tempo mental vai zappa

8/11/2019 Tempo Mental Vai Zappa

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Tempo Mental

by Steve Vai

Written in 1983 for a music magazine, but never published.

It was the summer of 1978. I had just turned 18 years old and had sent sometranscriptions to Frank Zappa. He responded by putting me on salary totranscribe tons of music, everything from lead sheets to orchestral scores. Thebulk of the work was guitar solos, some with their accompanying drum parts.Frank played all the guitars and Vinnie Colaiuta was the drummer. These guysused to take it out to lunch, experimenting a lot with rhythms and odd phrases.My task was to transcribe the stuff the best way I thought possible.

The tracks were recorded in several different manners. On some occasions, theband played together live. Sometimes FZ overdubbed his solos in the studio.

One interesting thing that Frank did at times was to take a drum track from acertain time and place and then take a guitar solo from yet another time andplace and lay them on top of each other. Frank released a book of some ofthese guitar solos and drum parts. Its called The Frank Zappa Guitar SongBook.

While transcribing the material, I was often confronted with situations that ledme to reach into the intuitional areas of my imagination to come up withvarious notational devices and constructions that I had never seen before. Isoon discovered that many contemporary composers were then (and are still)using these notations.

In this article, I would like to show and explain some of these concepts anddevices. Besides being of great educational value, this will also help to clarifythe ambiguity behind some of the notation in the transcriptions found in TheFrank Zappa Guitar Song Book.

A polyrhythm is just what it says. Two rhythms, or feels, happening at thesame time. Most people reading this have a good understanding of the basictriplet. This, in essence, is a polyrhythm. Its three 8th notes being playedagainst two 8th notes. Some more basic examples follow


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These rhythms could be played rubato (fluidly) or non-rubato (very strictly andevenly). Both ways have their own advantageous effects.

SUBDIVIDING OVER TWO OR MORE BEATS

The concept of putting an odd number of attacks in the space of one beat holds


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true for putting an odd number of attacks over two beats!

The first number (5) shows the numberof beats to be superimposed over thespace provided. The second number(2) designates the number of beats

upon which the first number is to besuperimposed. The note value thatfollows shows the type of note valuefor the previous number. So what thisactually says is five notes in the spaceof two quarter notes.

To see where the beat falls mathematically, you would have to subdivide as follows:

Heres a rhythm of five notes on twobeats. We know where the first beatfalls, but we want to find out where thesecond one does, too. We need acommon denominator for the two.(or a least common multiple)

Double the 8th notes to 16th notes.You need even amounts of beats onboth sides of the beat.

By subdividing and putting five units ofmeasurement on both sides of thebeat, you can now see that the secondbeat will fall on the upstroke of thethird 8th note of the quintuplet. Thesame thing will hold true when youdivide any odd number of attacks overtwo beats.

Theres a similar concept involved individing a polyrhythm of an oddnumber of attacks on three beats

evenly. First, you need a commondenominator (LCM) between the two.Then you need even amounts of unitson each beat.

What this example is saying is:seven in the space of threequarter-notes evenly.


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We know where the first beat falls. The[least common multiple] betweenseven and three is twenty-one.

By writing out twenty-one units andgrouping them in sevens, you can seewhere the beats fall. By dividing theunits into seven groups of three, youmake a triplet out of each of the sevenattacks.

Another way of seeing the subdivisionis like this.

As you can see now, theres a pattern that you can use to figure out any polyrhythmic situation.These shown are the basics.

Polyrhythms Inside of Polyrhythms

You can go so far as to subdivide notes inside of polyrhythms.


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Although some of these examples may seem ambiguous (and/or terrifying!), they can be playedaccurately if understood and practiced. When you have a basic pulse and you superimpose alteredrhythms on top, you set up a certain flavor in the piece that cannot be expressed in any other way.


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Metric Modulation

Some composers use metric modulation when they write. Its an effect that cangive the piece an accelerando or retardation feel.

What this means is that the 8th note from an8th-note triplet of the first bar is now equal tothe 8th note of the second bar.

Here, the 16th note from a septuplet of thefirst bar is now equal to the 16th note of thesecond bar.


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Off-Beat Rhythms

Another notational situation I came across was hearing rhythms go by thatdidnt start on the beat. Some examples of this are as follows:


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These examples could be rewritten using odd-time signatures, possibly making it a bit easier for somepeople to play. But if there were a strict pulse being used, then the way I notated it would likely bethe best.

Discontinued Polyrhythms

Another fine effect is a rhythm being displaced by a disconnected polyrhythm.Its almost as if a metric modulation occurs in the bar, but the overall time ittakes to play the bar is the same.

This bar starts out with two quarter notes (thats one beat). During the nextfigure, the first two 8th-notes are played as 8th-notes of an 8th-note triplet.The time then resumes to normal so that by this point, one and 2/3 beats havegone by. The 16th-notes are played normally, making two and 2/3 beatsplayed. The next 8th-note is played as an 8th-note from an 8th-note triplet.

That brings the tally to three complete beats thus far. The remaining part ofthe bar is played normally.

Another (and what I feel to be simpler) way of notating this follows:


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When using this type of notation in a composition, there would have to be sometype of explanation of the beginning of the piece. Here are some moreexamples of this:

This is another way of writing example #1:

Another situation comes about when you have a metric modulation inside a barfollowed by the tempo returning to its original time, leaving some unaccountedtime to be dealt with. In this example, you have two 8th-notes, then two 8th-notes from an 8th-note triplet. That makes one and 2/3 beats played so far.Then you play four 16th-notes in the original time, making two and 2/3 beats.


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The next bracket indicates to play two 8th-notes in the place of one quarter-note (bringing the tally up to three and 2/3 beats) plus one 8th-note from an8th-note triplet.

What the bracket indicates is to play two notes evenly in the space of one and

1/3 beats.

Some more examples of this follow. These examples take place in 4/4 time,but you can take this concept and mutate it for odd-time meters, waltzes,sambas, etc.

As you can see, these things take a lot of practice and good understanding. Thebest way to attempt to execute them is bit by bit.

Heres one for all you maniacs:


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You might say, Why, Steve?And I might say, I dont know.You might say,Whos gonna play it, Steve?And I might say, I dont know.

This is extreme for todaybut maybe not for the computers of tomorrow.[Note: this article was written around 1983 or 1984].

Another technique I use is that of overlapping polyrhythms. This can get kind ofsticky and is best used when theres no definite time signature going on.

One way of executing this phenomenon is to play the first five 8th notes as ifthey were equal to the 8th notes of an 8th-note triplet.

You can also rewrite it to look like this:

Another way of approaching it would be to play the first two 8th notes as 8th


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notes of an 8th-note triplet. Then play the next three in the space of one and1/3 beats. Another way of writing it would be:

Some more examples of this type would be:

You can find examples of this in The Frank Zappa Guitar Song Book, althoughthey are not quite as extreme.

Among the stranger things Ive transcribed for Frank was the notation of actualspeaking voices. An example of this follows:


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