These 2 Indian Rhythm Exercises Will Destroy You [ADVANCED RHYTHM THEORY + KONNAKOL]
Part Two of this lesson, by Ben Levin, is found here! • Using STRESSFUL rhythm...
Confused? Take my rhythm course! signalsmusicstudio.com/produc...
In this lesson, we learn to perform some "simple exercises" from Indian konnakol (vocal percussion), then make music inspired by the concept. For most Western musicians like myself, these exercises will be wildly complex and advanced, since we rarely encounter such patterns in our music. However, reductive and growing patterns are common in Indian music, and keeping track of a steady pulse beneath them is a must! By learning konnakol and practicing these patterns, you should be able to easily expand your composing possibilities and start including "exotic rhythms" into your own music should you wish. As you'll see, these exercises easily lead into polyrhythms and polymeters of extreme complexity.
Thank you to my Patreon supporters for making these videos possible - their support means I don't have to put sponsors or ads in the middle of my videos.
/ signalsmusicstudio
And a HUGE thank you to Ben Levin for being a part of this video! Make sure to visit his website here: benlevinmusicschool.com/
And to @BeardStank (Jeff Schwertfeger) for his drumful prowess!
Like chords more than rhythms? Check out my new book, the Chord Progression Codex. I promise you'll love it! shorturl.at/bouLV
Here's the Adam Neely video with the Phrygian Challenge, featuring this rhythm: • Can the Phrygian Scale...
Table of Contents
00:00 Intro
01:35 Explaining Exercise 1
03:38 Keeping Tala With Your Hands
04:34 Hear Exercise 1
05:46 Converting Indian Rhythms to Western Notation
06:51 Hear The Exercise On Guitar
07:30 Turning Mad Rhythms Into Music
13:25 Hear The Song by Jake Lizzio + Ben Levin
14:56 Exercise 2
16:57 Closing Thoughts
Since I have specialized in this thing KONNAKOL as a guitar player it made me reflect on the fact that everything that we learn in music theory is based on language: note names, the scales and the harmonies - and on higher levels upper triads, substitutions etc. - all tonal events taking place in time - So the good thing to ask is : how do we practise time?, timing, subdivisions, polyrhythms & timekeeping ? And for that Konnakol is awesome because it is a language. A universal language.
Folks, listen to this man here! And watch his channel!!!
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king! But here, in the land of the deaf, the man with hearing in one year will still not be the king. Got it? 😁😁
Im so glad you are back. Your work is like no one else on youtube
I agree
It is always a treat
I went to write a comment only to see you already said exactly what I felt needed to be said.
@@nopenheimer great minds think alike i guess
Sitar and tabla is not Carnatic, that’s south India with veena and mridangam. Anoushka plays North Indian music called Hindustani
My mistake!
@@SignalsMusicStudio No worries, just adding nuance. Carnatic and Hindustani are very very different musical styles once you learn a bit about them. To me as a sitarist they sound nothing alike, Carnatic is mostly compositions while Hindustani is 90% improvisation.
He’s in the ballpark. Good start. Keep going ..
Props for owning the error.
Absolutely delightful to see constructive Input and jake owning up like already mentioned... Many different music genres and styles in our country... Your way of putting it up and analysing is really nice to see... And the music piece you constructed sounded straight out of a Hindi movie bgm
Thank you for teaching me these wonderful exercises and inviting me to write with you! You're amazing at what you do and a great hang!
I couldn't have said it better, and @BenLevin, so are you. I learn a lot from both of you, but what I like even more, you challenge my musical brain. I never want to feel like I have heard it all, or that I understand music. And both of you give me sth to chew on every single time. Thank you!
"Name your own price" for content of this quality is just astounding! You're a true gentleman, Jake...this is what the whole of YT *_ought_* to be like!
get it while it lasts! next year I'm going to start charging a reasonable price for it
That melody you wrote is sooooo cool!!!
it's just a cool rhythm, played using a cool scale, of which we break down to make cool chords 😎
@@SignalsMusicStudio And you found the tone to bring it all together.
It really rocked and the drumming was superbly musical.
I grew up listening to these rhythms.. still never saw them the way you explained.. awesome thank you
I bought a book on Northern Hindustani Classical music as a kid and quite a bit went swoosh over my head but the stuff that hit my rhythm and the way i look at phrasing it is nice to have that influence that advanced my overall education.
Hell yeeeahhh.... The Indian rhythms are where it's at !!! Thanks heaps for this lesson, very insightful !
Man, every now and then Ben drops something that unexpectedly bores deep down in my emotions, I felt that excerpt from him so hard
Australian here, always liked and respected Indian music! It's really fascinating to explore some of the complexity!
I’m glad someone else is recognizing the complexity of other worldly rhythms. A lot of people just stay to the westernization of music and miss out on a lot of cool complexities of other cultures in music. It’s a really cool exercise and I highly recommend people to up their rhythm game because it will allow you to create and express more. Hope you’re having yourself a wonderful week thank you for your contribution.
There are many complexities in varieties of western music as well. Western music incorporates rhythms and modes and scales from around the world. I'm tired of people treating all-things western as if it's monolothic and bland, and talking down to westerners under the presumption that westerners think non-western things are not as interesting or are inferior - particularly when fetishization of non-western things is commonly seen among westerners, and when non-western things are commonly held up as superior rather than different.
@@Objectified I think you misunderstood me. I’m not saying that its inherently bad I’m just saying that if you only focus on specifically western stuff you miss out on a lot of things that could inspire more.
I don't think he was discounting Western music as "simplistic".
@@TheSeeking2know nah I wasn’t implying anything but admiration for other cultures of music outside of it and thanks for pointing it out.
The Talam in The Second Exercise, is actually called as a Khanda Chappu Khanda meaning 5 Chappu means Irregular beat numbers like 5 and 7(that being Misra) Great vid!
Hope you found this video to be as fun as I did! The thing that Ben did still blows me away, I'm very grateful to have his awesome artwork in one of my lessons😁 Here's a few important things: 🔴I showed Hindustani music (instead of Carnatic music) during the intro. The rhythm I'm teaching occurs in both music styles though (both originate from India). As I mentioned right after, I can't teach Indian theory! 🔴Don't leave before watching 13:26 🔴Pete Lockett and Matthew Montfort get credit for exposing me to these rhythms via their online content. Matthew wrote a great book called "Ancient Traditions Future Possibilites" which was instrumental to my rhythmic knowledge 🔴The reductive 3's also works as reductive 5s, and is actually more common to hear in Indian music (at least in my experience). This still lies neatly within "adi tala", the 8 beat cycle. Basically, you can keep counting to 8 on your hands, but do reductive 5s in the exact same format and you'll end up on a one beat. This also works with 7's and 9s. 🔴If you're interested in this topic more, you can research "Konnakol lessons" here on youtube. I'd recommend @AsafSirkis for beginners, and for more advanced lessons, check out @StringsOfAndersen. The final boss of KZhead konnakol is @ManjunathBCkzhead.infogaming/emoji/7ff574f2/emoji_u1f534.png
Excellent as always!
So great to have you back mate. Fantastic teacher
Each of your videos is worth its weight in gold. Thank you for bringing this to light. I always felt that the western way of writing down rhythms was inadequate. There are Indian progressive bands like agam and motherjane who are incorporating the Indian rhythm traditions in a hybrid western style. They live in a strange void where they are little known by the world outside India and unappreciated within India.
4:50 exercise - 6:53 on guitar. - 8:06 in song. - 12:15 on piano (the piano one should be memorized) 13:25 final
God I waited nearly 7 mins to watch a 5 sec excercise
Messiaen loved using those rhythms! The beginning of the Quartet for the End of Time is just fascinating, the piano plays a progression of 29 chords over an Indian rhythm consisting of 17 notes (so the harmony and the rhythm restart at different places). I highly recommend to have a read through his book Technique of my musical language.
The finished song opened my third eye...
Listening to Tool pried open mine.
The compoſers are Sataniſts ſo, it is no wonder. Iuſt ſo thou knoweſt, as ſomeone with much experience in this field, the third eye, is a TWO WAY STREET, not a one way ſtreet. The whole agenda to open thy third eye is to let IN deuill ſpirits, that they could acceſſe thy body and faculties eaſier, all without thy detection. The third eye ſhould be cloſed, vnleſſe Ieſus Chꝛiſt him ſelfe openeth it foꝛ thee foꝛ HIS purpoſe befoꝛe cloſing it againe. The whole idea of a third eye and the talk around it and purſuit to open it oꝛ awaken it are by people who are meaning to harm thee in the moſt painful of ways. Iuſt an FYI. If thou deſireſt trueth and life, it is found in Ieſus Chꝛiſt and in his woꝛds in the King Iames Bible. The Goſpel that ſaueth and how to be ſaued accoꝛding to the woꝛd of God : "1 MOꝛeouer bꝛethꝛen , I declare vnto you the Goſpel which I pꝛeached vnto you, which alſo you haue receiued,and wherein yee ſtand. 2 By which also yee are ſaued , if yee keepe in memoꝛie what I pꝛeached vnto you , vnleſſe yee haue beleeued in vaine. 3 Foꝛ I deliuered vnto you firſt of all , that which I alſo receiued , how that Chꝛiſt died for our ſinnes accoꝛding to the Scriptures : 4 And that he was buried,and that he roſe againe the third day accoꝛding to the Scriptures." - 1 Coꝛinthians 15:1-4 Holy Bible 1611 "9 That if thou ſhalt confeſſe with thy mouth the Loꝛd Ieſus , and ſhalt beleeue in thine heart , that God hath raiſed him from the dead , thou ſhalt be ſaued. 10 Foꝛ with the heart man beleeueth vnto righteouſneſſe,and with the mouth confeſſion is made vnto ſaluation. 11 Foꝛ the Scripture ſaith, Whoſoeuer beleeueth on him , ſhall not bee aſhamed. 12 Foꝛ there is no difference betweene the Iew and the Greeke : foꝛ the ſame Loꝛd ouer all, is rich vnto all, that call vpon him. 13 Foꝛ whoſoeuer ſhall call vpon the Name of the Loꝛd,ſhall be ſaued." - Romanes 10:9-13 Holy Bible 1611
That's the brown one, right?
Sounds more like Animals as Leaders rather than Tool
TOOL REFERENCE!
So nice to see you back, and that too with Indian music! Keep creating man, love from India! 🇮🇳 ❤
There is a good reason why it takes MANY years to become a master of Indian music. It’s wonderful! Thanks for this break down!
Why do you think I started learning Western music😅
i got your book in the mail yesterday, so stoked. you're the man Jake! thanks for all the amazing content over the years.
Woohoo! hope you enjoy!
great to see you back dude
thanks man! I gotta get you a copy of my new book, would love your thoughts on some of it
Everything was a bouncer above my head and i am Indian. i just listened to music and it felt good !
Hey Jake! So glad to see you here again! Thanks again for all you do!
Beautiful, beautiful episode.🤘🏿It just shows how rich and profound Indian classical music is, just beautiful. And it definitely showed how well crafted the staff notation system is. No whatever what, it can note everything down, that's some amazing wonder to ponder upon. And of course, this video shows, how much you love music. Keep bringing these beautiful episode. 🤘🏿🤘🏿
Excellent video, Jake! Ive been a fan of and terribly bad student of indian music for decades! Glad to see you embracing it. Shakti, Mahavishnu Orchestra & John MClaughlin have been favorites of mine my whole life! Konnokol is THE most wonderful rhythmic system in the world.
I want to second that appreciation for the group Shakti with John McLaughlin. It's a bit of East-West fusion but the Indian musicians are outstanding and the music is moving and exhilarating. They recorded two albums I know of. I was fortunate to see them live in the 1980s.
sometimes i forget how versatile you are bc you make it look doable n approachable
From “My Pickup Truck Is My Best Friend” to this… 🤯👍🏽
Awesome to see you back in action again! Thank you, Jake!
so stoked to see this upload! great to see you exploring eastern music concepts! thanks for the great content as always signals
Im so happy you are posting again! Its thanks to you i got into music and got good at it!
Your content is always amazing, dude! So glad to have you back!
Signalsssssssss You're my favorite, I love your style and especially your sense of humor, I credit your videos for helping me understand the modes and introducing me to harmonic minor. I still have yet to find any thing else online that explains it in a better way. And I've been teaching guitar for 15 years lol. It made me very happy to see this new video posted, you have some of the hands-down best guitar tutorials on the web. Keep it up el duderino, you're important
So glad you’re posting again!
So glad you are back with another lesson that will keep teaching us through years of practice!
I'm so glad you're back, I know you've been back for a bit but I really enjoyed this.
Love that ur back man, i wouldnt b a musician without these vids
What an incredible video you've made! The explanation, instruction and inspiration build on each other in a really wonderful overall effect.
Great. Really loved how the song evolved and I'm really liking the ideas you have provided. Thanks!
Quality video as always! Normally I wouldn't go for this genre of music, but your example song sounds really great, and the context adds so much more.
Please never leave us
Good to have you back. Please do not disappear again. Love from India.
thanks dude! your videos are truly of great value! thanks for the sound rhythm lesson!
This is so sick brotha, great work. Love the music you guys made
Superb video. Great to see you posting again.
Love it! You’re inspiring me. Thank you 🙏
So glad you are back
So good! I love how it feels like it is barely hanging on. It's like a trainwreck up ahead that never happens.
Dude. Your music skills are unreal. Thanks for this.
Glad to have you back! You have no idea how much I learned from you during Covid! lol I learned more in that year or so that I had learned in 30+ years of playing. Thanks!
Super cool video thank you for making this. Completely agree that practicing the beats in between even if they dont line up exactly is good and like how this exercise breaks it down in a tangible way! So was really interesting to see how you put this together! Well explained and a great exercise to practice too! FYI for those interested in south indian classical music/finding resources :) the first tala cycle he showed (8 beat) is called Adi tala - really common, find a kruti (common song structure like a jazz head+chorus, and then verses) and look for some improv (maybe kalpana swaras, typically towards the end of the song) - can see some cool patterns esp towards the end of the improv (they have to improvise melodies that fit within the 8-beat cycle). Thilana's are other types of compositions that are quite rhythmic and the singers actually use sollu (rhythmic syllables - konnakol is the art of using these rhythmic syllables, and solkattu is saying these syllables with tala - at least is my understanding of it). U can also look at indian classical dance for some really interesting beat patterns - learning the solkattu is something that helps identify particular steps in dance/learn a dance routine - u can probably find videos of people saying it - but unlike konnakol its a bit more literal as opposed to making it sound pretty (konnakol). If ur more keen on 5 beat cycles - look into compositions with the tala kanda chappu (kanda refers to 5 beat divisions). Keep in mind the terms i used are mainly relating to South Indian music - Hindustani (north indian) has elements that are the same/similar but called different things (eg. 8-beat cycle is not called adi tala in hindustani music hahaha). Most resources on the web relate to hindustani music! Hope some of that helps :)
wooooow, defnitly one of my favorit compositions from your videos. amazing.
Very beautiful multi layered recording. The sound is close to a clarinet, which I absolutely love ❤
Amazing Collab! Two of the most creative minds on KZhead
Holy moly! You're back! l see you've been busy. Wow, l've never really understood lndian music or how it's structured until now. Like always, Amazing lesson, thank you.
Haha, that's cool. Ben Levin actually was the first thought that came to my mind when you mentioned the ta ki ta stuff. He did a video about that stuff in the past. Gotta revisit his channel. Cool guy. Your channel is pretty cool, too!
his video was literally one of the earliest I ever saw on the topic. 12 years ago!
This is FUPPING GLORIOUS and you, Ben Levin and Beardstank should make an album and I promise you will get at least one sale (to me).
Thanks for a headache and a insanely good piece of music 👌
Jake, fascinating stuff! I have to play around and try and digest this..
you channel is very inspiring, you always create great content. thank you for the effort, I hope we see more videos soon.
What a nice thing to see you here again..
Just AWESOME video! The information... The collaboration... Just awesome. I've been playing for 32 years, and I've learned, and continue to learn, more from this channel than just about anywhere else, short of actually playing with other people that were better than I was when I first started taking it seriously. Thank you to all three of you guys for this one. 👏👏👏👏👏
thank YOU! glad you enjoyed it as much as we did making it!
The rhythmic language of Indian classical music is so interesting and incredibly advanced.
Loving this lesson and I’m so here for the Ben Levin collab! Happily surprised to see two of my favorite music KZheadrs join forces. 🙌
You are my inspiration dear sir❤ I am so happy that you’re back. You’re my childhood guitar teacher and now that im 20 I look back to all the great lessons you thought me for the guitar. Thank you ❤
I'm an alto saxophonist and I have just come across your channel. Your work here is fascinating. Thanks. Subscribed.
Glad that you're Back.😍🤩🥰
wow super interesting and challenging lesson thanks jake! the song ben levin made is absolutely insane, nailed it
when I opened up the file he sent me my brain fell out! I thought I was just gonna get a groove or something lol
Very nice stuff! Great job!
Thank you.❤ From India.
YES!!! 👏 Absolutely top notch video!
What a sweet colab form two of my favorite creators.
Good to see my favourite teacher....❤
Great stuff as always
Thank you for featuring Indian music, it's deep, complex and soulful. ❤
This is an excellent video. Fantastic
This is the first of your videos that i've seen and i really like it. You explain things very well. In a western style it seems complicated. For me, it's a bit different. I learned guitar by ear for more than 10 years, growing up in America. Now i've lived in India for almost 20 years and have immersed myself in the carnatic music of southern India. I haven't studied formally, but have spent countless hours playing on guitar and harmonium. The rhythm sounded familiar and i could get it without too much trouble, also by ear, not counting or thinking. The scale you're calling D mixolydian b6, is called Charukeshi in carnatic music. The ragas (scales) are amazing and if you haven't, i definitely recommend anyone looking into them. Thanks again. I'll check out more of your videos.
Also, you did pick out the 3 chords that fit best within that raga; you just gave them a little more flavor. D, C, Gm. There could also be an Am.
Wow, amazing content. Thank you!
That composition was so proggy. Like Rush, Yes and Dream Theater meets Delhi.
The track is called Nata- Shakti. Pori Jazz festival 76*
Lol
I love the chord progression you chose for that melody
Absolutely brilliant!!
Your videos are blessings for the upcoming musicians. ✨
This is a fantastic concept! 😊👍🥁✌️
I really want to buy that finished track! Sooooo good!
Your lessons are so fascinating it always helps me to discover something new you had really been a good teacher to us thanku for always helping us sharing what we love god bless you man
When you were just counting without music it was a bit confusing for me, but when you played music with the pattern as a part, I instantly got it. I guess I understand music in a more instinctive way, so I can easily identify where each beat sits against the music without having to think about it, but if there's no music it's way harder for me. I'm bad at counting complex time signatures too for some reason, but I can play them. For example, I can play Discipline by King Crimson on guitar without counting and I never have a problem because the music is in my head, but if I start counting I get easily lost. It's a strange thing, but I suspect it's because when I count, the workload on my brain increases and it becomes more difficult to hear the song in my head while transferring it to the guitar.
The visualisation at 6:25 using the 16th notes makes it so easy to play for me because it reminds me so much of exercises in my drum exams.
it screams "MESHUGGAH!!!" ❤ good job jake, great content as always
This was awesome, love from India !
I didn't know what this was called, for the longest time. thankyou so much!
Impressive! I first saw this concept applied by Mattias IA Eklund on guitar and I was flashed like "ok, this is far beyond, what I can understand" 🤯
simply...this man is the best music/guitar teacher on whole KZhead...
Just when I was getting into carnatic rhythm, signals uploaded this video 🥳
Love this video. I've always felt that "Music theory" isn't the end all be all but merely one way to interpret music. We have a lot to learn from India and maybe other places too.
Here is my take on the first rhythm and how you can see it slightly differently. The first rhythm is 30 + 3 + 30 + 3 + 30 = 96. The 3 in between the 30s is a gap. And now that we have a simpler structure in place we can now see that in your interpretation the 30 is 12 + 9 + 6 + 3. Another interpretation of 30 could be 15 + 10 + 5. So that's one. Also since the total is 96, this exact same rhythm can also be used with the subdivision of triplets (both 16th note and 8th note). Anyway thanks for this, it gave me nice ideas for some new rhythms.
brilliant piece of music. Fabulous video
Having played Tabla for 2 decades, try “लेयकारी” (le-ya-ka-ri) to blow your mind 😃
youre the goat of music teachers Jake. keep it up
Incredibly cool, I love it! I can play it but I can't count it.