which means you know that each bar of 4/4 music will last exactly four 120'ths of a minute (2 seconds).
Now, if I write it as 5/4, then my bar will last exactly five 120ths of a minute (2.5 seconds).
Or I could write 8/4 and my bar would last eight 120ths of a minute (4 seconds), all the while having the pace of a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... rhythm (though the notes could be any length or tone - and rhythm is often defined by the drummer, who is less likely to piss about)
If I want a swinging feel (dancing feel), then I might write a song in 3/4, which means that there will be three beats to the bar, each lasting a 120th of a minute.
But.... IF I wanted to have lots of shorter notes that define the pace of the song, I might want 8ths, instead of quarters (they're called quavers in music). So I keep the same speed, over all, but now I'm in 6/8, instead of 3/4.
This is different to just doubling the "crotchet = 120" speed. Because in the 3/4 time signature, the song has a feel of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3... The pace just feels that way. But maybe I want my pace to feel like a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1 ,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, with changes on different beats here and there and the emphasis very often goes on the 1. The bar and song last the same length as before, because the 8th note still applies to that "crotchet (quarter) = 120"...
Everything comes from classical music and monks and all sorts, centuries ago, and whatever they thought would fit their needs best is what stuck. It's not a great system. Music is often all kinds of bullshit, but it's a language that was refined by professionals over the centuries, so to understand why all these ridiculous things exist, you need to check out the old way of doing things.
It's a long deal, but wikipedia says it better than me
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_note
Start with the Semibreve, often called the whole note, then read up on minims, crotchets and quavers. Then go to bars, time signatures, scores, treble clefs, and all the other odd things.
All the best. x
Rage of the Turnip wow, thanks for the lecture. I didnt know there was a way of defining how many seconds a note will last. Always thought songs could be played at any speed as long as the "proportion" was right.
I also struggle with the nomenclature because I first learned about in portuguese, my mother language.
Otavio Cordeiro ... No worries....
Remember, it's not how long the note will last, but how long the quarters of the bar will last... Notes can be anything, from 64th notes to 12 bar held notes. Anything.
The beats per minute is called a tempo... It dictates how long your bars of music will last, by defining the length of a quarter note...
I know it's a pain... Even being English doesn't help... Most of music is written in Italian and refers to old Greek concepts... Other things are mad, like why are there only five lines on a stave (look up stave if you don't know). We obviously need more than five as it covers barely one octave, but there we are....
Big hint. Learn to read real old music... Not like play old music songs on the guitar, but learn how to read the language... like on Wikipedia or something.. So many modern guitarists never get that insight And miss out on how to speak to other less contemporary musicians...
Good luck.
Oblivion feels more like 6/8 to me, the first downbeat feels stronger
Are any of these polyrhythms?
Pls some Vildhjarta
So how long did it take to get those capillarian crest riffs down? I have been working on them for about 10 years haha.
Just a question:
On the "Capillarian Crest" hybrid picking part, how did you mute the "unwanted ringing" notes?
RERDITI RÉRTHZ a lot of muting, with both hands. Keep the right hand lower than normal, and angle the left hand down help.
axeofcreation thank you so much!
I hope someday you have the time to teach us somenthing about Hybrid picking. Cheers from Brazil
3/4 ain't odd. even mozart did them.
good video nonetheless
SImilarly for 12/8.
Odd relative to most contemporary music
While it is considered common time along with 4, it technically is odd, and yeah Mozart did a lot of things, including many odd time signatures
Oblivion is odd?? Man, listen to their demo songs compilation Call of the Mastodon
awesomesauce
No circle of cysquatch? The ending is a goody
after aqua dementia countig, rossetta stoned doesnt't seem to be too difficult :P
maiden682 idk...maybe for guitar. Drums is pretty absurd.
I dont think these riffs are counted. Maybe the slower ones Especially aqua dementia, i think theyre more felt, cant count those eights that fast
100% right, i watch the numbers and i don't even follow :P people like them, they just feel the tempo and play what they want
Why Blood and thunder inst just 11/8
I feel bad for this guy. Doing an awesome job playing guitar and people just nitpicking the fuck out of him in any way possible. If you’re such an expert, why are you watching this and not listening to the real song or playing the music yourself?
Hey, what drum software do you use? Just wondering!
SD3
So that's why I can't play aqua dementia correctly. Lol!
Between The Buried And Me is next, right? You're already wearing the shirt, that's probably foreshadowing and not at all wishful thinking on my part.
IIts insane how underrated these guys are especially Brent
Aqua Dementia is wrong. When played properly it's 5/4
The only Mastodon I've listened to really is Leviathan, so just speaking from that standpoint, it sounds like you're playing Blood and Thunder wrong rhythmically
Cool video with smooth playing - you obviously know what you're doing...., but are you absolutely sure you know how time signatures work? - Can you imagine writing this score out, with long sections where every single bar has it's own time signature?
Aren't time signatures meant to resort the most naturally fitting but simple option? I.e. Why would divinations be a 12/8 when the drums are clearly playing 4/4? - It seems like you're just counting out the beats of the guitar, rather than getting the song's signature.
You play great though.
Rage of the Turnip Yup. It's triplets over 4. Just like a slow blues. Just like all those Back compositions which are in 12/8.
Rage of the Turnip Also, yes, I can imagine sheet music with all those changes. I've seen lots of them. 20th century classical music was fll of experimentation. Also, Dream Theater 😃
axeofcreation ... Cool, you seem sure enough. It's good enough for me... Any chance there's some subjectivity in how timing is interpreted without the scores?
Like... Could it be 13/8 instead of 6/8+7/8????
I just always revert to the simplest form as a habit...
Rage of the Turnip Absolutely! And yes, I often think of parts as 6+7 rather than 13 but that interpretation would be based on phrasing.