Chords for Simon Phillips Polymetric Groove | Study The Greats

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[N] _ Hey guys, Austin here, back with another episode of Study The Greats.
So when you look for Simon Phillips videos on YouTube, you eventually come across some
of his old solo clips from his DVD back in the day.
And at the end of one of them, he pulls out one of the coolest grooves of all time.
So that's what we're going to attempt to deconstruct today.
So let's go ahead and watch a clip of the section I'm talking about, and then we'll
head to the kit and see if we can break it down. _ _ _
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So I think we can all agree that that's a pretty badass groove, right?
Now, there's a lot of different things going on here, but I think it's best to just start
with the basic ostinato pattern, because everything's kind of built on top of that.
And the pattern itself is pretty simple.
Just left hand, left foot, right foot, repeated over and over.
Now I don't have octabons on the left side like he does, so I just have to play everything
on this side snare.
But just be aware that there is another layer of complexity to this whole thing by orchestrating
[Em] around those octabons.
So I just wanted to throw that out there, but I'll just play everything on this for this demonstration.
But here's what just the basic ostinato pattern looks like by itself. _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ Now our tendency is to hear that in triplets because it's a three-note pattern, but the
way he applies it in that solo, it's really 16th notes.
So our first challenge is to be able to play this at 16th notes over 4-4 and keep track
of where we are.
And since this is a three-note pattern, it takes three full measures before it resolves
back onto the one.
So I'll demonstrate this for you to a click so you can hear how that works out.
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_ _ [Db] _ _ _ [C] So now that we have that established, we can start to add in some of the other parts.
And the first thing he does is just play some light cymbal hits over top of that pattern.
So let's go ahead and watch a clip again of that real quick. _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ _ _ So what I hear him doing there is just playing the cymbals on 2 and 4.
It could be the 1 and the 3 depending on your [D] frame of reference, but I'll just demonstrate
it on 2 and 4. _
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_ _ So that's pretty cool.
That's a pretty elusive phrasing that can kind of trip your ears [E] up a little bit if
you're not keeping track of [D] the 16th notes.
But it does sound pretty cool and it sets up the main groove really well.
Now the main groove is what really brings this whole concept together and brings the impact.
Right?
So let's go ahead and watch a clip of that again real quick. _ _
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_ _ [G] _ So we already know what the bass ostinato is, so now we just have to figure out what
the right hand is doing, which is this.
Now he throws a couple variations in here and there, but for the most part this is the
core groove that he's going for.
So here's what this sounds like in isolation by itself.
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_ _ _ _ _ _ Now the goal is to take that pattern and layer it over top of the ostinato, which presents
a lot of different challenges for your coordination, timing, keeping track of where you are.
It's definitely a challenging groove, but I'll give it a shot.
I'll try to demonstrate it for you slow and then bring it up to speed.
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_ _ _ _ _ _ Alright guys, that's going to do it for this episode.
Hopefully that sheds a little more light on that groove for you.
If you're looking for a challenge, definitely try this one out.
It'll hurt your brain, but it's a good hurt.
If you want the transcriptions, those will be linked below.
Make sure you subscribe to the channel, hit that notification bell, and I'll see you in the next one.
Take care. _ _ _ _ _ _
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