I've been playing this song by ear and the chords I feel under the solo are F minor, Ab major and Bb major. they get colored with 4, 6, 7 and 9 by the melody notes, but I saw no reason not to interpret the basic harmony like this. Cool video, love the fractal backgrounds!
8:34 sorry to be that guy but truly honestly, i feel it the 2nd way before the happy three note riff is present, but then after the solo when the heavy guitar comes back is when i feel it the 1st way.
As you said in another one of your videos, Meshuggah's harmony has a lot to do with the clash between 2 notes next to each other. The way I always saw it, Straws takes the semitone clash between the Major 6th and Minor 7th of the Dorian scale and builds around that. The Bass part is just a pentatonic scale which is very uncommon for Meshuggah. So it takes 2 commonly Rock-y (slightly generic) elements like the Dorian and Pentatonic scales and with their sense of Harmony and rhythm make it sound ethereal/outer space Meshuggah. With your knowledge you could do a really cool analysis of the Sublevels solo (a lot of the harmony from Sublevels in general is very interesting and unique to that song). Also I didn't know Marten wrote this! Last two times I saw them live it was with Per and I noticed Marten was playing this part but I just thought it's cos Fredrik wasn't there.
Love your summary! The rumor mill is that Marten wrote this one, it is fairly different to their other solos so I'd like him to do a few more! I'll put Sublevels on my list of maybes - I want to do a few different styles of solos and making a pass through the Holdsworth-y stuff is definitely on the cards!
@@FreepowerUG Great idea.. maybe you did this and I just need to check out the later videos in the playlist? I don't know enough theory to hang with you guys, but my ears tell me Fredrik and Tosin Abasi both have a huge (respectfully done) Holdsworth influence in their playing. Tosin talks about it of course, not sure if Fredrik has. re: "how do you hear it?" when I first got into meshuggah, this stood out as one of the songs with a really conventionally emotive solo.. it took me a long time to clue into how important the chords are to the feel of it (even though I did hear them as colourful/jazzy) - your video has helped a lot with that too! maybe one way to say it is the relatively simple solo goes through more moods than it deserves to on paper (because of the chords it's played against) ? the more I think about it, it's really weird and unique how far they get (and stay) from the main groove of the song once it's into the solo section .. or is it the exact same groove but with a half time feel? hmm I need to stop thinking about it
@@azngoku666 I haven't done Sublevels yet, been focused on writing more original music when I have the time. Definitely agree that you can get a lot out of a simple solo over a complex context (the other way around is more common, arguably the norm for solos!). Imo the last section is one large cohesive groove but I would agree it's unlike the rest of the tune. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I agree with you about the chord progression. Imho the chord progression is one chord that at each semi whole focuses on one part of the whole. I play certain chords on my acoustic like that.
Just found this channel and I absolutely love it. Super high quality well made and informative shit man. I’ve been absolutely obsessed with the closed eye visuals solo over the past few months. I’d love to see a video like this but for that solo!
I'm about to settle in from work and enjoy this video, but before I do I came across a comment today that made me think of you (you may already know all this, but it had D Crawford written all over it haha)- "I’ve met the drummer of Car Bomb, and he said that they compose their songs initially in 4/4 or something relatively standard like that, then arbitrarily add or remove subdivisions. So they’ll frequently have stuff like 33/32 or 17/16 in their music, but felt in such a way that it’s 4/4 with a slight timing delay. It’s insane to keep track of. I asked him how the fuck he keeps track of that live, and to paraphrase, he said: “practice it a lot, then kinda just hope it all works out.” I saw an interview with Cloudkicker where he said he was having to use Excel spreadsheets to track all his time signature changes at one point . When the memes are real life"
These are tremendous anecdotes and totally new to me. No wonder Car Bomb sounds insane with that composition method, maybe I should borrow it sometime 😅
Hell yeah, this is so good! I love the ambiguity angle, and that really quick snippet about the vocals aligning with the guitar vs aligning with the 4/4 is golden and another thing that not many people have talked/written about with their music. I think I hear it the same way as you (multiple slightly different scales), but I had never analyzed this; music theory can definitely flatten hearing, which is a shame, but this video enriched my hearing of music I already knew pretty well, so thank you!
Excellent! It can be a little odd when you get a new perspective on something you already know and like but I'm hoping more options leads to more enjoyment overall!
Loving these Meshuggah vids, this is one of those sections that is such a mix up from the rest of the Meshuggah catalogue that it adds more weight to it for me personally. I hear it the modal way mainly due to the constant 3 note layer hitting major 6 in dorian and the #4 in lydian, but the solo by itself makes me see the first option as well. Also something I love is the call/response of the bass and rhythm guitar, something not as explored as the typical unison rhythms.
I should point out that Fredrik has a great habit of improvising with hammer ons, and working around semi-tones/full tones rather than transposing all over a scale. Taking a look at Shed for example and his pigtronix demo he did of it, which is spectacular I would love to see your reaction
Few notes as I move through the video: >This solo has given my ears trouble over the years. I've definitely always heard the backing guitar part as more of a droning mostly major chord sound, with its own amount of mystery and uncertainty (within the reasonable bounds of that major scale). However after hearing it played as a set of isolated chords in progression as you played them, I definitely hear them more along the lines of option 2. HOWEVER I really can't kick the feeling option 1/my original gut musical feeling tells me. When the solo portion of the song is played I can't unhear the constant Mixolydian sound, which is NOW frustrating since I DEFINITELY can hear the other modes come out when you break it down this way. >All I can think is MAN these kinds of videos really scratch that itch in my brain I usually struggle to scratch. Also being reminded how I personally dislike F Dorian mode hahaha. >That all said, I reallllllly just love the fact that music as an art form can be broken down and interpreted in so many ways, and I have a deeper appreciation for this solo keeping in mind the mode shifting that may or not be going on. >+1 to that particular Adam Neely video! Excellent video as always, can't believe we get this kind of content for FREE haha. Look forward to the next analysis video, thank you!
Thanks for writing the detailed comment! That makes it much easier to pitch my content correctly and give my subs what they deserve! ♥️ I think you're the first commenter to hear it as mostly major, you've been hearing for years what I've only heard recently!
Hey, moonlight sonata is in c# minor ;-} As for the solo i definitely feel mixolydian, probably because the melody always is or around Bb, D and F. cool video!
Ah dang it I foolishly googled a tab for moonlight sonata and assumed it'd be in the same key! Thanks for feedback on how you hear the solo - it seems you're in a minority but I guess we'll see as the sample size grows!
I think I used an online tab and tweaked the timing and fingering. There's nothing too exciting there. Out of interest, do you hear it as ~Dorian or ~Mixolydian?
Do you think you could do more of these for other solos, like New Millenium Cyanide Christ? Your meshuggah series is great, and so was the Infant Annihalator analysis
Thanks so much! Yes - I absolutely intend to do more of these, I really enjoy making them and my audience is really clear that they appreciate them. I'm planning on doing more Meshuggah solos videas and probably another Infant Annihilator one, plus maybe something on FRACTALIZE... all depending on how much free time I get but I really hope so!
The "chords" make me think of being really hungry and you're waiting for the pizza delivery guy but in the back of your mind you know he may show up an hour late or mess up your order.
I've been playing this song by ear and the chords I feel under the solo are F minor, Ab major and Bb major. they get colored with 4, 6, 7 and 9 by the melody notes, but I saw no reason not to interpret the basic harmony like this. Cool video, love the fractal backgrounds!
Just stumbled across this and your channel. It's brilliant.
Thank you! I've put a lot of work in, glad you enjoyed it!
8:34 sorry to be that guy but truly honestly, i feel it the 2nd way before the happy three note riff is present, but then after the solo when the heavy guitar comes back is when i feel it the 1st way.
Love this sooo much. This solo is just so good
Dear sir, your content is gold, bravo and thank you. Fine taste in music and fractals, a botanic garden of thoughtful treats.
More eventually on the way
I believe the distortion in the guitar tone gives it more ambiguity.
As you said in another one of your videos, Meshuggah's harmony has a lot to do with the clash between 2 notes next to each other. The way I always saw it, Straws takes the semitone clash between the Major 6th and Minor 7th of the Dorian scale and builds around that. The Bass part is just a pentatonic scale which is very uncommon for Meshuggah. So it takes 2 commonly Rock-y (slightly generic) elements like the Dorian and Pentatonic scales and with their sense of Harmony and rhythm make it sound ethereal/outer space Meshuggah.
With your knowledge you could do a really cool analysis of the Sublevels solo (a lot of the harmony from Sublevels in general is very interesting and unique to that song).
Also I didn't know Marten wrote this! Last two times I saw them live it was with Per and I noticed Marten was playing this part but I just thought it's cos Fredrik wasn't there.
Love your summary! The rumor mill is that Marten wrote this one, it is fairly different to their other solos so I'd like him to do a few more! I'll put Sublevels on my list of maybes - I want to do a few different styles of solos and making a pass through the Holdsworth-y stuff is definitely on the cards!
@@FreepowerUG Great idea.. maybe you did this and I just need to check out the later videos in the playlist?
I don't know enough theory to hang with you guys, but my ears tell me Fredrik and Tosin Abasi both have a huge (respectfully done) Holdsworth influence in their playing. Tosin talks about it of course, not sure if Fredrik has.
re: "how do you hear it?" when I first got into meshuggah, this stood out as one of the songs with a really conventionally emotive solo.. it took me a long time to clue into how important the chords are to the feel of it (even though I did hear them as colourful/jazzy) - your video has helped a lot with that too!
maybe one way to say it is the relatively simple solo goes through more moods than it deserves to on paper (because of the chords it's played against) ?
the more I think about it, it's really weird and unique how far they get (and stay) from the main groove of the song once it's into the solo section .. or is it the exact same groove but with a half time feel? hmm I need to stop thinking about it
@@azngoku666 I haven't done Sublevels yet, been focused on writing more original music when I have the time. Definitely agree that you can get a lot out of a simple solo over a complex context (the other way around is more common, arguably the norm for solos!). Imo the last section is one large cohesive groove but I would agree it's unlike the rest of the tune. Glad you enjoyed the video!
I agree with you about the chord progression. Imho the chord progression is one chord that at each semi whole focuses on one part of the whole. I play certain chords on my acoustic like that.
This needs more views
I absolutely love everything about this! It is currently my favourite song, and your pedagogical ability is truly great! Thank you so much!
I'm really glad the ideas here connected so strongly with you
Just found this channel and I absolutely love it. Super high quality well made and informative shit man. I’ve been absolutely obsessed with the closed eye visuals solo over the past few months. I’d love to see a video like this but for that solo!
I'll make a note of it!
It’s been a while since you made a video! Glad your still doing these ! Also love the car bomb analysis too!
Yep probably another couple of solos and I'll call it quits with Meshuggah analysis... At least until the new album 😅
@@FreepowerUG love all the content man
I'm about to settle in from work and enjoy this video, but before I do I came across a comment today that made me think of you (you may already know all this, but it had D Crawford written all over it haha)-
"I’ve met the drummer of Car Bomb, and he said that they compose their songs initially in 4/4 or something relatively standard like that, then arbitrarily add or remove subdivisions. So they’ll frequently have stuff like 33/32 or 17/16 in their music, but felt in such a way that it’s 4/4 with a slight timing delay. It’s insane to keep track of.
I asked him how the fuck he keeps track of that live, and to paraphrase, he said: “practice it a lot, then kinda just hope it all works out.”
I saw an interview with Cloudkicker where he said he was having to use Excel spreadsheets to track all his time signature changes at one point
. When the memes are real life"
These are tremendous anecdotes and totally new to me. No wonder Car Bomb sounds insane with that composition method, maybe I should borrow it sometime 😅
Hell yeah, this is so good! I love the ambiguity angle, and that really quick snippet about the vocals aligning with the guitar vs aligning with the 4/4 is golden and another thing that not many people have talked/written about with their music. I think I hear it the same way as you (multiple slightly different scales), but I had never analyzed this; music theory can definitely flatten hearing, which is a shame, but this video enriched my hearing of music I already knew pretty well, so thank you!
Excellent! It can be a little odd when you get a new perspective on something you already know and like but I'm hoping more options leads to more enjoyment overall!
Loving these Meshuggah vids, this is one of those sections that is such a mix up from the rest of the Meshuggah catalogue that it adds more weight to it for me personally. I hear it the modal way mainly due to the constant 3 note layer hitting major 6 in dorian and the #4 in lydian, but the solo by itself makes me see the first option as well. Also something I love is the call/response of the bass and rhythm guitar, something not as explored as the typical unison rhythms.
I'm an absolute fiend for that #4 in Lydian, particularly in heavy music. Just the loveliest sound
badass vid thanks
I should point out that Fredrik has a great habit of improvising with hammer ons, and working around semi-tones/full tones rather than transposing all over a scale. Taking a look at Shed for example and his pigtronix demo he did of it, which is spectacular I would love to see your reaction
That's a cool idea! I want to tackle a few other Meshuggah solos first, but I might get around to that one. :)
great video
Few notes as I move through the video:
>This solo has given my ears trouble over the years. I've definitely always heard the backing guitar part as more of a droning mostly major chord sound, with its own amount of mystery and uncertainty (within the reasonable bounds of that major scale). However after hearing it played as a set of isolated chords in progression as you played them, I definitely hear them more along the lines of option 2. HOWEVER I really can't kick the feeling option 1/my original gut musical feeling tells me. When the solo portion of the song is played I can't unhear the constant Mixolydian sound, which is NOW frustrating since I DEFINITELY can hear the other modes come out when you break it down this way.
>All I can think is MAN these kinds of videos really scratch that itch in my brain I usually struggle to scratch. Also being reminded how I personally dislike F Dorian mode hahaha.
>That all said, I reallllllly just love the fact that music as an art form can be broken down and interpreted in so many ways, and I have a deeper appreciation for this solo keeping in mind the mode shifting that may or not be going on.
>+1 to that particular Adam Neely video!
Excellent video as always, can't believe we get this kind of content for FREE haha. Look forward to the next analysis video, thank you!
Thanks for writing the detailed comment! That makes it much easier to pitch my content correctly and give my subs what they deserve! ♥️ I think you're the first commenter to hear it as mostly major, you've been hearing for years what I've only heard recently!
Hey, moonlight sonata is in c# minor ;-}
As for the solo i definitely feel mixolydian, probably because the melody always is or around Bb, D and F.
cool video!
Ah dang it I foolishly googled a tab for moonlight sonata and assumed it'd be in the same key! Thanks for feedback on how you hear the solo - it seems you're in a minority but I guess we'll see as the sample size grows!
I think the second one too.
This is a great analysis! As a music theory teacher and lover of metal, would you be willing to share your transcription in an appropriate way?
I think I used an online tab and tweaked the timing and fingering. There's nothing too exciting there. Out of interest, do you hear it as ~Dorian or ~Mixolydian?
@@FreepowerUG It's tough for me because I can hear it both ways. There are clues that seem to point in one direction or another.
Call me Al has a IIm chord in the other half?
I also learned a meshuggah solo the other day, it's from future breed machine, I believe it's in g locrian
I haven't actually dug into that one, but I hope to in a future video!
Do you think you could do more of these for other solos, like New Millenium Cyanide Christ? Your meshuggah series is great, and so was the Infant Annihalator analysis
Thanks so much! Yes - I absolutely intend to do more of these, I really enjoy making them and my audience is really clear that they appreciate them. I'm planning on doing more Meshuggah solos videas and probably another Infant Annihilator one, plus maybe something on FRACTALIZE... all depending on how much free time I get but I really hope so!
Minor, but yeah it sounds more major when played as chords.
The "chords" make me think of being really hungry and you're waiting for the pizza delivery guy but in the back of your mind you know he may show up an hour late or mess up your order.
This is the most mature emotional response to Meshuggah's music 👌👌👌
what is the background graphic thing?
This! ua-cam.com/video/-OR0R4xBioQ/v-deo.html
I think the chord progression is more so outlining a minor blues (1 - b3 - 4) than anything else