A-rhythm-etic. The math behind the beats

How many of you love rhythm?

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah. (Cheers)

(Drumming)

I mean, I love all kinds of rhythm.

I like to play jazz,

a little funk,

and hip hop,

a little pop, a little R&B,

a little Latin,

African.

And this groove right here,

comes from the Crescent City,

the old second line.

(Cheers)

Now, one thing all those rhythms have in common

is math,

and I call it a-rhythm-atic.

Can you repeat after me? A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

Clayton Cameron: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: A-rhythm a-rhythm.
Audience: A-rhythm a-rhythm.

CC: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: Yeah.

Now all those styles of rhythm

are all counted in four

and then subdivided by three.

What?

Yeah. Three is a magic number.

Three is a groovin number.

Three is a hip hop kind of number.

But what is sub-dividing by three mean?

And counting off by four?

Well, look, think of it this way.

A measure of music as a dollar.

Now a dollar has four quarters, right?

And so does a 4:4 measure of music.

It has four quarter notes.

Now how do you sub-divide?

Now let's envision this:

three dollars worth of quarters.

You would have three groups of four,

and you would count it,

a-one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four,

one-two-three-four. Together.

CC and Audience: A-one-two-three-four,
a-one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four.

CC: Okay, now you feel that?

Now let's take those three groups of four

and make them four groups of three.

And listen to this.

A-one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four,

one-two-three-four, with me.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three, come on, y'all!

CC & Audience: One-two-three-four,
one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, ah.

There you go.

All right, second line.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three.

One-two-three-four, one-two-three. Yeah.

Now that's what I call a-rhythm-a-tic.

Can you say it? A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: A-rhythm a-rhythm.
Audience: A-rhythm a-rhythm.

CC: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: Yeah. Now pick the swing beat,

and do the same thing.

One, two, one, two, a-one-two-three-four.

Yeah. Mm.

One-two-three, one-two-three,
one-two-three, one-two-three. Whoo.

So I want to take the second line beat

and the swing beat and put them together,

and it sounds something like this.

A-ha.

A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: A-rhythm a-rhythm.
Audience: A-rhythm a-rhythm.

CC: A-rhythm-a-tic.
Audience: A-rhythm-a-tic.

CC: Yeah. Hip hop.

Now it's using a faster group of three

we call a triplet.

Triple-a-triplet. Say it with me.

CC& Audience: Triple-a-triplet.

Triple-a-triplet. Triple-a-triplet.

CC: So I'll take all the rhythms that you hear earlier,

we'll put them together,

and they sound like this.

A-rhythm-atic.

(Applause)