A different way to visualize rhythm - John Varney

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  • čas přidán 19. 10. 2014
  • View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/a-different...
    In standard notation, rhythm is indicated on a musical bar line. But there are other ways to visualize rhythm that can be more intuitive. John Varney describes the ‘wheel method’ of tracing rhythm and uses it to take us on a musical journey around the world.
    Lesson by John Varney, animation by TED-Ed.

Komentáře • 2,1K

  • @s3blastois3
    @s3blastois3 Před 8 lety +5726

    There needs to be an app where you can make beats with that circle he mentioned.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +969

      +Sebass I'm working with a developer on it currently.

    • @morisan42
      @morisan42 Před 8 lety +187

      +John Varney would love to hear some updates on that

    • @josephkurth2300
      @josephkurth2300 Před 8 lety +90

      +Sebass this is essentially the way that bars are visualized in the Session View of Ableton Live 9.

    • @aZnLy96
      @aZnLy96 Před 8 lety +15

      +John Varney looking forward to it!

    • @mrpizzanipples
      @mrpizzanipples Před 8 lety +50

      +Sebass It's called Figure!

  • @JloBroOFFICIAL
    @JloBroOFFICIAL Před 8 lety +2645

    it would be impossible to write an entire song this way because you couldnt write anything longer than 1 bar. but just for giving people a new way to imagine how it works, this video is awesome.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +209

      +James Logan
      Often a piece has a basic underlying rhythm, which you experiment with using the wheel and then set. If you want to change the rhythm in a different section you just do a new wheel. It can also be used to get a feel for how interacting rhythms ion a piece work together.

    • @xanri7673
      @xanri7673 Před 8 lety +52

      +James Logan If you make the circle bigger you can essentially add bars

    • @xanri7673
      @xanri7673 Před 8 lety +11

      +Matt Fellenz You would just have to repeat after a certain amount of time

    • @JloBroOFFICIAL
      @JloBroOFFICIAL Před 8 lety +33

      I hope you're joking dude *****

    • @simonenoli4418
      @simonenoli4418 Před 8 lety +22

      +MomoTheBellyDancer what would be the point in writing it in a circle if it loops the whole song then?

  • @Diarmadhim
    @Diarmadhim Před 8 lety +381

    Once others recognize that this isn't being proposed as a "better" way to view rhythm, it can very easily excel as an educational tool for those of us that simply flounder when presented with the standard notation. As with all things "classical education," we need to recognize that it is not inherently the most effective way to teach things, but is instead the one that has been utilized the longest.
    Thank you for sharing.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +2

      +Jacob Curry
      Thank you Jacob. You've got the picture.

    • @robf00fbug19
      @robf00fbug19 Před 4 lety +11

      @@johnvarney3750 But *you* somehow missed it. The REASON musical notation has remained largely unchanged is because it is simple and it works. You've drawn an image which can be used for ONE measure and is incapable of doing much else. Don't believe me?
      Show us how you write your 7-stroke rolls (open, closed, then open again). Or, show us the Purdie Shuffle; It can be approximated pretty well on a staff. Your method would require a compass, protractor, and some serious voodoo to illustrate it (or more importantly to *re-create* it). This is, after all, why musical notation exists.
      I love innovation, but it has to serve a purpose AND be an improvement. Sadly, this does/is neither.
      But, hey... cool pictures, bro.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 4 lety +9

      @@robf00fbug19 That's not what it's for. It's to show how underlying elements in layered cyclic rhythms work, as in salsa, for example, and to show how you can interrelate different rhythms, such as chaconne and joropo, by their cyclic similarities.
      At no point does it propose itself as a replacement for western standard notation.

  • @mayank_b
    @mayank_b Před 3 lety +123

    Can we take some time to appreciate the animation and the quality knowledge provided in this video.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 3 lety +4

      Thank you so much!

    • @midnitescott
      @midnitescott Před 2 lety

      @@johnvarney3750 thank you. I like how you showed the effects of the rotations on the wheel. Plus, great music knowledge of world rhythms!

    • @jordanjohnsondrums
      @jordanjohnsondrums Před 10 měsíci +1

      That’s what I was doing while watching the video

  • @dylanlabon9667
    @dylanlabon9667 Před 2 lety +146

    Rhythm is what I struggle with the most as a musician and composer. I tend to favor simple rhythms because I have a hard time internalizing the beat. I don't think this video solved all of my rhythmic issues, but I do think it generally gave me a better understanding of rhythm. I really appreciate this different perspective you shared with us.

    • @zane003
      @zane003 Před 11 měsíci +1

      There is something internal to how the brain processes sounds that makes this difficult for me too, and I have tried to listen to even beats by themselves.
      If the main beat marks repeating patterns for the brain to synchronize with, then having issues syncing with it is what causes the problem for me.
      I feel like my brain is able to speed-up and slow-down more easily while thinking, and when this happens during strumming the guitar (such as when thinking about something while playing) I usually strum and tap my foot too early and mess up the rhythm.
      An MRI scan will likely show synchronized signal swirls (cutting edge discoveries are currently being made there).
      In summary: I think this is a quirky think in the brain similar to how dyslexic people use a different part to read which is better at things but worse at others.

    • @christophersmith4560
      @christophersmith4560 Před 10 měsíci +2

      I think I agree with you and a lot of people have that problem. Further, The graphics in this video do not synchronize very well with what's being described, come up thus causing a little bit of a disconnect in the explanation.

  • @AkashSingh-ku6yc
    @AkashSingh-ku6yc Před 3 lety +374

    In Indian classical music, rhytm (taala) is traditionally visualized as cyclic!

    • @yash1152
      @yash1152 Před 2 lety +16

      and unsurprisingly, this TED video doesnt mention that. Coincidence? I think not! It's on purpose imo.

    • @ems7623
      @ems7623 Před 2 lety +13

      I had heard this before. Interesting. It's amazing how much of Indian culture leans towards cyclical conceptions ... Of time, meter, the cosmos, life, the gods (in Hinduism) ...

    • @bobfrog4836
      @bobfrog4836 Před 2 lety +6

      That's exactly what I thought when I started watching this and was kind of surprised they didn't mention it.

    • @AlbertBalbastreMorte
      @AlbertBalbastreMorte Před 2 lety +2

      I'm started to figure why trance is so popular in Goa.

    • @mridhulml9238
      @mridhulml9238 Před 2 lety +1

      @@AlbertBalbastreMorte lol thats easy..cause of all the people on acid! Trance hits different when you're high

  • @EmdrGreg
    @EmdrGreg Před 8 lety +1046

    This is WONDERFUL.

    • @jonathangilliam875
      @jonathangilliam875 Před 8 lety

      +Greg Scott Absolutely. Shame it's so unknown.

    • @EmdrGreg
      @EmdrGreg Před 8 lety +1

      ***** Agreed.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +5

      +Greg Scott I agree too, but it's starting to accelerate!

    • @vari1535
      @vari1535 Před 4 lety +1

      oops i accidentally ruined your 666 likes

    • @robf00fbug19
      @robf00fbug19 Před 4 lety +1

      Looking forward to seeing your score of literally ANY music. (If you've only got one measure worth of music this idea isn't absolutely terrible, but it still kinda is.)

  • @theresak5906
    @theresak5906 Před rokem +13

    I dance flamenco and every time we study a new flamenco rhythm, our teacher uses a circle to make it more clear where the beats are. It definitely makes the process of understanding rhythms easier.

  • @StephenTack
    @StephenTack Před 9 lety +501

    I like this way of visualizing rhythms...I wish there were a drum machine app designed like this.

    • @camtothemax
      @camtothemax Před 9 lety +3

      Me too!

    • @camtothemax
      @camtothemax Před 9 lety +5

      ***** Too bad it's not for Android

    • @StephenTack
      @StephenTack Před 9 lety +4

      Cool... Though no Android love 😒...
      And my iPad 2 is aggravatingly slow since iOS8.

    • @TVjoakim
      @TVjoakim Před 9 lety +5

      If someone made an app like that for android i would buy the shit out of it!

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 9 lety +16

      Thanks for the comments - there's also a theoretical component that goes with this that was a bit too complex for this brief format. I'm hoping to get together with a programmer to develop a rhythm- wheel app that would incorporate this.

  • @AnubisXII
    @AnubisXII Před 2 lety +61

    Wow. I can remember a long time ago when I first started to play. I was jamming with this dude who didn't have a feel for the groove. He would carry his fills two or three 16ths past the count and restart at the beginning of the bar. Turn a 4/4 groove into 5/4 and 9/8 and 4/4, all at random times.
    But anyway I was trying to think of a way to explain to this dude (without knowing a damn thing about music and bars and timekeeping, etc...), that his fills were extending past the count, and the only way I could think in a way that made me understand what was happening in a way that I could explain to him was using this circular pattern.
    Its okay to fill past the 12, but when you come back to the groove, you gotta slide in as if the groove never left.
    Im confusing myself trying to think about how I explained it to him, but I know what I was talking about. Im sure we were really high at the time, so Im sure it made total sense.

  • @yacovsimons393
    @yacovsimons393 Před 4 lety +10

    Amazing.
    I love small intuitive visual geometric condensed simplified lessons that contain a lot of potential.
    This is my style of learning.

  • @ragamuffinukes2779
    @ragamuffinukes2779 Před 4 lety +4

    40 yrs I've been dabbling in music with no inherent rhythm; when going beyond 2-beat toe tapping, i had 2 large left feet! ...but, i continue to strive to learn how to let go & let the beat in... and in 5 minutes you brought it all home... 😂😍🎵🎶 thank you! going to watch the entire lesson...

  • @pmyou2
    @pmyou2 Před 9 lety +13

    I am impressed. A beautiful visualization, and one I have never encountered before. Thanks!

  • @kingrosalani
    @kingrosalani Před rokem +4

    The circle is a very interesting way to think of rhythm. Sort of like a physical metronome with your rhythms written on it

  • @TenThumbsProductions
    @TenThumbsProductions Před 9 lety +63

    Fantastic

  • @felicialally5703
    @felicialally5703 Před 3 lety +2

    i don't know that this will help me in life, but it is nice to know and appreciate that some people's brains work differently, and they see the world in a different way. that in itself is beautiful.

  • @genisay
    @genisay Před 9 lety +96

    Not only is this video very interesting, but I just thought how great of a reference it would be for constructing music cores for songs with different cultural influences, so I'm totally holding onto this one.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 9 lety +8

      That's part of its strength - this video only takes it up to 8 beats, but I do workshops up to 16, and then beyond. It helps to empower musicians to create their own rhythms.

    • @genisay
      @genisay Před 9 lety +2

      Nice. I'm going to have to look more into this method. I could very well use it for constructing music through some of the programs I have, as usually, the hardest part for me is thinking up the underlying structure to start something. Most of what I've done in the past was just playing around until I got something I liked....but that was time consuming, and took a /lot/ of trail and error, and ended up being overly repetitive with out really having a good backbone.

    • @Leotique
      @Leotique Před 6 lety +1

      what cores ? there aren't many possibility to fill those gaps, and most of the music was inspired by the same source, also human brains always seek for patterns and structures. so it please us when a song is 4/4 or at least triole.

    • @yuyiya
      @yuyiya Před 6 lety +1

      Oh, come on! Sure, there are plenty of common patterns we all know and love, but it doesn't take a lot of ingenuity to make a new rhythm.
      Look at +John Varney's answer above - he does workshops using up to 16 beats. There are exactly 2^16 different patterns of "present" or "absent" beats, which is 65 536 of them - and that's considering only two different levels of stress on the beats. The video already uses four different levels: main, secondary, off and none; and in 16 beats, that makes a total of 4^16 = 4 294 967 296 different possible patterns - that's right, over 4 billion! Bet you can find something new and interesting in there :-) .

  • @LaCrisArts
    @LaCrisArts Před 8 lety +12

    Wow! This reminded me of one time that I saw a street artist with some bottles and a train. The bottles where set in the track and as the train was passing by, the music was played. It was beautiful to see the rhtyhm and how the space between the bottles in the circle could anticipate if a fast tempo was coming or a slow... well, anyway!
    Thank you for doing this :)

  • @peterstiles1
    @peterstiles1 Před 9 lety +15

    Superb video.
    For someone who knows nothing about music, like me, that explained so much. Easy to understand and intuitive.
    Thanks.

  • @FatCandyProduction
    @FatCandyProduction Před 9 lety +396

    As a drummer I actually found this to be very confusing xD

    • @oshgnacknak72
      @oshgnacknak72 Před 4 lety +23

      I agree. Like how can we encode a change of the beat when the song progresses?

    • @robf00fbug19
      @robf00fbug19 Před 4 lety +22

      @@oshgnacknak72 You *can't* with this abysmal idea.

    • @reinerzufall1292
      @reinerzufall1292 Před 3 lety +9

      I pefer sightreading much more over using a system like this

    • @AWMK101
      @AWMK101 Před 3 lety +5

      Oshgnacknak A second circle :0

    • @Duy22
      @Duy22 Před 3 lety +9

      @@oshgnacknak72 You could draw a circle for each different pattern and place them sequencially. To know when to change patterns, you could associate a number to each circle which would represent the how many times this pattern needs to be repeated before playing the next one.

  • @tastelesstouch
    @tastelesstouch Před 7 lety +17

    As a producer of electronic music this kind of thinking comes naturally because you are usually dealing with a loop and triggering sounds throughout the loop. I thought it was really interesting how rotating the starting point of the wheel leads to different time signatures.

    • @blizzard_the_seal9863
      @blizzard_the_seal9863 Před 2 lety

      rlly old comment but SAME i was like wondering, do people NOT think like this??? but yeah i forgot that its cause i deal with loops so much 😭

  • @sophiejones7727
    @sophiejones7727 Před 8 lety +4

    wish I'd learned this when I was six and attempting to play the violin. rhythms confused me for the longest time, and all my teacher could do was say "count it out". so helpful...

  • @kambizdara6678
    @kambizdara6678 Před 8 lety +2

    a very nice and important thing about the rhythm in nature is that they are almost always irregularly regular. And I think this makes nature so special and unique. Thank you for the video.

  • @theopaopa1
    @theopaopa1 Před 2 lety +2

    excellent, ted-ed . 3:06 and thank you for naming the chacarera !!

  • @Jay-pr5kn
    @Jay-pr5kn Před 4 lety +8

    I've always done the same where I visualize rhythm back and forth, except it's so much easier than what's shown here. You just move back and forth according to the downbeats and fill in the in-betweens with divisions. The way they show here with the circular visuals are more suitable for polyrhythm, I would say.

  • @howser1961
    @howser1961 Před 6 lety +3

    Brilliant - a true insight and a wonderful, magical, deeper understanding of the realm of rhythm. Outstanding!!!

  • @My6stringer
    @My6stringer Před 4 lety +1

    Wow !! That just blows my mind, what a wonderful way to interpret the rhythmic pulse of music !!!

  • @mrbigg151
    @mrbigg151 Před 7 lety +2

    I've been in music for decades and never thought of it like this. Very interesting concept

  • @salmakassimi5365
    @salmakassimi5365 Před 8 lety +41

    More videos like this PLEAAASE

  • @drrodopszin
    @drrodopszin Před 2 lety +6

    Excellent idea! If you add "grid-lines" you can also now track the differences of the same beats: if you overlap the Persian "version" of Chacarera you will hear the beats don't fall exactly on the same moment. Those nuances, those delays and early arrivals are very important to the style (and they are impossible to mark prettily in sheet music).

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 2 lety

      Yes. This presents simplifications of the rhythms so that the inter-relationships can be seen more easily.

  • @leayrohn
    @leayrohn Před 4 lety +1

    I’m in love with the TedEd page I’m so happy I found it!!

  • @somipax
    @somipax Před 5 lety

    Simply GREAT presentation and illustration. Thank you.

  • @samanthawong7857
    @samanthawong7857 Před 8 lety +7

    This truly opened my mind to thinking out of the box

  • @markielinhart
    @markielinhart Před 2 lety +3

    Brilliant❗️as a beginner drummer I’m finding horizontal notations hard to STAY AHEAD of but the circle concept makes so much sense especially with regard to an uninterrupted flow from the instruments 👏🇦🇺✌️

  • @herberar
    @herberar Před 4 lety +2

    Great visualization with really clear examples! Thanks a lot !!!

  • @dennisinkwa5233
    @dennisinkwa5233 Před 6 lety

    Nifty indeed! Never has the concept been presented more lucidly.

  • @dearjem
    @dearjem Před 6 lety +4

    thank you so much for this! i often struggle with rhythm but this gave me a whole new way to think about it. beautifully presented and explained

  • @MaxDoesFitness
    @MaxDoesFitness Před 7 lety +1123

    the circle of beats looks like an atom with orbits and electrons, hehe

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +85

      at least the outdated Bohr model, anyway . . .

    • @princeofcupspoc9073
      @princeofcupspoc9073 Před 7 lety +24

      Upvote for physics geek.

    • @hingusmingus6399
      @hingusmingus6399 Před 5 lety +13

      @@princeofcupspoc9073 not a real physics geek, orbiting electrons are 3 dimensional

    • @justanmichael5378
      @justanmichael5378 Před 5 lety

      Swear hahaha! But to any geeks around in 2018, there are no atoms! There is no material!!!

    • @musikgeek9289
      @musikgeek9289 Před 5 lety +1

      @@justanmichael5378 2019 geek right here

  • @Sreenivaslingala
    @Sreenivaslingala Před 5 lety +1

    Explaining Rhythm and Polyrhythm in a beautiful way and very simple method.. Great John Varney.

  • @ScatheMinx
    @ScatheMinx Před 3 lety +1

    Thank you! I discovered and traveled around the world with visualized beats in 5 minutes.

  • @isabellemarien5335
    @isabellemarien5335 Před 4 lety +6

    Je n'avais jamais eu un cours pédagogique aussi génial que celui ci bravo!

  • @noise_wrangler
    @noise_wrangler Před 9 lety +25

    The way you compare rhythms, finding their common elements and their differences is really useful. The wheel does help a lot. Do you know of any resource (online or not) that would do the same thing with a larger selection of the common styles of music? A sort of encyclopedia of rhythms and styles. Thanks for any pointer!

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 9 lety +3

      That would be possible, though it would take a bit of time. What I'm more interested in is musicians harnessing the technique to construct their own complex rhythms

  • @danord4213
    @danord4213 Před 3 lety +1

    Wonderful! I am thrilled - both by the logic and the graphics.

  • @jairuspatoc9682
    @jairuspatoc9682 Před 7 lety +1

    this is my favourite ted-ed tbh

  • @brianbarker2509
    @brianbarker2509 Před 2 lety +4

    This was mind bending. This is the type of video you share with, as many of your music loving, friends as you can.

  • @hotsistersue
    @hotsistersue Před 9 lety +4

    I love this! I see music in a totally different way now!

  • @fasttrack7430
    @fasttrack7430 Před 8 lety +2

    What a great video, especially for people not familiar with music theory. We all thank you!

  • @sgtdonagon
    @sgtdonagon Před 9 lety +2

    one of the best educational videos i have ever seen. Great culture tye in with music I would have never heard, and new knowledge. Superb!

  • @cameronkellerpiano
    @cameronkellerpiano Před 9 lety +7

    I like the visualization of rhythm as a circle. It is somehow more intuitive than an endless chain of bar lines. It's interesting how different cultures around the world share similar rhythmic patterns, too. I'd like to see a video about Eastern pitches (quarter steps, ect.) vs. the western 12 note scale.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 9 lety +1

      That's interesting. I play a lot of Middle eastern music and they don't use quarter steps - rather 3/4 steps. In Persian music they don't even acknowledge the octave as anything important - they add intervals from the tonic.

    • @cameronkellerpiano
      @cameronkellerpiano Před 9 lety

      John Varney How are the 3/4 steps notated?

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 9 lety

      ***** fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%86
      fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D8%B1%DB%8C_%28%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%82%DB%8C%29

  • @sealeoisnotok
    @sealeoisnotok Před 4 lety +25

    imagine thinking the backbone of an entire genre was a simple 4/4 rhythm just because you can play something from that genre in the rhythm

  • @thamestrinity
    @thamestrinity Před 8 lety +1

    This is one of the most awesome videos I've ever watch. Good job!!!

  • @krititara9544
    @krititara9544 Před 2 lety +1

    so beautifully designed

  • @charlievotin5169
    @charlievotin5169 Před 3 lety +94

    Ling Ling doesn't need to visualize rhythms. He just knows.

  • @cosmocelli
    @cosmocelli Před 8 lety +3

    This is genius! I never thought of it like that!

  • @JohnsyOmniscient
    @JohnsyOmniscient Před 7 lety

    this is good for those who are still trying to discover their personal visual guide. I have already discovered mine, it kind looks like a bar graph with spaces between them that I can feel and anticipate beats with.

  • @RafaelSantos-xl1ut
    @RafaelSantos-xl1ut Před 5 lety +1

    Eu fiquei encantado com esse Ted-Ed sobre visualizar ritmos por meio de uma viagem ao redor do mundo. 💖💖💖

  • @shaft9000
    @shaft9000 Před 2 lety +3

    At certain tempos, this is exactly what a phonograph already does
    but in a de-combined closed loop instead of a spiral path containing the entire mix in one groove

  • @PicaQ
    @PicaQ Před 7 lety +7

    Oh my goodness, I love the graphic design in this video animation, and the content was very well presented!

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +2

      Yes, I love the way they did the graphics, too.

  • @katiekawaii
    @katiekawaii Před 9 lety

    This is the most I have ever understood about music. Brilliant.

  • @dharryg
    @dharryg Před 4 lety +1

    Thanks for this intellectual break-through!

  • @StanSinitsky
    @StanSinitsky Před 9 lety +6

    We really need an app like this wheel :)

  • @arunsiva6243
    @arunsiva6243 Před 8 lety +8

    Amazing; this truly demystified a big component of music to me. I have been trying to mathematically understand music (oh people say it cant' be done..but was wondering where the feel-good feeling is coming from) and this wheel approach to rhythm is truly novel and helped me much.

  • @namlethanh4638
    @namlethanh4638 Před 8 lety +2

    Amazing approach and explanation! I feel so enlightened, thank you for this video :D

  • @alexmizea3516
    @alexmizea3516 Před 2 lety

    Great example , so eazy to understand . Thank you !

  • @KalyAlly
    @KalyAlly Před 8 lety +9

    The best understanding of world rhythms I've seen ever! :-)

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +8

      Thanks Jason - it's the result of about 15 years thinking on the topic.

  • @Lake_mondota
    @Lake_mondota Před 8 lety +4

    very interesting angle to explain rhythm

  • @meriskamutiara1271
    @meriskamutiara1271 Před 8 lety +2

    Wow, I'm blown away.

  • @copyplanter
    @copyplanter Před rokem

    This is one of my favourite ted ed videos 💚

  • @ellemoonriver
    @ellemoonriver Před 7 lety +9

    this lesson is amazing!! isto é bem mais fácil de perceber do que pauta ! deveríamos criar outro sistema com base nisto

  • @atomlightstone
    @atomlightstone Před 5 lety +11

    "Rhythm is found everywhere"
    *rhythm heaven intensifies*

  • @cupur
    @cupur Před 7 lety

    TED-ED You really do make some wonderful gems

  • @luayabdelhady7762
    @luayabdelhady7762 Před 8 lety +1

    this is the best video I saw so far, thank you

  • @ChiquitaSpeaks
    @ChiquitaSpeaks Před 8 lety +9

    I'm glad I watched this

  • @sorcerousfang
    @sorcerousfang Před 7 lety +18

    I play taiko, and struggle ridiculously with reading music. We don't do much with western notation, as the music is typically taught vocally, but there are times when the group needs to work on something outside of practice where having something written is helpful - to everyone but me. This is fantastically easy for me to understand, and I could break down entire songs using your method! I absolutely love it.
    Any chance you're working on a program that utilizes this?

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +7

      Yes, I am, but the programmers are finding it tricky.
      In the meantime, and in parallel, I'm develpoing a set of rhythm wheel cards that can be used in a similar way.

  • @robertschlesinger1342
    @robertschlesinger1342 Před 4 lety +2

    Excellent video and interesting means of representing rhythms.

  • @doctordada
    @doctordada Před 9 lety

    Brilliantly explained and animated.

  • @Draven.G
    @Draven.G Před 8 lety +12

    Wow I never expected to find an example from my my country (Venezuela), I am talking about joropo.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +3

      +José Gouveia
      Not only that, but I play bass on the example, with some Colombian and a Venezuelan musician friends (arpa, cuatro & capachos)

    • @drumavidcheckupz4792
      @drumavidcheckupz4792 Před 8 lety

      +John Varney Furruco?

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 8 lety +2

      There's no furruco on it, but I have a slovenian one now, and might include it if I ever re-record it!

    • @yuyiya
      @yuyiya Před 6 lety

      +John Varney Do you have any gaita rhythms?

  • @Stiegosaurus
    @Stiegosaurus Před 9 lety +215

    While this is a great way to visualize music in an unorthodox way, there is no power better than understanding Musical Notation and sight reading.

    • @nacoran
      @nacoran Před 9 lety +20

      Musical notation is great, but once you get out of certain genres of music you'll find proficiency falls off a lot or goes off on strange non-standardized tangents. You'll wind up with guys playing tab specialized for playing their own instrument or playing by ear. Actually, personally, for pitch I actually find visualizing a piano keyboard is much more useful for picturing intervals than sheet music.

    • @anayaj402
      @anayaj402 Před 5 lety +12

      nacoran yeah picturing a keyboard for pitch is a good idea and a wheel for the beat is also a good idea but its the stave that puts them both together along with other instructions like the key, dynamic, etc

  • @Meow_yj
    @Meow_yj Před 3 lety +2

    Animation is so good! And also the narrator's voice.

  • @wolvinification
    @wolvinification Před 7 lety +1

    As a non music nerd who knows nothing about beats and rhythms, , the comparison of different patterns was mind blowing

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +2

      That's part of the idea - to give access to these concepts to anyone.

  • @angelhelp
    @angelhelp Před 9 lety +138

    You're confusing beats with rhythm. Beats do not change except in tempo. Rhythm is what changes. It may or may not serve to emphasize beats.

    • @story_teller4268
      @story_teller4268 Před 3 lety

      Could you pls explain it further for me

    • @angelhelp
      @angelhelp Před 3 lety +8

      @@story_teller4268 Look up the difference between BEAT and RHYTHM. Use more than one music dictionary to learn the difference. Failing that, enlist the assistance of a percussionist. This column is not the place for such explanations, however...
      Beats are subdivisions of a measure (which is also known as a bar). The top number of the time signature of a piece of music tells you how many beats are in a measure, e.g. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. The bottom number of the time signature tells you what note or rest represents a single beat. If the bottom number is a 2, then a half note or rest represents one beat. If the bottom number is a 4, then a quarter note or rest represents one beat. If the bottom number is 8, then an eighth note or rest represents one beat.
      Let's say that the time signature is 3 / 4, meaning 3 is the top number and 4 is the bottom. There would be 3 beats in any given measure in the music and those beats would be presented in terms of quarters. This means that any measure could have 3 quarter notes, 3 quarter rests, or a combination of notes and rests that added up numerically to 3/4. You could, for instance, use a half note followed by 2 eighth notes to make a measure of music in 3/4.
      No matter what combination of notes and rests comprise each measure, there would still have to be only 3 beats per measure. That is dictated by the time signature and cannot be changed unless the time signature itself is changed.
      No matter how rapidly or slowly the music is performed (this is called tempo), the music written in 3/4 time will still have 3 beats per measure, represented in terms of 3 quarter notes or rests or whatever other notes and rests add up to 3/4. Using note and rest values other than quarters in this example means that you must be careful of your math, but it'd be perfectly acceptable, for instance, to write everything in terms of sixteenth notes and rests, provided you didn't exceed 12 (since 12/16 = 3/4).
      There are special cases where music may appear to have an incorrect number of beats either at the beginning or at the end; the usual reason for this is the existence of an anacrusis (pickup), and the "incomplete" first and last bars are added together to make the correct number of beats as dictated by the time signature.

  • @LuisGutierrezG123
    @LuisGutierrezG123 Před 7 lety +151

    This is cool, but I'm confused

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +1

      In what way?

    • @LuisGutierrezG123
      @LuisGutierrezG123 Před 7 lety +12

      In a way that I'm not used to this "musical notation"

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +11

      It's not meant to be "notation," but a graphic representation to be able to visualise how rhythmic events interact.

    • @zain4019
      @zain4019 Před 4 lety

      Luis Gutiérrez
      I don’t get this at all:)

    • @sorciere_de_la_foret
      @sorciere_de_la_foret Před 4 lety

      Me too.

  • @HYPNOTICVIDEO
    @HYPNOTICVIDEO Před 8 lety

    How could anyone not like this? Thanks , for this perspective

  • @StarrStarrandStarr
    @StarrStarrandStarr Před rokem

    This so amazing!!!! I swear I feel lifted🤗

  • @Magabriu
    @Magabriu Před 6 lety +5

    This video its amazing. And it made my day listening Joropo in it 💛💙❤

  • @themotherbrassica
    @themotherbrassica Před 9 lety +10

    Fascinating idea, though I feel like the omission of Japan and South Korea was a missed opportunity since both countries' flags have big circles in the middle :)

  • @TheCodegram
    @TheCodegram Před 6 lety

    As a drummer, this is an interesting concept, and the same way I always wrote out polyrhythms to conceptualize it while I was still trying to learn the feel

  • @orio.swoosh
    @orio.swoosh Před 5 lety

    this is super cool, i have watched this video so many times to really learn about this

  • @RhythmAddictedState
    @RhythmAddictedState Před 8 lety +113

    So this is basically a step sequencer.

    • @projectnitefall8058
      @projectnitefall8058 Před 7 lety +13

      yea but i like the visual for this one.

    • @johnvarney3750
      @johnvarney3750 Před 7 lety +8

      It may share some aspects with what you describe, but it's above all a way of interconnecting cultures and genres though their common rhythmic patterns.

    • @MachineThatCreates
      @MachineThatCreates Před 4 lety

      Yes. One way or another you are still"plotting" the beat.

  • @OttmarFlorez
    @OttmarFlorez Před 8 lety +24

    En la traducción a español: en lugar de quechua, debería estar escrito cueca, que es un ritmo andino.

    • @yuyiya
      @yuyiya Před 6 lety +1

      You're right! The "Cueca" is a rhythm of the Andes, while "Quechua" is the language of the Maya people of Mexico.

    • @EduardoGarrido2188
      @EduardoGarrido2188 Před 5 lety +1

      @@yuyiya Quechua is the language of Andean peoples from the territory of the old Inca empire

    • @yuyiya
      @yuyiya Před 5 lety

      ​@@EduardoGarrido2188 Glad somebody's paying attention! ;-)
      "Quechua is a Quechuan language with about 8 million people in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina. Quechua was the language of the Inca empire which was destroyed by the Spanish in the 16th century." (See www.omniglot.com/writing/quechua .)

  • @thaithaovy.1
    @thaithaovy.1 Před 4 měsíci

    such a brilliant idea! useful knowledge learned, thank you!

  • @11Anaid
    @11Anaid Před 7 lety +2

    Amazing!!! So many countries with similar roots, interesting!!

  • @twistedparadoxELITE
    @twistedparadoxELITE Před 9 lety +100

    This is way more complicated than it needs to be. The current music notation is MUCH simpler and more effective than this, and to anyone with a bit of music theory knowledge, this is and redundant.

    • @nacoran
      @nacoran Před 9 lety +6

      How? I mean, this is multimedia. The main effect, circle or bar, about this is that it is showing you physically how far apart the notes are. To do this without a computer, but to someone with some music theory (a few classes years ago in college) who does most of his recording these days staring at a screen looking at wave patterns this seems much more intuitive.

    • @WassylAldais
      @WassylAldais Před 7 lety +4

      nacoran It feels more complicated for me :(

    • @evgeniy3308
      @evgeniy3308 Před 6 lety

      True

    • @anayaj402
      @anayaj402 Před 5 lety +7

      I think its because music notation is just more clear than this. It has the time signature, rests and the length of each note so as soon as you see it you can attempt it. With this wheel however i think trying to clap out the rhythm just by looking at it would be harder because (i find) its harder to keep an even pace in your head going around a circle

    • @cjg8763
      @cjg8763 Před 4 lety +4

      I don't think this is to replace music notation it is just showing a way to visualize the rhythm patterns and spacing.

  • @yash1152
    @yash1152 Před 2 lety +3

    2:01 i like Rock
    2:42 ... and Joropo
    3:11 ... and quechua
    3:14 ... and persian
    4:12 ... and Northern Romanian
    4:24 ... and middle eastern
    4:31 ... and Brazillian Choro
    4:38 ... and argentinian tango

  • @michelevitarelli
    @michelevitarelli Před 2 lety +1

    Thank you! This explanation made it all click for me. Thanks for the education.

  • @learntocrochet1
    @learntocrochet1 Před 3 lety +2

    This would be a fabulous rhythm teaching model for children - those that can tell time.

  • @mrtyreus0
    @mrtyreus0 Před 8 lety +7

    This is why J Dilla called his album Donuts. Rhythm and feel is infinite, thus its practically impossible to plot in a single dimension. Each track is a rhythmically round sweet morsel.

  • @Kevin-jc1fx
    @Kevin-jc1fx Před 3 lety +3

    I loved all the references to various musical genres. It felt like going on a musical trip around the world. Great video.

  • @petzzz5900
    @petzzz5900 Před 6 lety +1

    This is a great presentation on visualising rythms thank you so much

  • @serteres32
    @serteres32 Před 8 lety +1

    Excellently done!