Polymeter, Polyrhythm, and Oddmeter

Meter is the most important part of compostion, for it is what sets the groundwork for a piece. In the common practice, composers are supposed to follow a certain set of guidelines or else the music played may be "offensive". At least in the old days it was. Now, people are going absolutely bonkers for multiple rhythms or meters in their songs, and for good reason. Writing according to guidelines or rules absolutely ruins the idea of music and self expression. Finally, odd meters are starting to show up in more mainstream music, although the non mainstream is where it's at. Bands like Meshuggah who have thought or just about every possible combination of meters and rhythms, are at the forefront of the progressive scene. Many people find the music to be offensive because of its angry and loud nature. I've heard some say that it's "completely lacking melody" and "just sounds like noise." I have to disagree completely. While yes, Meshuggah does tend to stay on the atonal side of things, I wouldn't call it "just noise." The first time I heard a song on the radio by the band Tool, I hated it. It sounded like noise... overcomplicated noise. Why? Because I didn't understand the meter that they were using. Once I started listening more carefully and embracing non western meter, I started to love it all. The song that got me hooked on oddmeter was a tune by Emam called Sacred Insanity. I heard this song on the radio and they had a contest while he was being interviewed. The contest was simple, the first person to call with the meter for the next song would get free tickets to his show. I decided I would try to figure it out. It was this simple contest that made me start thinking about meter. I figured it out, but neglected to call in (phone anxiety I guess). No one called in either, so I would've won... oh well! The meter in the song is 21/8 with a 5-5-5-6 rhythm cycle. It sounds quite complicated, but it really isn't. At a steady pace, just count the numbers ie-1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5-1-2-3-4-5-6. Here is how it's broken down...
(1-2-3-4-5)+
(1-2-3-4-5)+
(1-2-3-4-5)+
(1-2-3-4-5-6) and then repeat. If you listen to the song that I linked to and count like this, I'm sure that you will find it very easy.

If you're asking yourself how all those numbers turn into 21/8 time, don't worry. That too is simple. (1-2-3-4-5) which equals 5 counts, occurs three times in the measure. 5x3=15. With me so far? I would hope so! This is just simple math, and I hate math. In fact, I am probably the worst at math in California! Anyway... so if you take those 15 beats, and add one last section of (1-2-3-4-5-6) then you get 21. 5+5+5+6=21.

Polymeter and polyrhythm also sound more complicated than they really are. I'm going to use one of my own little recipes that I cooked up as an example. Clouds Over Kaiwiedal is a song that performed and composed for an Electronic music and MIDI class that I took a few semesters ago. When (and if) you listen to it, you'll notice that it has an odd meter. I will explain this so it makes a bit more sense to listen to. Since the song was written in polymeter, it does have two time signatures. Here... we... go! I wanted to do an oddmeter song, but I also wanted it to be listenable for the rest of the students in my class. I decided to make to make the time signature 5/8 but make it sound like 4/4 using polymeter. Here is how I did it:

(1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and)

This is how one would count a 5/8 meter. Simple concept, but foreign to a great deal of the western world. Let's take that counting technique and turn it into a series of symbols.

1+2+3+4+5+

Perfect! Ok, so to make it sound like 4/4, otherwise known as common time, I came up with a really simple technique involving the drums.
Hi Hat : [1+2+3+4+5+][1+2+3+4+5+]
Drums : [1------2-----][1------2-----]

*Think of the 1 as the bass or kick drum, and and 2 as the snare.

Notice that the snare is actually hit at the same time as a +. By taking 5/8 and counting it double (10/16) I can now cut it evenly in half. By using the drums to cut the beat evenly in half, I am rewarded with polymeter! Yay! The same can be done with 7/8!

[1+2+3+4+5+6+7+][1+2+3+4+5+6+7+]
[1--------2--------][1---------2--------]

This technique can be applied to several odd meters and is an easy way to create a polymeter song. Have fun writing some wacky tunes!