Comments are half split between clap on 1 and clap on 7. I’ve opted for 7 as that just feels right - the clap is always followed by a strong downbeat. He conducts the audience to clap at 0:30 where they clap on what looks like a downbeat, but I would suggest he just conducts like this as there’s no way you can get an audience to clap on an upbeat.
The snare backbeats hit on the 2, on the beat following the clap (which is the 1). End of story. He plays with the rhythmic placement later in the piece, that's the point of what he's doing, but that shouldn't change how it is notated from the beginning. Also the conducting which is clearly a full bar of 7 leading into the 1.
I totally agree on the 7. I practiced tuba from 6th grade to my senior year. I quit practicing after high school. Maybe someone knows better than me though.
I actually find it very boring, it's like 1/999999 of the stuff Chris Dave has been doing for 2 decades... After him, these players come evidently inspired by Chris, but with a very very shy approach. After Chris, most of the drummer's languages became obsolet, or a very shy, partial, incomplete borrowing from the inmense, huge rhythm language chris developed!
Hate to say it but I don't really get the appeal - his playing is so busy that it's just distracting to me. Great as a solo artist and clinician but I can't stand him in vulf / flyers.
I don't know what to say to Matt Logan there, this is the first I have seen of him... I think he George Collier and me need to play with a symphony as the audience, to beat this, cuz that audience actually has some musical talent. Not to even speak of the talent the respective artists have.
@@mattlogan1 i appreciate a good snare line, but the feat there isnt the musicianship but rather the coordination. nowhere near as musical as nate smith
@@VincentKun 123.5 is how many beats per minute. 4 is the type of note (quarter notes) and 7 is the amount of times that note appears in a bar. So the time signature is 7/4 and the bpm 123.5 :)
@@eartherdelor old comment, but he alternates the pattern of the kick and snare starting from beat 7 on the previous measure to be on every 4th note instead of on the beat. makes it sound like it's 5/4 but it's still played in the same triplets (each triplet now being a sixteenth note) as before, which is why it sounds like the tempo slowed down so much. plus, with where he started the pattern, there's a single extra triplet after the complete pseudo-5/4 bar before beat 7, which clearly threw a lot of people off in the audience
I was in the audience for this gig at Space in Evanston. The energy was electric. Some of the comments have wondered how the audience was so good at clapping in 7 when so many audiences can't even clap in 4. My guess is that there were a ton of drummers in the audience that night. As a drummer, even in a dark club, I'm pretty good at picking out the difference between someone tapping their foot to the beat and someone thumping out a bass drum rhythm. There were lots of highly trained hands and feet at the gig that night. Thanks for recording and posting this. Good times.
It's not that many people can't clap at 4, there usually is an asshole like me in the crowd, who with purpose claps off-beat to get other people fuck up. For some reason people find it hard to clap on 4, when person next to them claps beat later and in the next moment they are also clapping beat later.
@@diWHY_Jake it’s the same exact way as the rest, it’s just played so slowly that it will throw you off (I’m not big on theory I just play that’s my take on it)
Fact of the day: the first night level (the one with the samurai) switches to 7/4 halfway through! That’s why it’s way more difficult after that one bridge
This would actually be a fun concept to teach to children. We had music classes when I was in grade school but we always focused on 4/4 and 3/4. There are fun ways to teach counting complex or polyrhythms but you really don't get to that point until around highschool or college.
As impressed as I am with his set skills, I'm even more impressed at this impossible audience! I've never heard so many people keep the beat so well. They ALL must be experienced musicians
As someone who doesn’t play an instrument and cannot read sheet music. I have absolutely no clue what is going on here. But I can tell it’s very impressive
The time signature 7:4 is really weird, and hard to get used to if you’re not trained. Usually when reading sheet music, it’s common time (4/4), which is just, 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4. This is 7:4. I’ve never played in 7:4 so I don’t know how it goes, but I think it’s 7 quarter notes in a four note measure? I don’t know, but it’s super awkward sounding. Playing with this off-beat time signature is definitely impressive
As someone whos played guitar for 20 something years as a hobby, I have absolutely no clue what is going on here, but I can tell its very impressive lol I couldnt keep a beat if my heart depended on it!
@@acousticpsychosis as someone who's been studying music theory for the past four years, it's still really hard to keep up I've heard about some made up time signatures that are meant to be even crazier like 11/24, musicians are naturally insane
To be honest this is one of the evil things I do. I on purpose, when people are clapping on beat, start clapping off beat to fuck up their clapping. Works 100% of time.
I-- I've played for audiences that couldn't stay consistent clapping along to a 4/4 beat; where in fresh hell do you find an entire audience that can keep up in 7/4?? It's cute how people in the replies think an audience can't fail if someone is helping them. Fun fact about audiences: they refuse to be helped. I've performed pieces where our members clapped, too, and the audience ignored it. Audiences can be wacky like that
@@tremolo312 It isn't 'racist' any more than saying black people have darker skin. It's just a fact, that you can observe if you look close enough. They have better rhythm, on average, and the average is what shows when you have a room full of people. And that isn't derogatory, it's a compliment.
@@andybaldman African tribes have been doing rhythmic rituals for spiritual practices for millennium. I don't know how Mr. Ron over here could possibly think that it's racist to say that they are more in tune with rhythm than other phenotypes. They definitely are lmao! Ragtime? Bebop? Jazz? Rhythm and blues? Rock? Funk? Hip hop? Like fuck yeah they got rhythm in their DNA it isn't hard to tell.
Why is it no goddamn audience can keep tempo in 4/4 to save their lives, but when it's 7/8 suddenly we're all on the same page? Is it because now they actually have to pay close attention?
A good portion of this I could follow by thinking of it as groups of 6, separated by a single clap, completing it to 7, and he was adding pauses on the clap evoking that feel. Essentially just 6/4 or however you like to think of it. But then he really throws the audience by starting what feels like a 4 feel right on the clap, and those are the spots where the audience seems to falters slightly. Super cool 😎
Yes I was looking for this comment. Im used hearing Seven grouped as combinations of 3 and 4. But here its more like 6+1 or 3+3+1, this way of thinking of It makes It much easier to follow.
I think it's kind of like a hemiola going from a 21/8 feel into a 7/4 feel but my brain melted too. The pulse of the 8th note triplets never change but the rest of the groove arranges itself into groups of 4.
@@TheGoldielox You're overcomplicating it, it's just grouping the 3s into 4s until he runs out of room in the measure. It's not even that rigid either, you can see that he extends the last one to a group of 5 because otherwise there would be a messy hit right next to the clap (not messy for him obviously, but when you factor in the audience). If you want to analyze this as a specific theory technique it would be metric modulation, shifting to a slightly slower tempo where the 8th note is equal to the rate of the 8th note triplet in the previous measure. It's so short-lived though that there's really no reason to think of it that way either, simple grouping communicates the same idea much easier. It's basically the same concept as when people write those dotted quarter note grooves that get cut off in 4/4 (3+3+2 and 3+3+3+3+2+2, hopefully it's clear what I'm talking about since they're everywhere) that are all over pop, rock and every other genre. It just seems alien here because people don't normally regroup triplets and don't normally play with that level of syncopation at all in 7/4.
He's playing triplets with every 4th note accented instead of every 3rd. Thats what grouping of 4 means. That way it doesnt feel like triplets anymore, altought it actually is.
Yeah that's how most musicians break down the structure of a piece. It helped me play more complex pieces when I used to be in band. Like Mars is a famous 5/4 piece but it is often counted and conducted as '1-2-3 1-2'
This guy here does not get the credit and admiration he deserves. I know hes got a following and a name that people recognize, but this man is at the very top of his game like ive never seen before.
Many musicians don't get the recognition they deserve. I love The Consouls (who did a few VGM jazz covers in odd time signatures eg Enter Waka) but they only have just under 60 000 subs on their channel.
I love this! Same idea that the first few levels of the game “Rhythm Doctor” are based on, on just how hard it is to count to 7 if you dont have an internal beat
Well, sort of. I just finished Rhythm Doctor, and unlike this video the 7th beat we actually clap on is actually just the fourth beat of 4/4 time. We're counting in eighths which is why it's the seventh beat in the game. It's easier to count to seven in the game than in this video. Semi-Spoilers for the game: Except for that one level of the game, N1-X, which actually is in 7/4 time.
That's a riot, thanks for transcribing it George. His conducting for one bar didn't help at all where 1 was either, but I'll go with clap on 7. This on of those videos you send to all your music-head friends.
@@danieleatzoridrumchannel7119 OK I see.. didn't know what you meant. I tend to think the challenge is to know where 7 is, and the downbeat is on the bass drum quarter note as George has it written. Either way it is pretty neat.
This had to have been for an audience of percussionists or something right? How I the bloody crikey hell did they keep time so well as a collective. Insane.
Nate Smith man... also, you should check out a drummer named Petar who plays with Cory Wong, specifically a clip from his live in Minneapolis concert where he is teaching 25/8. Around the one hour 20 minute mark
Petar Janjic! I thought of the exact same thing while watching this. "Give me my Chipotle, give me my Chipotle. I want chips, I want guac. Give me my Chipotle, ONE!"
I know most people are taking this comment in jest, like was the intent, but I'd suggest the others to not take things so seriously. I get that it's sometimes hard to understand humor over text, but even if this was a 100% real comment, being negative doesn't really help anyone. Anyway happy counting. 🙂
I'm high, and i tried to clap along, first couple tries were not cool, but at one point i got that hihat pulse and just kept up with the timing all way to the end, that was N I C E
Wow that first 7 groove he did was IMMACULATE and beautiful. I have made it my life-long goal to find and also create odd-time grooves/compositions that sound natural and not those that intentionally use the odd nature of them to get that 4 feel but break it midway. Not that I dislike songs like that, but it is so rare to find songs like From Eden - Hozier. I also want to release a few odd-time ideas on my own channel... Just need to record them well :)
The Consouls went through a period where they did their VGM jazz covers in odd time signatures - you might enjoy their versions of Enter Waka or Night Walker in 7 (for their 7th birthday), Space Walk or Crystal Snail (OST mostly in 13/8) and a few others
Showed this to my 9 year old daughter tonight. She just got cast for her first percussion role at school. I've been a drummer for 35 years...makes me really happy to see her analytical brain applied to music.
An argument for clap on one: it makes the kick pattern symmetrical around the barline (ie it's two repetitions of a pattern in 7/8 beginning on the downbeat). I feel very strongly about this!
In high school jazz we played the Mission Impossible theme. That arrangement switched every measure back and forth from 5/4 to 4/4. The only way I could play it was to ignore that and know how the song went.
guys, the transcription is all displaced by 1/4 note in the past. the audience is obviously clapping the 1, you can also understand this from the backbeats on 2, 4 and 6 when he starts to groove
You could say that and it’s a matter of preference, but most of it feels like the clap is on 7. Particularly 1:13 and 1:43. But the transcription is available for free if you want to change it :)
@@GeorgeCollier the claps def supposed to be felt as 1, why would nate play a backbeat on beat 1? the groove makes wayy more sense shifted a quarter over
@@GeorgeCollier he actually conducts a bar of it himself at around the 0:27 mark and the clap is on the downbeat. I think it makes a little more sense that way, but I'm still glad for the transcription
Check out king gizzard and the lizard wizard, they had two drummers and their use of 7/8 timing allowed them to alternate between having beat one either be a down beat or syncopated beat for every bar, kind of like the way he is alternating each bar.
Bruh there’s like countless bands that use 7 and a load of other time signatures. King Gizzard is nowhere near as mathy as it gets, especially in the prog world.
@@HieronymousLex i don't think he's kg&tlw is special for using 7, i think they're special because they use 7 AND 2 drummers allowing for some crazy syncopation
@@alexchimi7093 having two drummers doesn’t equal more syncopation. Also syncopation isn’t related to time signatures at all, so having 2 drummers playing in 7 has nothing to do with syncopation, just saying. Believe me, I’ve been listening to Gizz for years. I love them lol. But I’m a drummer so I’m just saying.
@@HieronymousLex Of course it doesn't, but it's much easier to syncopate and incorporate more complex rhythms if one drummer is focused on one rhythm and the other in another lol
The way I got through the brainbenders of 1:58 and 2:10 on time was that I was playing a a keyboard lick in 7 to this to help counting. Muscle memory > brain.
As an amateur drummer who just loves the instrument, this blew my mind. I'm proud of myself that I could keep up for the most part, but the bits that tripped everyone up in the audience tripped me up as well. Reading the notation was insane though. I'm gonna watch this again now.
I only ever did a few years of band class in high school, but one thing I learned was: when the drummer didn’t show up, we sounded like booty-butt cheeks. Drummers are crucial.
@@Johnny-Joseph I'm sorry but you are incorrect, he conducts a downbeat there, a beat one. As the other person here said: he splits the bar into a 4/4 followed by 3/4
Grouping the triplets in fours finally did the trick.. jeezy petes that's tough. Stupid drummers. LOL as a lowly trumpet player tracking the beat through some of this hurts my limited brain.
I spent about a month trying to find this particular video. I made sure to add it to my playlist and to give a sub so I can keep seeing cool transcription videos. Your fun editor notes fill me with power.
I certainly think so. He’s phrasing the bass drum in 4+3 it feels like (and that’s how he conducts it) so I think the clap should be on 1 Plus it feels like the snare should be on the backbeats of 2&4
Guitarist with a high appreciation for time signatures speaking : That was a super fun exercise! Dude had me second guessing a few times there towards the end. I believe I’ll be coming back just to continue testing myself. Thanks for the upload!
I know nothing about music but I know 2 things: 1: This is amazing 2: I have no idea what half these comments say but Im still enjoying them seem amazed
I feel like the bar should be shifted over a quarter note, with the clap being on beat 1. That way you would get all the snares on the off beats instead of beats 1 3 and 5 which just feels wrong imo.
Same here, I've watched it twice now and it's a 6 for me. That's what makes sense musically in my brain's "rhythm receptors". I can see how it can be a 1 or 7 but it's not natural to me, 6 is.
The weight of the groove is ON the clap, everything Nate plays relates to the clap as the starting point. There is a definite 4 - 3 structure, starting on the clap... So finally, the notation is rhythmically correct, but it completely neglects the right starting point, which makes it unnecessarily complicated and will confuse a lot of people.
I was on time for most of it but there was those odd ones where he switched it up and i counted 8 or 6 bars! Its easy if its repeated but to notice a tiny change that's the hard part!
Comments are half split between clap on 1 and clap on 7. I’ve opted for 7 as that just feels right - the clap is always followed by a strong downbeat. He conducts the audience to clap at 0:30 where they clap on what looks like a downbeat, but I would suggest he just conducts like this as there’s no way you can get an audience to clap on an upbeat.
This will be the controversy that finally kicks off the civil war and resulting end of days.
Definitely 7 for me personally.
The snare backbeats hit on the 2, on the beat following the clap (which is the 1). End of story. He plays with the rhythmic placement later in the piece, that's the point of what he's doing, but that shouldn't change how it is notated from the beginning. Also the conducting which is clearly a full bar of 7 leading into the 1.
I feel it on 1 beacause of the snare crosstick "backbeat", like I'm not so used to hear snares on 1 so yeah.
I totally agree on the 7. I practiced tuba from 6th grade to my senior year. I quit practicing after high school. Maybe someone knows better than me though.
I read in the description, that Balthazar Maignan did the transcription? So why do you write, that YOU opted for the clap on 7?
That rhythmic displacement he does is just so mind boggling. It actually makes more sense on sheet music than I would’ve imagined it did though haha
@@comedelage1282 Thanks mate
@@comedelage1282 He's in the description!
I actually find it very boring, it's like 1/999999 of the stuff Chris Dave has been doing for 2 decades... After him, these players come evidently inspired by Chris, but with a very very shy approach. After Chris, most of the drummer's languages became obsolet, or a very shy, partial, incomplete borrowing from the inmense, huge rhythm language chris developed!
@@joaluar lol just listen to prog music mate
@@joaluar I did not enjoy reading your comment, I’ll just say
Nate smith is one of the greatest funk drummers of this generation.
Respect.
Hate to say it but I don't really get the appeal - his playing is so busy that it's just distracting to me. Great as a solo artist and clinician but I can't stand him in vulf / flyers.
I don't know what to say to Matt Logan there, this is the first I have seen of him... I think he George Collier and me need to play with a symphony as the audience, to beat this, cuz that audience actually has some musical talent. Not to even speak of the talent the respective artists have.
how "busy" can a person who barely leaves the hi hat/snare/kick possible be lol
@@zackmash851 You should watch a DCI snare line
@@mattlogan1 i appreciate a good snare line, but the feat there isnt the musicianship but rather the coordination. nowhere near as musical as nate smith
Dunno what’s more impressive.
The drummer, or that there is an audience on earth that some how managed to follow 7:4
Is not even a 7/4, there is a 123.5 time
Edit: Thank you all for making me notice my error, but you can also not be so rude in comments sometimes. Bye
I was at this show, I just watched Jaleel and clapped whenever he did because there was no chance I was following along
@@VincentKun Time signature and tempo are seperate things. Having a different tempo doesn't change the time signature, just the speed of the piece.
@@VincentKun 123.5 is how many beats per minute. 4 is the type of note (quarter notes) and 7 is the amount of times that note appears in a bar. So the time signature is 7/4 and the bpm 123.5 :)
7/4 is pretty simple to follow, it's the syncopations and polyrhythms that make it insanely hard here
1:59 is just pure evil. Love it !
do you know what kind of polyrhythm he is playing at that moment? so fiendish
It's like playing a remix level in a Rhythm Heaven game but in real life.
@@eartherdelor old comment, but he alternates the pattern of the kick and snare starting from beat 7 on the previous measure to be on every 4th note instead of on the beat. makes it sound like it's 5/4 but it's still played in the same triplets (each triplet now being a sixteenth note) as before, which is why it sounds like the tempo slowed down so much. plus, with where he started the pattern, there's a single extra triplet after the complete pseudo-5/4 bar before beat 7, which clearly threw a lot of people off in the audience
@@eartherdelormetric modulation
@@cryms. I rewound it several times and couldn't get that one!
I was in the audience for this gig at Space in Evanston. The energy was electric. Some of the comments have wondered how the audience was so good at clapping in 7 when so many audiences can't even clap in 4. My guess is that there were a ton of drummers in the audience that night. As a drummer, even in a dark club, I'm pretty good at picking out the difference between someone tapping their foot to the beat and someone thumping out a bass drum rhythm. There were lots of highly trained hands and feet at the gig that night. Thanks for recording and posting this. Good times.
It's not that many people can't clap at 4, there usually is an asshole like me in the crowd, who with purpose claps off-beat to get other people fuck up. For some reason people find it hard to clap on 4, when person next to them claps beat later and in the next moment they are also clapping beat later.
@@tarksurmani6335 It's the equivalent of trying to sing in church with someone going completely off-tune right behind you
Singer is a drummer.
I was there as well! And yes, I'm a drummer.
naw I just watch the guy on stage and clap with him
Everyone thinks they can count to seven, until you have to do it over and over and over again
@dogman It's better because it's one syllable; normally you have one, two, three, four, five, six and sev-en which feels off meter-wise.
ouch
@dogman i say "se'en" for the same reason
マジでそれな
OK. But what is the point?
The notation of OOOW at 2:45 is crucial
Thanks, I found it funny so I add it 😊
@@BalthazarMaignan who are you?
@@mysigt_ actually, I did this transcription, it's written in the video description 😉
@@BalthazarMaignan oh, sorry. I assumed it was George. The OOOW was a crucial addition :)
@@mysigt_ it's okay, I had to tell him to actually put my name but he did so I'm happy with that
This is why drummers are actual time lords! At 1:58 that groove threw me for a loop! What a prime display of talent, skill, and mastery of time :)
Alright but how the heck do you count this? I can kinda count most of this but this one trips me up completely
@@diWHY_Jake it’s the same exact way as the rest, it’s just played so slowly that it will throw you off (I’m not big on theory I just play that’s my take on it)
This is a concept that was popular last year when a bunch of drummers started covering Everybody Wants to Rule the World. Lots of metric modulation
@@TheTheOpTiCJewel It doesn't get slower, he just makes it look that way
Years of playing rhythm doctor have prepared me for this moment
Fact of the day: the first night level (the one with the samurai) switches to 7/4 halfway through! That’s why it’s way more difficult after that one bridge
yep, dont speak manderin yet i still counted "yi er san su wu liu qi"
This would actually be a fun concept to teach to children. We had music classes when I was in grade school but we always focused on 4/4 and 3/4. There are fun ways to teach counting complex or polyrhythms but you really don't get to that point until around highschool or college.
69th like
Cringe@@rbbl_
As impressed as I am with his set skills, I'm even more impressed at this impossible audience! I've never heard so many people keep the beat so well. They ALL must be experienced musicians
Really?
Am... Am i a experienced musician omg. 😳
some people just have a natural flow for rythm
it´s jazz people, they´re a special breed 😂
Those who attend gigs like this are more likely lifelong music fans of challenging music (Jazz, Funk, etc.) with of course musicians in there as well
th-cam.com/video/ne6tB2KiZuk/w-d-xo.html Same concept
As someone who doesn’t play an instrument and cannot read sheet music. I have absolutely no clue what is going on here. But I can tell it’s very impressive
The time signature 7:4 is really weird, and hard to get used to if you’re not trained. Usually when reading sheet music, it’s common time (4/4), which is just, 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4. This is 7:4. I’ve never played in 7:4 so I don’t know how it goes, but I think it’s 7 quarter notes in a four note measure? I don’t know, but it’s super awkward sounding. Playing with this off-beat time signature is definitely impressive
@@justiceofbook you are correct all the way.
we all count differently but it’s important to feel the strong 1 aka downbeat
As someone whos played guitar for 20 something years as a hobby, I have absolutely no clue what is going on here, but I can tell its very impressive lol I couldnt keep a beat if my heart depended on it!
@@acousticpsychosis as someone who's been studying music theory for the past four years, it's still really hard to keep up
I've heard about some made up time signatures that are meant to be even crazier like 11/24, musicians are naturally insane
@@isaacpianos5208 I'm an audio engineer. I have only learned to count 1,2 1,2 testing microphones ;)
yall missed one genius on the back who unironically and unknowingly clapped on 4/4, and precisely on 4, the whole time.
I mean you aren't wrong...
he's german, germans can only clap on 4/4. true story, source: i'm german
To be honest this is one of the evil things I do. I on purpose, when people are clapping on beat, start clapping off beat to fuck up their clapping. Works 100% of time.
@@tarksurmani6335 even better if you clap like 6/8 or something
@@QuantumFluxable Hans! Get the Vier-Viertel-Takt!!
I--
I've played for audiences that couldn't stay consistent clapping along to a 4/4 beat; where in fresh hell do you find an entire audience that can keep up in 7/4??
It's cute how people in the replies think an audience can't fail if someone is helping them. Fun fact about audiences: they refuse to be helped. I've performed pieces where our members clapped, too, and the audience ignored it. Audiences can be wacky like that
I’m a drummer and this time sig baffles my little drummer boi brain 😂😂😂
"Chicago, man"
@@atteheikkinen I'm from Chicago!
At least they are only clapping every bar so that makes it easier but I’m surprised people weren’t more off
Just get a sax guy on the side who clap along, makes it's easier for the audience to just do what he does lol
That perfectly synchronised clap at 0:31 was quite satisfying
How on earth did the audience keep up? I guess sometimes I forget that some people can feel rhythm and don’t need to count everything XD
They were black.
That's racist af 🙄
Also who says they weren't counting? You don't know either way
@@tremolo312 It isn't 'racist' any more than saying black people have darker skin. It's just a fact, that you can observe if you look close enough. They have better rhythm, on average, and the average is what shows when you have a room full of people. And that isn't derogatory, it's a compliment.
@@tremolo312 Just look at a room full of white people dancing and then compare that to a room full of POC dancing. Mate there is a difference!
@@andybaldman African tribes have been doing rhythmic rituals for spiritual practices for millennium. I don't know how Mr. Ron over here could possibly think that it's racist to say that they are more in tune with rhythm than other phenotypes. They definitely are lmao! Ragtime? Bebop? Jazz? Rhythm and blues? Rock? Funk? Hip hop? Like fuck yeah they got rhythm in their DNA it isn't hard to tell.
Well the audience didn't miss a beat
Why is it no goddamn audience can keep tempo in 4/4 to save their lives, but when it's 7/8 suddenly we're all on the same page?
Is it because now they actually have to pay close attention?
@@Tsugimoto1 it probably was an audience full of musicians
Wow, I never thought I would see you here. I used to watch your Thomas toy reviews when I was a kid. Small world
The musicians on stage were giving the audience signals, inadvertent or not.
@@aidenanderson9310 dang I used to watch that guy’s series on the redback spider tank. What a coincidence
A good portion of this I could follow by thinking of it as groups of 6, separated by a single clap, completing it to 7, and he was adding pauses on the clap evoking that feel. Essentially just 6/4 or however you like to think of it. But then he really throws the audience by starting what feels like a 4 feel right on the clap, and those are the spots where the audience seems to falters slightly. Super cool 😎
Yes I was looking for this comment. Im used hearing Seven grouped as combinations of 3 and 4. But here its more like 6+1 or 3+3+1, this way of thinking of It makes It much easier to follow.
I've written a lot of songs in 7, but this was a hard one to "feel". starts on 7, is syncopated. This dude is one solid thinking drummer. Impressive
When the drummer says: "Let's play it in 7/4":
I can’t count to seven regularly, let alone to this… Impressive!
1 2 3… what comes next?
1 2 3 4 1 2 3, thats how i count it
@@ryanthepianoman27 1223454564567567
1:57 - 2:02 melted my brain
I think it's kind of like a hemiola going from a 21/8 feel into a 7/4 feel but my brain melted too. The pulse of the 8th note triplets never change but the rest of the groove arranges itself into groups of 4.
@@TheGoldielox You're overcomplicating it, it's just grouping the 3s into 4s until he runs out of room in the measure. It's not even that rigid either, you can see that he extends the last one to a group of 5 because otherwise there would be a messy hit right next to the clap (not messy for him obviously, but when you factor in the audience).
If you want to analyze this as a specific theory technique it would be metric modulation, shifting to a slightly slower tempo where the 8th note is equal to the rate of the 8th note triplet in the previous measure. It's so short-lived though that there's really no reason to think of it that way either, simple grouping communicates the same idea much easier. It's basically the same concept as when people write those dotted quarter note grooves that get cut off in 4/4 (3+3+2 and 3+3+3+3+2+2, hopefully it's clear what I'm talking about since they're everywhere) that are all over pop, rock and every other genre. It just seems alien here because people don't normally regroup triplets and don't normally play with that level of syncopation at all in 7/4.
He's playing triplets with every 4th note accented instead of every 3rd. Thats what grouping of 4 means. That way it doesnt feel like triplets anymore, altought it actually is.
honored to be referenced in the title! love love love
As someone who has played a 7/4 piece before, i find it’s easier to count it as 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3.
you just made this so easy to follow tysm
thats literally how conducter conduct 7/8 or 7/4 123 12 12 or 12 12 123
You are a genius, sir. Thanks !
Exactly. Or 4 + 3. I don’t know any musician who counts complex rhythms in large numbers. You always break it down into smaller pieces.
Yeah that's how most musicians break down the structure of a piece. It helped me play more complex pieces when I used to be in band. Like Mars is a famous 5/4 piece but it is often counted and conducted as '1-2-3 1-2'
They got me clapping behind my computer screen looking like a bozo.
You misspelled "like an absolute legend"
Same
*us lol
Same. Wife looking at me like "why."
We're all bozos on this bus.
This guy here does not get the credit and admiration he deserves. I know hes got a following and a name that people recognize, but this man is at the very top of his game like ive never seen before.
Many musicians don't get the recognition they deserve. I love The Consouls (who did a few VGM jazz covers in odd time signatures eg Enter Waka) but they only have just under 60 000 subs on their channel.
@@cooldebt You're the first ever person to ever bring up The Consouls outside of their own videos. They are great.
definitely an audience of musicians. also, his playing is so tight I cannot comprehend
3:02 Hold on a minute...
as a drummer i find the composition of the piece quite impressive entertaining and refreshing
definitely an audience of musicians or prog fans that could instinctively count in 7/4 immediately
i don't think you need to be a prog musician to count to seven man
@@cupparuppa LOLLL
@@cupparuppa you'd be surprised
nah this is chicago man
nah dude i don’t play an instrument or anything but i could count to this with relative ease as most people could i think it’s just a normal crowd lol
I love this! Same idea that the first few levels of the game “Rhythm Doctor” are based on, on just how hard it is to count to 7 if you dont have an internal beat
Well, sort of. I just finished Rhythm Doctor, and unlike this video the 7th beat we actually clap on is actually just the fourth beat of 4/4 time. We're counting in eighths which is why it's the seventh beat in the game. It's easier to count to seven in the game than in this video.
Semi-Spoilers for the game:
Except for that one level of the game, N1-X, which actually is in 7/4 time.
That's a riot, thanks for transcribing it George. His conducting for one bar didn't help at all where 1 was either, but I'll go with clap on 7. This on of those videos you send to all your music-head friends.
th-cam.com/video/0tmGhzpn6SQ/w-d-xo.html it was out there since almost 2 years😉
@@danieleatzoridrumchannel7119 OK, so what? I just saw it.
@@gertnood just wanted to share.. maybe this with the clap on 1 makes more sense or maybe not
@@danieleatzoridrumchannel7119 OK I see.. didn't know what you meant. I tend to think the challenge is to know where 7 is, and the downbeat is on the bass drum quarter note as George has it written. Either way it is pretty neat.
Normally I hate extended drum solos but I could listen to this all day! Amazing!
This had to have been for an audience of percussionists or something right? How I the bloody crikey hell did they keep time so well as a collective. Insane.
Nate Smith man... also, you should check out a drummer named Petar who plays with Cory Wong, specifically a clip from his live in Minneapolis concert where he is teaching 25/8. Around the one hour 20 minute mark
@@tonalddrump255 give me my chipotle
Give me my chipotle is wonderful. Saw him in Bloomington the day after that recording. An awesome concert
@@ExtraFancy96 I want chips, I want guac
@@tonalddrump255 give me my chipote
Petar Janjic! I thought of the exact same thing while watching this. "Give me my Chipotle, give me my Chipotle. I want chips, I want guac. Give me my Chipotle, ONE!"
I'm a musician who prides himself on his rhythmic capabilities. I would have goofed after the second measure.
It's incredibly hard to keep track of after he starts his rhythmic illusions, it's amazing that the drummer could keep track himself
Second measure? Yikes......
It’s not hard if you count in your head, but if you don’t it can be tricky
then your rhythmic capabilities are bad
I know most people are taking this comment in jest, like was the intent, but I'd suggest the others to not take things so seriously. I get that it's sometimes hard to understand humor over text, but even if this was a 100% real comment, being negative doesn't really help anyone. Anyway happy counting. 🙂
I'm high, and i tried to clap along, first couple tries were not cool, but at one point i got that hihat pulse and just kept up with the timing all way to the end, that was N I C E
Rhythm Doctor has trained me for this very moment
What a fantastic drummer! Sliding in and out of so many different rhythms while still maintaining the timing is amazing.
I like how the audience cheers louder the more they fail haha what an awesome dynamic
Wow that first 7 groove he did was IMMACULATE and beautiful. I have made it my life-long goal to find and also create odd-time grooves/compositions that sound natural and not those that intentionally use the odd nature of them to get that 4 feel but break it midway. Not that I dislike songs like that, but it is so rare to find songs like From Eden - Hozier. I also want to release a few odd-time ideas on my own channel... Just need to record them well :)
The Consouls went through a period where they did their VGM jazz covers in odd time signatures - you might enjoy their versions of Enter Waka or Night Walker in 7 (for their 7th birthday), Space Walk or Crystal Snail (OST mostly in 13/8) and a few others
audience do be playing rhythm doctor
I love the person at 0:20 who immediately counts 7
Showed this to my 9 year old daughter tonight. She just got cast for her first percussion role at school. I've been a drummer for 35 years...makes me really happy to see her analytical brain applied to music.
An argument for clap on one: it makes the kick pattern symmetrical around the barline (ie it's two repetitions of a pattern in 7/8 beginning on the downbeat).
I feel very strongly about this!
It helps the audience keep pace
Clapping on one is easier. Maybe that's why he had them clap on 7.
It's totally clap on ONE
Read the notation. It’s claps on 7
I agree it sounds way more natural with clap on the one, at least to Western ears used to 4 on the floor. That's how I heard it before the sheet music
In high school jazz we played the Mission Impossible theme. That arrangement switched every measure back and forth from 5/4 to 4/4. The only way I could play it was to ignore that and know how the song went.
guys, the transcription is all displaced by 1/4 note in the past. the audience is obviously clapping the 1, you can also understand this from the backbeats on 2, 4 and 6 when he starts to groove
Agree
You could say that and it’s a matter of preference, but most of it feels like the clap is on 7. Particularly 1:13 and 1:43. But the transcription is available for free if you want to change it :)
@@GeorgeCollier the claps def supposed to be felt as 1, why would nate play a backbeat on beat 1? the groove makes wayy more sense shifted a quarter over
@@GeorgeCollier he actually conducts a bar of it himself at around the 0:27 mark and the clap is on the downbeat. I think it makes a little more sense that way, but I'm still glad for the transcription
th-cam.com/video/0tmGhzpn6SQ/w-d-xo.html
The fact that this is so insanely groovy and listenable and not just a big jazz maths wank is astounding.
Just found you guys and right on treated with a new song.
Stay true to yourSelf guys, you are awesome and pure.
Love from the Netherlands 🙏❤️
Check out king gizzard and the lizard wizard, they had two drummers and their use of 7/8 timing allowed them to alternate between having beat one either be a down beat or syncopated beat for every bar, kind of like the way he is alternating each bar.
which tune?
Bruh there’s like countless bands that use 7 and a load of other time signatures. King Gizzard is nowhere near as mathy as it gets, especially in the prog world.
@@HieronymousLex i don't think he's kg&tlw is special for using 7, i think they're special because they use 7 AND 2 drummers allowing for some crazy syncopation
@@alexchimi7093 having two drummers doesn’t equal more syncopation. Also syncopation isn’t related to time signatures at all, so having 2 drummers playing in 7 has nothing to do with syncopation, just saying.
Believe me, I’ve been listening to Gizz for years. I love them lol. But I’m a drummer so I’m just saying.
@@HieronymousLex Of course it doesn't, but it's much easier to syncopate and incorporate more complex rhythms if one drummer is focused on one rhythm and the other in another lol
I played classical and ragtime piano for many years and I struggled a lot here and I'm not even ashamed
The way I got through the brainbenders of 1:58 and 2:10 on time was that I was playing a a keyboard lick in 7 to this to help counting. Muscle memory > brain.
such a commanding and unifying moment! that’s a bond that is specific to those who were there for the rest of time. world needs more of this practice
As an amateur drummer who just loves the instrument, this blew my mind. I'm proud of myself that I could keep up for the most part, but the bits that tripped everyone up in the audience tripped me up as well. Reading the notation was insane though. I'm gonna watch this again now.
This seems like the kind of stuff drummers figure out when they get bored.
Nate Smith never fails at being absolutely mind blowing
I only ever did a few years of band class in high school, but one thing I learned was: when the drummer didn’t show up, we sounded like booty-butt cheeks. Drummers are crucial.
Freakin' amazing l absolutely loved this vid thanks so much for the post.
1:58 the transition and execution here is pure genius
I never thought my brain could hurt so much (in a good way) from listening to a drum beat. This was awesome lol.
I absolutely love the minimal use of the drum kit. Nate Smith.
i love when the audience’s clapping gets more hesitant
This is mind boggling. An unbelievably creative and technical groove.
This is THE MOST ENTERTAINING thing I’ve seen in TH-cam all year!!!🔥🔥🔥
Years of drumming paid off, actually managed to keep the timing even with the off beats.
Besides what everyone else has said about the backbeat, at 0:31 you can clearly see Smith cue the clap on one.
ummmm no. He cues on 7 :)
@@Johnny-Joseph Based on his conducting pattern the clap is the downbeat. He beats 1 2 3 4 - 1 2 3 - (1) CLAP with his hands
@@sethkg9596 because he is cuing them to clap on 7....
@@Johnny-Joseph I'm sorry but you are incorrect, he conducts a downbeat there, a beat one. As the other person here said: he splits the bar into a 4/4 followed by 3/4
@@Johnny-Joseph you’re very much right, though the whole song, the audience is clapping on beat 7. He just conducts it in a way that cues beat 7
That whole audience deserves an award
Headbanging to Meshuggah for years has prepared me for this moment.
Absolutely love this. The beauty of rhythm that exists through music. Have fun with it!
Grouping the triplets in fours finally did the trick.. jeezy petes that's tough. Stupid drummers. LOL as a lowly trumpet player tracking the beat through some of this hurts my limited brain.
I feel for you
2:40 I love that you chart the OHHH 🤣
I love how the only difference between just doing stuff and people counting to 7 and being a pro is that he knows when they clap and nods his head. :D
I spent about a month trying to find this particular video. I made sure to add it to my playlist and to give a sub so I can keep seeing cool transcription videos. Your fun editor notes fill me with power.
This is how an audition for dream theater would go if i had to guess.
"okay that was good, now do it while skipping every other note"
Isn't the clap on the 1? Considering his phrasing and also the fact he is playing a back beat.
I'm not knowledgeable enough to say yes, but that's how I hear it
Thats how i hear it
To me he claps on the seven
@@lpharmer3496 If you can percieve the groove you are knowledgeable enough.
I certainly think so. He’s phrasing the bass drum in 4+3 it feels like (and that’s how he conducts it) so I think the clap should be on 1
Plus it feels like the snare should be on the backbeats of 2&4
7 years of musical experience and I thought I was doing so good until 2:00 , counting in my head is harder than expected
Ah, as a percussionist, we all love these irregular time signatures
Listening to this genuinely stresses me out as somebody who struggles to keep in time in 4/4
BPM: 123.5
Every Prog musician: WRITE THAT DOWN, WRITE THAT DOWN!
That crowd is very lucky I was not in that audience.. I would have probably messed that up so miserably. It would be truly an embarrassing sight
Guitarist with a high appreciation for time signatures speaking : That was a super fun exercise! Dude had me second guessing a few times there towards the end. I believe I’ll be coming back just to continue testing myself. Thanks for the upload!
as a flutist who cannot count:
i must say, this is very impressive
if someone counts for me I'm fine, counting and playing I can't do xD
Gotta pause the video so I can stop laughing enough to keep listening
Absolutely awesome! And the fact that you put ‘ooow’ in the score cracked me up.
I know nothing about music but I know 2 things:
1: This is amazing
2: I have no idea what half these comments say but Im still enjoying them seem amazed
I feel like the bar should be shifted over a quarter note, with the clap being on beat 1. That way you would get all the snares on the off beats instead of beats 1 3 and 5 which just feels wrong imo.
th-cam.com/video/0tmGhzpn6SQ/w-d-xo.html here you go
Does anyone else hears the clap in beat 6 instead of 7? I guess both can be heard or even beat 1, but my ear seems to prefer beat 6.
Yes
So you're hearing the start of the bars as leadups into the bar, that makes sense
Same here, I've watched it twice now and it's a 6 for me. That's what makes sense musically in my brain's "rhythm receptors". I can see how it can be a 1 or 7 but it's not natural to me, 6 is.
Best crowd participation by a long shot
This is like advanced mathematics in your head on a timer
What a fun idea. Having the audience play along in a rhythm game for a few mins during a set. What absolute fun. :)
Great idea to have the audience do during a drum solo!
I'd be in the crowd clapping wrong just to try to mess him up but he's just too good lol
woops i feel the clap on the 1 😞
Same I can't break myself of from hearing "clap" 234567 "clap" ...
It's deliberately tricky
I wrote it that way at first but he changed it, must be a musical choice
th-cam.com/video/0tmGhzpn6SQ/w-d-xo.html here you go
a lot of good metric modulation ideas in here 👍🏻
That really got me at 2:00 🤣 I love how he nods his head like "HERE IT IS!"
On my 7th play-through, I finally learned to to count to 7.
The weight of the groove is ON the clap, everything Nate plays relates to the clap as the starting point. There is a definite 4 - 3 structure, starting on the clap... So finally, the notation is rhythmically correct, but it completely neglects the right starting point, which makes it unnecessarily complicated and will confuse a lot of people.
I was on time for most of it but there was those odd ones where he switched it up and i counted 8 or 6 bars! Its easy if its repeated but to notice a tiny change that's the hard part!
This is one of the videos on youtube. Thank you!
My favourite part of the video: "This is Chicago man" :)