What makes a great djent riff? Two things:
the right notes, with the right polymeter.
So in this video you’ll learn all that,
plus you’ll learn how to make your riffs
stand out by adding a second melody into the
same riff. But first… tea!
Hello revolutionary music makers, I’m Kate
Harmony, this is Ray Harmony, and welcome
to Hack Music Theory.
This channel helps you make great music that
stands out, so you can move and grow your
audience.
And if you’re new to our channel, we’ve
got a free book for you “12 Music Theory
Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords”, which you
can download at the link below.
Alright, it’s time to open your DAW to hack
music theory.
THE THEORY
Prog metal legends Periphery just dropped
their new single “Garden in the Bones”,
and it’s brilliant!
This song is overflowing with stunning melodies,
mesmerizing riffs, captivating polymeters,
epic grooves, and the most massive chorus!
“Garden in the Bones” launches directly
into the first verse, which contains a slower
polymetric riff with lots of rests.
But, instead of playing it on one note (like
so many djent riffs), or using super dissonant
intervals (like so many other djent riffs),
Periphery play a refreshingly consonant group
of notes, which would be right at home in
any popular music genre.
Then, as if that’s not enough, when the
second verse comes around, it’s not just
a copy and paste of the first verse. No, it’s
a continuation; the next chapter of an unfolding
story.
They achieve this by adding notes to the original
riff, in place of the rests. This creates
a 2-in-1 riff consisting of the original riff
as the bass voice, and the new notes as a
melody on top.
THE HACK
Alright, now you’re gonna learn how to use
this theory to make your own version, and
what you see on the screen right now is our
version of the first verse (well, half of
it) that we made earlier.
So, start by setting up one bar of 15/4, with
your grid set to 1/8 notes, and your tempo
set to 135 BPM. Periphery use F♯ Dorian
for their verses, so we’ll use it too.
Step 1. Verse 1
First things first, F♯ Dorian consists of
the notes: F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D♯ E, so you
can use any of those notes in your riff.
Now, start on the root note (F♯), then skip
two 1/8 notes, and then play a note. Next,
skip another two 1/8 notes, and then play
two notes.
Then do that again: skip two 1/8 notes, and
then play two notes. And lastly, skip another
two 1/8 notes, and then play one last note.
When you’re choosing your notes, keep it
simple (and keep it low), and think of them
as an implied chord progression.
Also, use a B somewhere, but more on that
later. Right, now you have your 15/8 riff,
so repeat it once to complete the bar of 15/4.
Finally, add the root note (F♯) on beat
9. This is such a clever trick of Periphery’s,
cos what that one extra note does, is ingeniously
disguise the odd 15/8 time signature.
You see, the root note is the home of your
scale, so it’s the strongest note. And by
playing the strongest note on beat 9, it pulls
the ear back to that 1/4 note pulse (cos in
4/4, beat 9 is actually beat 1 of bar 3).
Also, the drummer is playing 1/4 notes on
his china cymbal, so that pulse is really
powerful.
And that pulse, along with the root note on
beat 9, tricks the listener into feeling this
as 4/4, right until the end of the riff where
it’s finally revealed that there’s a 1/4
note missing (cos in four bars of 4/4 there
are sixteen 1/4 notes, but here there are
only fifteen).
This polymeter makes the riff sound far simpler
(and therefore more accessible) than it actually
is. That’s very clever!
So to sum up. The polymeter is occurring between
the guitar and the drums. The guitar is playing
two bars of 15/8 over the drums that are playing
three bars of 4/4 and one bar of 3/4. This
all adds up to one cycle of the polymeter,
which is equal to one bar of 15/4.
Step 2. Verse 2
Right, this is where things get extra tasty.
You’re now gonna use the first verse riff
as a bass voice, and you’re gonna add a
new voice on top of it in place of all the
rests.
This creates a riff that can still be played
on one guitar, but now it sounds like there’s
two guitars playing, cos there are two melodies
(one low, and one high).
Okay, so remember in Step 1 we mentioned that
you should think of the notes in your bass
voice as an implied chord progression? Well
now it’s time to flesh out that harmony.
For example, Periphery’s second verse riff
implies some dreamy add9 harmonies, so if
you want that vibe as well, then be sure to
play a 2 over a couple chords (e.g. over the
implied F♯m, the 2 is G♯).
And as you’re writing the high melody in
your riff, be sure to play a D♯ over the
B in your bass voice. Playing D♯ over B
creates the unique Dorian sound, so without
that D♯, you won’t get the sad-but-hopeful
Dorian mood that we all love. And that’s
why in Step 1, we said play a B.
And by the way, if you wanna know everything
you need to know about Dorian and the other
modes, then download our Songwriting & Producing
PDF (the link is below).
Okay, so now that you’ve got your first
and second verses down, how do you write the
other sections? And then, how do you transition
between all the sections (especially when
they’re in different keys)? And then, how
do you structure and arrange your song?
Well, these are issues that all songwriters
and producers struggle with in the beginning,
and that’s exactly why we made our online
apprenticeship course. So, if you wanna overcome
these obstacles once and for all, then our
course is definitely for you! Check it out
now at the link below.
Alright, now let’s have a listen to our
polymetric djenty goodness! But just before
the final playthrough, if there’s an artist
you’d like us to hack, let us know in the
comments below.
And remember, if you wanna get the multitrack
MIDI file from this lesson, so you can check
out all the other tracks in our final example,
which includes the drums, bass and background
synths, then download our lesson pack (the
link is below).
You’ll also get a PDF guide and a WAV mix
of the final music.
In the meantime though, if you wanna keep
learning how to make great music that stands
out, then we’ve got a video on metric modulation
coming next, with a TesseracT song as the
example.
And then at the end of that video, we’ve
got a video on the difference between polymeters
and polyrhythms, so just click that TesseracT
video when it pops up in a few seconds, and
we’ll meet you there!
