Hello revolutionary music makers, I’m Kate Harmony, this is Ray Harmony, and welcome
to Hack Music Theory, where we help you make great music that stands out. If you’re new
to our channel, please help yourself to our free book “12
Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords”, which you can download from our website. Alright,
it’s time to open your DAW to hack music theory. But first... you know the drill!
In Tool’s epic ten-minute title track “Fear Inoculum”, there’s a standout section
that starts at 5:49. We covered the guitar riff in last week’s lesson, so if you missed
that please check it out, because the polymeter is actually created from that riff (which
alternates between 12|8 and 5|4), playing over the bass and drums (which are in 11|8).
While the riff sounds like it’s slowing down and speeding up (due to the pulse changing),
the time signature of the rhythm section is constant. So, in this polymeter, those two
layers line up with each other every second bar. This results in a super tasty syncopation
when the bass and drums accent beat 1 of every other bar of 11|8, because the guitar doesn’t
even play that beat. In fact, the 11|8 rhythm section perfectly lines up with the riff’s
12|8 bar right up until that twelfth 1/8 note, which then becomes beat 1 for the bass and
drums, but not for the guitar.
Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use this theory to make your own version. And
for the example in this lesson, we’ll be using our version that we made earlier. So,
start by setting up one bar of 12|8 and one bar of 5|4, with your grid set to 1|8 notes,
and your tempo set to 150 BPM.
STEP 1. DRUMS
First things first, you’re probably wondering why you just set your time signature to 12|8
and 5|4, instead of 11|8. Well, the reason for that is so you can actually see the polymeter.
In other words, setting your grid like this will reveal that super tasty syncopation,
which results from this polymeter. Because, as you’ll notice in the second bar, beat
1 of the rhythm section is an 1/8 note earlier than beat 1 of the guitar. Right, so start
by playing closed hats on all the 1/8 notes, except for one of them, which will be an open
hat. Then, between any two hats, add a 1/16 closed hat for some spice. Next, add snare
hits on the fourth 1/8 note and the tenth 1/8 note in each bar. This will ensure your
listeners hear the 3+3+3+2 grouping that Tool use in their rhythm section. And finally,
add kicks wherever you want, except for where there’s already a snare.
And by the way, if you want help writing better drum grooves, then we’ve got two Drum PDFs
for you, which both come with MIDI file examples as well! So if that sounds useful to you,
then you can download them from HackMusicTheory.com
STEP 2. BASS
As we mentioned in last week’s lesson, Tool are in the A Phrygian mode here, which is:
A B♭ C D E F G. So you can choose any of those notes for your bass line, but start
each bar on A, and be sure to also include B♭ and C, to get that dark Phrygian vibe.
Now, regarding rhythm. The grouping here is the same as
your drums: 3+3+3+2. And you wanna play 1/8 notes exclusively to match the energy of your
drums, but include a few 1/8 note rests as well, to keep the rhythm fresh.
Alright, now let’s have a listen to our Tool-inspired bass and drums. But just before
the playthrough, if there’s an artist you’d like us to hack, please let us know. Thanks
for watching (or listening, if you’re on the podcast), and we’ll see you next week!