5 Responses to Snakes – Pixies

1. davidbdale says:

   April 15, 2014 at 5:44 AM

   Hey, John. This is terrific.
   Here’s what I said to my former student Sam Sarlo (Mas Olras on facebook https://www.facebook.com/johnnyappledick?fref=ts) :

   Hey, Sam. Listen to this new Pixies track and tell me if it changes time signatures rapidly (from 4/4 to 3/4 to 2/4 or something). It’s complex for sure, but I’m not certain I’m hearing why exactly.

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2. davidbdale says:

   April 15, 2014 at 5:45 AM

   Sam replied:
   (Mas Olras) yes it does change from 3 to 4 to 2 rapidly. The pulse remains consistent, but the number of beats in a measure keeps changing. The intro starts with 4 bars of 3 then a bar of 4 then a few bars of 2.

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3. davidbdale says:

   April 15, 2014 at 5:45 AM

   Sam elaborated:
   (Mas Olras) When all of the instrumentals come in it theres 4 groups of 3 4/4 bars+1 2/4 bar creating a 14 beat pattern that feels weird compared to the 16 beats you expect to happen. When the first vocal melody comes it goes 2 bars 4/4, 2 bars 3/4. On “snakes” we have a plain old 16 bars of 4/4, but the interlude after that is in 6/4 with some guitar rhtyhms that split each bar into 2 3/4 bars.

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4. davidbdale says:

   April 15, 2014 at 5:46 AM

   I thanked him:
   I just knew I was asking the right person. Thanks, Sam.

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5. johncgross says:

   April 15, 2014 at 1:35 PM

   Wow that’s fantastic! I definitely noticed some of the changes, but had no idea it was that elaborate. Very interesting.

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