Math rock?

pssshhh

 

When I saw the thread title I was totally thinking of these videos my elementry teachers used to show me called "School House Rock".They had a math one.

 

ah i heard about this today, basically music with odd time signatures like 9/4 7/8 and all that

 

Math rock is a lot like Progressive Death Metal, except the vocals are not as large a part, generally, and, as if it were possible, are often even more annoying if they're even featured at all. The reason for this connection is that, again, most genre names are contrived B.S. for the sake of making certain individuals feel as though they're part of a consolidated group (even though scenes are "so D.C. '83"), when, in reality, they're part of something much larger.

Math rock is essentially 'progressive metal' (Symphony X, Dream Theater, Risbuhl et al.) except that it is much more aggressive in its approach and a lot less fluent, by design (although mid-80s prog. metal was using Baroque influenced phrasing and therefore dissonant chords also). The dynamic is basically "prestissimo is best, dudes!", or, in other words, "slow isn't our game". 170 BPM is pretty slow for most of this stuff. Also, as mentioned earlier in the thread, the meter is nearly always compound, dealing in duple and triple compound meters such as 13/8, which can be counted in 3 different ways and is featured in Dillinger Escape Plan a lot. 13/8 would be like: [1,2,3] [4, 5] [6,7,8] [9,10] [11, 12, 13], or, [1, 2, 3] [4, 5, 6] [7, 8] [9, 10] [11, 12, 13]. Pretty much any triple compound beat can modulate into any other, so long as you put the correct pulses on it, by virtue of the fact that they're all divisible by three and multiples of three.

Also, the harmonic structure borrows much from Bebop Jazz musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker, and dissonant composers like Igor Stravinsky (check out Rite of Spring) and Edgard Varese. It is often a-symmetrical. Most western harmony follows a set, symmetrical pattern of intervalic movement within the key. It is considered to sound "off" to move any more than 4 intervals from your starting note, and even more so if you use any augmented, inverted interval or secondary interval, such as your b5th [#4] (as found in part of the Diminished chord),#5th (as in the Augmented chord), b7, and many other augmented or secondary extensions that follow into your next octave. So, a typical symmetrical harmonic structure would look like this on a guitar in C Major: 5(a)
1(c) 6(f) 6(f)1(c)
0(g) 7(d) 5(c)0(g)
2(e) 7(a) 3(f)2(e)
3(c) 5(d) 3(c)

C (tonic/1), D (Major second), E (Major 3rd), F (Perfect Fourth), G (Fifth), A (minor sixth), B (Major 7th), C (back to tonic). All notes in the progression are primary; you do not have any dissonant intervals.

That is a plagal cadence-progression in the key of C Major and is symmetrical. Observe one thing: All intervals are a tonic, major 3rd, perfect 4th & major 5th, except the interval between E and F from the F Major chord into your root, C Major. This is considered a consonant second major movement in C major because they're, respectively, the 3rd and perfectly 4th intervals in the key of C major and their relation to each other is that of a second major in this instance (second minor in the key of E Major, and would be dissonant).

In a 'Math rock/metal' song, this C Minor progression would be changed around a bit. The intervals (voicings) that make up the chords are going to be dissonant intervals to each other, because the "composer" (in this case, me) is choosing the Diminished chord and augmented chord rather than a harmonically consonant set.
3(G) 4(G#)3(G)
1(C) 6(F) 5(e) 1(C)
0(G) 4(B) 5(c) 0(G)
1(D#)6(G#)2(e) 1(D#)
3(C) 5(D) 3(c)

Between the D# and G# in the C Minor and D Diminished chords you have a secondar 6th interval relation. Also, between E and D# of the E Augmented and C Minor chords you have a dissonant secondary interval (E - your 4th) falling into your minor 3rd. These chords are dissonant because of specific intervals/voicings in the chord that make this harmonic structure, albeit a rather basic one, an a-symmetrical one i.e. the interval relationships are not made up of primary intervals.

So, basically math rock is just a bunch of theory nerds who got together and decided that A:heavy-clipped distortion is NOT abrasive, but rather bad ass B: 4/4 and other common duple times were boring and C: That perfect symmetry shall be reserved hence forth only for geometry club.

I hope this wasn't too convoluted and that the chords come out looking right. Music theory is actually not rocket science at all and I think most of the people around here, especially the bright ones, could learn to play this stuff in a relatively short time period (how long it takes you to build chops on your instrument, and to study a little). The ironic part is that people hear "Math Rock" and get freaked out and think "that's not something I can do", thinking it's some kind of swiss-clock of a genre and a genre reserved only for engineering majors, when, in reality, all the math involved is basic, C.D.C. kid math.

I'm not into this style anymore, as I'm somehow prematurely becoming an old man and can't handle lots of speed or distortion anymore, but I definitely view this loosely-defined genre as having some very talented bands and certain having its redeeming qualities.

Guys you might as well call Math Rock:
Between The Buried and Me (lots of songs are very rhythmically challenging and feature an a-typical harmonic structure)
Earliest Dillinger Escape Plan
Frodus
Antioch Arrow

 

F in C is technically considered a dissonance despite the perfect fourth. THen people started calling it a consonant fourth cos actually it does sound nice. Good description though. Tool definitely count

 

hopefully someone liked my recomendations, they really are the best in the math rock genre

 

I was just thinking that definition IS Tool. Mudvayne have described themselves as Math Metal, but I think that's just for the strange time signatures and rythms they used in their earlier material.