What does a 2,000 year-old Greek block, a Belgian scientist, an African drumming,
and never making a boring rhythm again have in common? The answer lies in what known as
euclidean rhythms. So, let's listen to an idea that's not using euclidean rhythms and then
listen to a version of the same idea that is employing this ancient algorithm.
I'm going to explain to you exactly what a euclidean rhythm is, where it comes from,
why it's so powerful and how you can use it in your music to never have a boring rhythm again.
So, firstly, let's touch upon a bit of history so we can understand what this is and where it
comes from. Well, it starts over 2,000 years ago with an ancient Greek block named Euclid. He was
a mathematician and is considered the father of geometry. He loved numbers, absolutely loved them.
Couldn't get enough and he developed an algorithm for determining the greatest common divisor of
two numbers. I was rubbish at maths at school so if you're anything like me this took my head a
little bit of time to get around but, simply said, a divisor is when you can divide one whole number by
another whole number and it equals a whole number. For example, eight divided by two equals four. So two
is the divisor of eight because four is a whole number as well, but eight divided by three equals 2.66
recurring, which isn't a whole number which means that three isn't a divisor of 8 whereas two is. Now,
you might wonder to the relevance of all this maths but it's going to make sense in a few minutes when
we get to the music. Anyway, fast forward over 2,000 years and a guy named Eric Bjorklund used that
principle that Euclid discovered and applied it to the timing of events in a neutron accelerator. Now,
just a couple of years after that a Belgian guy named Godfrey Tucson realized the same pattern
that Bjorklund had created appears throughout music across multiple cultures and across multiple
centuries. It really was a bit of a matrix moment. So, first I'm going to open up a couple of really
quick diagrams so they're going to make it more sense and then we're going to jump into Ableton as
well [Music] so forgive my drawing skills but you can see here we've got a circle and each of these
black notes is a Kick Drum and this just Loops round one two three four so it sounds like this
now if we want to play three claps within that same time period and
want them evenly spaced it's going to look and sound something like this
and that's technically a polyrhythm so there's an even space of time between each of these
claps spread over the same amount of time it takes to play those four kicks and in a linear
piano roll editor type approach it's going to look something like this so you've got kick kick kick
kick and then it loops around and with those three claps back in it's gonna sound and look like this
and then loop around there so same example but in linear format instead of showing it in a circle
now this is where it gets really interesting and the power of Euclid rhythms start to show
if we now divide that time into a resolution or a certain grid then you can see these claps are
falling outside of the grid so I've just divided this into eight sections we can call this grid
the number of steps so there are eight steps here one two three four five six seven eight and we can
call the hits or notes that are playing events so we've got steps and events now a euclidean
rhythm will seek to balance out the events across a sequence in the most efficient way
so with that in mind the euclidean version of this rhythm is going to look something more like this
and you can see these claps have to fit within that sequence of steps so the distance between
all three claps isn't the same it's just as balanced as it can get with the resolution
of the Grid or the steps that we've assigned and this rhythm is going to sound like this
now if we choose our steps to be 16 instead of eight it's going to look more like this
now these three steps aren't as balanced as they could be within this resolution so
a euclidean rhythm is going to change it to be something more like this and that's because in
this example you've got one two three four five six steps between the first and the second clap
then you've got one two three four steps and then you've got one two three four five six
steps before the next clap now we know that that can be more balanced at that resolution
and that's why it's going to move it to be one two three four five steps one two three four
five steps and then one two three four five six steps and that's as balanced as it can be
think of it this way if you had a roulette table and a bunch of marbles say 16 of them
and that roulette table was balanced on a stick to keep the balance of the table you'd want to
distribute those marbles as evenly as possible within the pockets available on the roulette
table if you didn't it's going to lose balance and fall off a bit of a weird analogy I know
but hopefully it helps explain it so now I want to go into Ableton and show you what you can do
with the euclidean sequencer and the interest and power you can create in your rhythms okay
so let's start off with the example that we've just looked at we've got four kick drums and our
grid is split into 16 so we've got 16 steps and four events now as four is perfectly divisible
into 16 they're all an equal distance apart now let's create a bass line and we're going to use
this euclidean sequencer Pro which is available for Max for live to create that bass line and I'm
going to show you what these three controls do so in a euclidean rhythm you've got three main
parameters we've already looked at two of them the resolution of your sequence or the amount of steps
the number of events that occur within those steps and this third parameter is rotation
and all the rotation does is change the start point of the sequence the relationship between
the notes within the sequence remain the same so in this example we've got a bass note and
currently There are 16 steps four events so it should be hitting exactly the same as the kick
which doesn't make for a very good Baseline so what we can do is we can actually change the
rotation and if you look these notes are just going to start in a different place
so if we rotate it once twice it's now going to be playing exactly in between each Kick
so that sounds better and that's all rotation is so you can see we could start it
on the third resolution of that step instead
but I like starting the second place so the two
relates to the amount of steps it's pushing that sequence forwards by
okay nice and simple now I want to show you what happens when you start adding multiple
euclidean rhythms over the top of each other so if we go to the synth here and let's just
activate it I'm going to turn off the second one and we just got the first so let's see
what's going on here we've got 16 steps lovely we've got three events occurring
with those within those steps and I've got it set to rotation 16 at the moment but doesn't
really matter I mean you can experiment where you want that sequence to start but
always there's going to be one two three four five notes in between these two events one two
three four five steps in between these two events and one two three four five six steps
between these two events so let's just have a listen to that with the bass line and the kick
so you've got this really cool syncopated Rhythm already occurring
now we've got five events as evenly balanced as possible and this is going to be a good way
to show you how it actually balances it so if we add more events like seven for instance you
can see here we've got once well let's put this back to the zero position we've got an event one
space an event one space event one space event then you've got two spaces event one space event
one space event two spaces event and that's the most balanced way using that euclidean algorithm
that these events can be balanced across this amount of steps or this resolution of steps
so hopefully you can start to hear fun that you can have using these euclidean rhythms
so let's add a second one over the top foreign
events occurring within 16 and you can see how it's balanced it's these green ones now
so we've got a space event space event space event space event
and now you've got this really cool Groove going on so let's add another one but what we're going
to do now is create a different resolution or choose a different amount of steps and this is
going to start to create a poly meter which will ebb and flow and change over time I'm
going to share with you a video on polymeters at the end of this video but check this out
foreign we've got one event occurring every 12 steps so it doesn't sound very
interesting so let's just add five events occurring every twelve steps
and then change the rotation a bit and now let's have a listen to it
I'm going to change the note see if we can find something that sounds better
so you can see these are spinning at different times these kind of clock hands
and if we choose I don't know 17 steps and 10 events let's see what
happens could sound rubbish but it's all about experimentation with it [Music]
add that up an octave
[Music]
so you've got a really interesting Rhythm now this is where it can be applied to Drums as
well and this is common as Tucson discovered in a lot of music from all around the world
so African clap drumming stuff from Turkey stuff from Canada stuff from all over the
world literally in multiple multiple cultures using these different euclidean rhythms that
will balance a certain amount of events or hits across a certain amount of steps so
we're just harnessing what already exists using these Matrix skills so now let's load in some
drums into a drum rack I've just loaded in some random ones the clap a clave a little side stick
and a nice 909 Rim shot or 808 Rim shot so now I've put one of these euclidean sequences on there
as well I'm just going to activate the first one 16 steps four events rotation 14. [Music]
so let's just put this clap where you would expect a normal clap to be so we could work
that out you've got four events in the 16 steps and we want it to be on every other kick which
means we'd have to choose two events within those 16 steps like so and then make them hit
on every other kick like so so now we should have a normal kick clap kick clap [Music]
as you can hear so now let's start adding in some of these other sounds [Music]
10 steps one event on that clave
again when you start using a different amount of steps with a different euclidean rhythms
that's when you start running into poly meters now let's add a third euclidean Rhythm on these drums
now it's the side stick
so I'm going to put all of this together and create something right now using just
euclidean rhythms I'll put some chords in there as well and you can hear what we can
create using these euclidean rhythms which I think are absolutely awesome
to know you know about euclidean rhythms and how to use them to make your own interesting rhythms
but you may remember I mentioned polyrhythms and poly meters in this video as well now these are
the two other keys to the Holy Trinity of creating rhythms and with all three of these techniques you
will never make a boring rhythm again unless you choose to so make sure you watch this video to
learn all about how to use poly meters and poly rhythms to give you all the skills you need to
never make a boring rhythm again but before you do that if you enjoyed this video please like
it and subscribe to my channel really helps me out and I will catch you over at this next video