New Horizons in Music: Polyrhythms | Loop

For this episode of his series New Horizons in Music – filmed live at Ableton Loop 2017 – bassist, composer and music educator Adam Neely discovers that literally everything is rhythm as he investigates the connections between synaesthesia, the Harmony of the Spheres, Isaac Newton, pitch and polyrhythms.

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[AdamNeely]

Hey all! I go quite far off the deep end towards the end of this lecture, but it was all in service of proving my last point. If you stick it out, you see why I start rambling about things that might on the surface appear to be "too far out there, " but are in reality a means of understanding some fundamentals of music perception. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks to Ableton for having me! Loop was such an amazing experience.

[anqzavok]

Adam: but what if we go beyond visible spectrum?
Audience: * dies from radiation poisoning *

[Artektion]

Pro tip: Make sure the painting and the vocals are in the same key.

[DroneCorpse]

*lick plays*
Adam Neely: EHEH EHEHE EHEHEHEHE

[LuZu_]

'what key are we in?'
'look, just throw me a fourth, we're in f okay'
passes yellow paint

[EdwindeJong]

Pro tip: Make sure the harmony and polyrhythm match the album cover artwork colours.

[kaoD]

The audience didn't laught at the lick :(

[marek.p]

under 10 Hz: rhythm
10-20 Hz: helicopter
over 20 Hz: pitch

[Bonezr]

Small addition to the part where he talks about the gap in perception between rhythm and pitch. The same happens with visuals, that's why a slideshow is perceived as individual images but a movie (24 frames per second or more) is perceived as movement.

[rebmcr]

42:23 "technically speaking, when you speed up a pitch, it's not going to turn into light"

HOWEVER, once it's past the eardrum or retina, it DOES become the same thing — and that's almost certainly why our experience of them is comparable.

[Jeffyweffyy]

Dude... the most common key in the genre of “Blues” is literally blue

[fivedollarcookies]

"A is 440 hz, let me be clear about that..."

*Chuckles*

Audience has no clue...

[Charlyfromthenuclearcity]

Adam in his own meme world :
"I'm just feeling it maaan ! *chuckles* "

[sjallard]

00:00 Part 1 : Intro (Synaesthesia; Newton's Optics and his use of music as a metaphor for colours and their relations)
07:25 Part 2 : Pitch and rhythm are the same thing (Pitch=rhythm; Human perception of pitch and rhythm)
11:50 Part 3 : How to polyrhythm (Practical guide)
22:00 Part 4 : Polyrhythm and harmony are the same thing (Live demonstration)
29:40 Part 5 : "It gets crazy" : the relation with the visible light spectrum
38:15 Part 6 : "The harmony of the spheres" : the relation with the planets
41:25 Part 7 : Contextualizing the previous points and conclusion (Equal temperament vs just intonation; Sound, a compression wave vs light, an electromagnetic wave; Metaphors expand perception)

[epiczeven]

My mind was already blown by how Adam created a chord out of a sped up Polyrhythm.
But once he explained how sound could be expressed in colors... I was like "HOLY SHIT" we are getting to a new era of art.

[themuffinman]

Idk about the rest of you but I still think the lick is absolutely hilarious

[AcornFox]

Action movies color grade in power chords. Lol

[DiveaksshSchae]

This talk has literally changed how I understand my world. Thanks so much Adam.

[kostik-pime]

I felt a little enlightenment after watching this. I mean, I knew almost all things he was talking about, but I never thought of them combined, and it blows my mind

[heavycello]

That was honestly one of the coolest lectures I've ever seen