Rosetta Stoned Bass Pattern

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In the Tool song "Rosetta Stoned", about a guy who is visited by aliens but is so fucking baked that he forgets the important message they tell him, there is a part about 7 minutes into it which features one of the strangest bass rhythms in music history. Seemingly a nearly random sequence of down and upbeats, it is nevertheless repeated ad nauseum in a very particular pattern. Upon first listening, this pattern is not obvious. Upon the first ten or twenty listenings, it is still not obvious, and attempts to tap it out on your steering wheel will likely prove fruitless.

However, I have cracked the code of this mysterious rhythm, and will present you now with my findings.

Amazingly, as bizarre at the thing sounds, it is supported by what turns out to be a very simple pattern lasting nine sixteenth notes. These are the low notes, which are spiked every once in a while by an intervening, descending high note.

Here is the pattern, and it lasts a total of 72 sixteenth notes. I suppose, then, this whole thing is in "9/16" time, but it's hard to say:

Code: Select all

         X              X             X              X             X
X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X   X X
........................................................................

As you can see, this is essentially the 9/16 "bottom" rhythm, intermixed with the "top" rhythm, which consists of a series of descending notes, starting with the octave above the "bottom" note.

There are two tricks here:

One trick is that, when the top and bottom patterns "match up", only the top note is played. This is really what makes this rhythm so hard to follow. It doesn't seem like that simple a pattern, since the low note is not played when the two rhythms strike at the same time. But if you listen, the simple 9/16 pattern is maintained throughout.

The second trick is that the "top" rhythm is not consistent in its timing. After the first beat, it waits 15 beats before the next beat. But after that, it only waits 14 beats. Then after that, 15 again. Then after that, 14. And then another 14 to bring it around to the beginning of the whole pattern.

The bottom pattern repeats 12 times, which 72 (the total number of beats in the pattern) is divisible by, which is why it can remain constant.

The top pattern, however, hits five times, which 72 is not divisible by, which is why there are those two "15s" in there, so that the total (15+14+15+14+14) adds up to 72 beats.

Anyway, that's how it works. It is definitely one of the strangest, most math-intensive passages in all of rock. Not to mention kick-ass.

Thank you for your time.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I would enjoy making this a "JC Article."

[Lysander]

It is, actually, a lot simpler than that. Count it it in 5/8--meaning, for the uniniciated, that the eighth note is the beat and it is counted 5 times. The down patern, ignoring the upbeat patern, is the simplest thing in the world; it's just "dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, dun dun, dun dun" on one note the whole way through. It is, of course, the higher note that is more interesting, and there's actually really cute little musical thing they do there, it's playing with opposites. To not obfiscate with a bunch of words and fury signifying nothing I will instead make a table of what the up note is and where it can be found in all 6 measures of the phrase, assuming we are, indeed, counting in 5/8 time. Here we go!

measure note beat
1 G 5
2
3 F 1
4 Eb 2
5 C 3
6 Bb 4

So, in words: while the note itself is dropping down a wholestep each time (except when it goes from Eflat to C, which is a whole and a half), the placement of the note in the measure is moving forward one beat every measure; starting at 5, then skipping the second measure, then 1 on 3, 2 on 4, 3 on 5, 4 on 6 and then it repeats. Alternatively, you could choose to count the lower notes being in 5/8, but the upper one in 6/8, (or, hey, 3/4, if you want to get fractiony about it) in which case the up note is played on the 6 of every measure. In that case, 5/8+6/8=11/16. But that's considerably harder to count.

Companion piece! The drum patern (as well as other places in the song--it's played in the section leading up to it, as well as the bit where he screams, and is also played durring the end portion when the tempo increases, making it much more entertaining to watch.) is also rather interesting. The bass drum and snare drum are following the same 11/16 patern the bass is; bass thudding boom-boom, boom-boom, boom-boom the entire time, the snare playing on the bass's high notes. AT the same time, his left foot is stepping on a pedal (mostly the hihat, but the second half of the (lame) guitar solo has him using the foot to trigger a "clack" sound from the Mandolla)...AH, where was I. Yes. The foot is playing a completely different time signature; namely, quarter notes, in 4/4. So the bass drum is playing in 5/8, snare in 6/8, and hats in 8/8. But we're only half done! He is also playing differing sixteenth-note patterns on the electronic pads. He plays two sixteenth notes on the 1 of the 6/8 signature (so, yes, just after the snare hit); the rest of it, frankly, I can't figure out WHAT the patern is; mostly because most of the pads sound very similar and it's hard to tell which is which at any given time, but it doesn't help that he appears to play one of the pads in a deffinit patern for a few measures and then stops hitting it. The point is that he's playing at least 4 different time signatures at the same time.

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It is, actually, a lot simpler than that.

-- bunch of gobbledygook snipped --

Look, I want this thread erased, because I fucked it up. It's totally different from what I said, and nobody can tell what Blindy said, so we're going to redo this.

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Here is the corrected version:

Code: Select all

        X           X           X           X           X
X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X  X X
............................................................

Alright? The pattern repeats every 5/16 on the bottom, and every 12/16 on the top. That's it. 60 beats total. Everything is divisible, everything fits.

That's it. That's how it goes.

[pinback]

To not obfiscate with a bunch of words and fury signifying nothing I will instead make a table of what the up note is and where it can be found in all 6 measures of the phrase, assuming we are, indeed, counting in 5/8 time. Here we go!

measure note beat
1 G 5
2
3 F 1
4 Eb 2
5 C 3
6 Bb 4

While this may be true, I don't think the point of it, when they wrote it, was "Okay, we'll put one in the first measure, skip the next one, then have them on the ascending beat in the following four."

I GUARANTEE you they wrote it like "repeat this pattern every 5/16, and then lay it over a pattern which is repeated every 12/16." So much of the 10,000 Days album -- which I am now prepared to call the greatest of all Tool albums, supplanting the nearly insupplantable Aenima -- does this sort of stuff, just laying rhythms in different times over top of one another to see what comes up.

One need only look at the very end of this very song for another great example, where the singer and the drummer are hitting a note twice, as hard as they can, then stopping, then twice again, meanwhile the guitarist is hitting a power chord THREE times for every stop. There's too much of this on the album to believe.

[Lysander]

I dont' see what's so confusing. The riff's counted with 5 8th notes and the up note is on every sixth. So: 1 2 3 4 -5- 1 2 3 4 5 -1- 2 3 4 5 1 -2- 3 4 5 1 2 -3- 4 5 1 2 3 -4- 5. It can't get any simpler than that.

[Bugs]

We need more content like this. Seriously. I play bass, and this is genuinely interesting.

Saw Tool at Bonnaroo a few weeks ago. It was pretty awesome.

[Lysander]

IT's easier to think of the phrase as being in 5/8 time but having a changing upbeat on every 6th note. But, yeah, I doubt that tehy INTENDED for htat to happen, but iti s still pretty cool. I still say Lateralus is the best, but that's mustly for the fabulous production; if 10KDays were to be rereleased, say, in a DVDA or something and what'shisass laid off the goddamn compressers then I would--well, I'd still be annoyed at WIngs/10KDays being 20 minutes long with like three damn riffs, but that's a something I can deal with. If you wanna check out another band that has fun with polyrhythms, check out MUdvayine; teh song (K)Now FOrever has a bit where the guitar plays a double, whereas the drummer and bass hit the same note 4 times, then 3, then 2, then 1. After that, the song goes on as normal, except that hte drummer plays the previous patern on his bass drum while his hihat and snare play straight quarter/half notes.

[pinback]

I dont' see what's so confusing.

Don't be a dick. I never said any of it was CONFUSING. I said, if you're able to tap that rhythm out after listening to it one or two times, you are a musical GOD, because while on paper it ends up looking "simple", it absolutely is very difficult to follow when you're listening to it.

My point of this whole thread was to show that while it sounds very complicated, it is two simple rhythms laid on top of each other, which overlap exactly TWICE, during which the bass player plays the top note instead of the bottom one.

It wasn't supposed to be CONFUSING.

Don't be a dick.

[pinback]

WIngs/10KDays being 20 minutes long

You have to get into the lyrics.

[Lysander]

The lyrics are fantastic. Everything else (except Danny's fucking kicknotes solo in the middle and two bass riffs that take a total of thirty seconds to listen to) is repetative garbage.

[Lysander]

And I meant I didn't see how what 8I* said was confusing, or could be said any differently.

[pinback]

Well, one problem is, it didn't have any enter keys in it.

[Lysander]

I pressed the enter key--it's hardly a table if it's all on one line, right? NOt my fault if they didn't work. Blame Fredom Scientific. Or FIrefoxLOL. But not me.

[pinback]

Bonus Rosetta Stoned FUN FAX:

I looked up the lyrics today. I never realized he was saying "And why do y'all sound like Peanuts parents?"

That's the best line ever, and instantly makes the song and the album the greatest thing ever made.

[bruce]

measure note beat
1 G 5
2
3 F 1
4 Eb 2
5 C 3
6 Bb 4

So, in words: while the note itself is dropping down a wholestep each time (except when it goes from Eflat to C, which is a whole and a half), the placement of the note in the measure is moving forward one beat every measure; starting at 5, then skipping the second measure, then 1 on 3, 2 on 4, 3 on 5, 4 on 6 and then it repeats.

It's true. Blind people really DO have super-senses.

Bruce

[Cross Rhythm]

There's a name for me, you know.

And I'm not that unusual, except probably in the kinds of music you mooks are used to. ;)

[Polyrhythm]

I concur.

[Hemiola]

Me 3/2!