I am new to Pandora and just stumbled across these neat music education clips. Very cool. I was a little disappointed, however, that this metric modulation tutorial did not address the use of triplets in duple time or duplets in triple time to metrically modulate. This is the most fascinating and aurally interesting type of metric modulation, in my humble opinion. Perhaps Chris Horgan could do an updated metric modulation tutorial that includes this technique.
Thanks, and keep up the good work! Pandora is a great product!

Hey Stephen - thanks for listening! Really great to get feedback like this!

I too really dig those rhythms that you can mold and shape - like duple into triple and vice versa. One of my favorites is taking triplets in 4/4 time and accenting every fourth note - so you get 3 against four. Can give the rhythm of stretched feeling, and can be a cool fill during more intricate improvisations/jams.

I did touch really briefly on the different subdivisions of 6/8 or 12/8 at the end of the podcast. Where Kevin mentions a tune from West Side Story - America. Did you catch that part? We didn't really get into the details of it, as the podcast was getting a bit long. Also had other - more complex examples - but we try to keep these podcast on the introductory tip.

But maybe you are referring to something a bit different?

lemme know

Chris

After spending all day teaching kids just to follow a simple beat on the metronome, I'm in rhythmic ecstacy!
The windshield example was fantastic. To play that, I would have to measure everything out, draw lines and memorize the pattern...I'm guessing you drummers can just *do* that???
Great job, Chris.

hey uncle chris!!! really cool clip! this is Breanna!!! I hope you see this!! you are really good!

Good job man, this is really nice for people who would like to know more about music. My nephew is learning to play guitar so I sent him a link to this as I think it contains important information for any musician. It's funny but I never thought of that tune from West Side Story as changing time signature, I just thought of the emphasis as going from (in 6/8) beats 1 and 4 to beats 1 3 and 5 but the tune staying in 6/8. I had always been taught that meters such as 6/8 or 12/8 were referred to as compound time signatures 6/8 is like 2/4 because emphasis is usually on 1 and 4 and 12/8 is like 4/4 (emphasis on 1, 4, 7 and 10). You might like this one just for fun, in 4/4 try playing sixteenth note 5'lets accenting the 1 and 3 of them then use this as if those accents were eighth notes in your new tempo of 4/4 which will be slightly faster than the original tempo. Keep up the good work guys I think you have a winner here.

Chris,

The examples you gave in your podcast all dealt with modulations in which the 1/8 note pulse stayed the same but the divisions changed. For example you would go from 8 1/8 notes per 4/4 bar to 12 1/8 notes per 12/8 bar (or more correctly, 4 dotted 1/4 notes) to 16 1/8 notes per 4/4 bar (except you count them as 16th notes: one eee and ah two ee and a . . .). Still the pules stays the same in all examples. This was actually a new way of thinking about metric modulation for me, but I was thinking of a different type. I will try to explain; as you can imagine, it is hard to due
without actually aural examples!

If you play a standard 4/4 beat and play 1/8 note or 1/4 note triplets against it, your ear is tied to the 4/4 beat and hears the compound time playing against it as supplementary. However, you can take those triplets and transform them into the new meter of the song. This creates an accelerando. This of course also works if you are playing in 3/4 or 6/8 and add duplets over the top - those duplets can become the new meter. This is harder for me to wrap my brain around, I think because we are so much more used to hearing triplets against duple time rather than vice versa.

I am trying to think of a popular song that does what I am describing, but I can't think of anything right now. I will let you know if I do.

On a related note, The Rolling Stones song, "Midnight Rambler," does something that feels like metric modulation, but it isn't really: they swing the 1/8 notes in a blues shuffle, but then "unswing" them later which gives the effect of the song speeding up. Hahaha. At least I think this is what is happening in that song. If you are familiar with it and have a different analysis, I would love to hear it!

Again, Pandora is cool, keep up the good work!

Stephen Ramon Garcia

Hey Stephen. You explained yourself just fine!

I did do a couple examples of the modulation you're referring to - but they didn't make the podcast as it was getting too long. One example - which is taken directly from a piece for timpani by Elliott Carter - I am super-imposing a double-dotted quarter note against 5 eight notes that then makes the double-dotted quarter the pulse - so essentially turning a 5 beat measure into a duple measure.

Here are two recordings of the Elliott Carter piece. It's for four timpani and is the 8th movement in the appropriately titled "Eight Pieces for Four Timpani". It is called "March", as in military march I think. If you are into metric mod this movement clearly uses it all over the place and would be an awesome piece to study.

Decent Performance:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9PLaCjKnkG4

Better Performance - but Quicktime only - link is near top of page:
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/timpani/marrs.html

PS - Just now listening to the Stones tune. That is an excellent example - as they are going from 12/8 (shuffle blues feel ) to 4/4 straight feel. The 12/8 could be written in 4/4 as swung 8th notes in jazz notation, or more traditionally notated in 12/8 time. But you are absolutely right - when they switch to duple the beat and tempo feel more energetic. But what is really cool is they took this to the next level by also subtly increasing the tempo of the song. Makes it feel like an even more natural and powerful change of gears! Nice find!

Another way this technique is used in swinging 16th notes - often done in funk music. The straight 16ths sound aggressive and more mechanical. The swung 16ths often sound more natural, more laid back, and sometimes more funky!

Hey Scott - I don't have the score next to me, but I seriously doubt that the meter does actually change in West Side Story. We just used it as a quick example for people to remember, not the best, but hopefully easy for people to remember!

I dig your fivelet example - that would def be a challenging metric modulation to execute! If someone were to execute it, they'd have to be able to count the existing 8ths notes (two per beat) against the ensuing fivelet (five notes per beat) and then adjust their brain to perceive 2 of those five notes as the pulse. Yikes! And for the performer to do this successfully they'd have to execute all that in a matter of a few seconds...

I was introduced to Pandora by one of my roommates, I just wanted to drop you a line to say I really love it!
Pandora and the whole Music Genome Project are incredible. I have always loved all kinds of music, and I enjoy mixing music and making playlist. The way the station builder works is amazing, I have built stations from a single song or artist and always get a fantastic mix, and get turned on to new songs and artist every time. I also love the music tutorials.

Keep up the good work
Mike

Thank you so much for everything that you've done for me. You can respond to my URL, 24 hours a day.

Stay wonderful

Chris, Brilliant!

You guys at Pandora are truly gifted with mad skillz. Your metric modulation podcast was like a bite-sized, but totally filling musical cupcake.

Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

I just discovered this series and find it INCREDIBLY helpful. I really enjoy music, but don't know a lot about the mechanics of it. This really helps me hear and feel how music works. Thanks so much!

Question: Can you consolidate all the Musicology 101 episodes by Topic in one place (in order)?

Thanks, Adrian! I'm very happy to hear that you're enjoying these so much.

At the bottom of the main page (pandora.com/podcast), the episodes are all grouped by Topic. There isn't an order to them, particularly -- I suppose you could listen in chronological order, which is how the iTunes subscription presents them, but there isn't really a chronology, as each episode is its own separate topic.