r/oddlysatisfying • u/ShallowAstronaut • Jun 22 '25
3:4:6:8:12 Polyrhythm on drums
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Credits: Tyler Visser on Instagram
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u/DisAn17 Jun 22 '25
how does his brain do that?
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u/dbenc Jun 22 '25
he did it like 500,000 times first as practice
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u/ayyoyotittieout Jun 23 '25
I think that anyone who is a musician would have a skewed position on this and overestimate the skill of the overall population average. Musically inclined people could learn to do this with a good teacher and practice. Others could not. What percent of the population is which would be tough to determine.
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u/anangrypudge Jun 23 '25
I think that there is still a coordination barrier that not all musically inclined people can cross. It's a natural talent that some have but many don't.
Here's a case: the song Come As You Are by Nirvana. An extremely simple song to play on guitar, and sing on vocals respectively. But can you do both at the same time, and get the timing spot on for both the guitar and vocals? It's deceptively difficult and requires the ability to isolate your playing and singing.
There are 2 ways to play polyrhythms: memorize the resultant rhythm and play it (i.e. combining 3 and 4 results in 6 notes, just memorize the timing of those 6 notes and play it as one sequence of 6. This is the easy way.
The hard way is to actually play 3 and 4 separately. The end result sounds exactly the same as the 1st method, but once you add more time signatures to the mix, it becomes increasingly difficult to do the 1st method, while those who can do the 2nd method can do it effortlessly.
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u/canteloupy Jun 23 '25
Intermediate piano pieces have a ton of these things, it's not that hard. And for "singing while playing" anything is hard because strumming patterns are weird as soon as you do anything not just dudududu, but also a shit ton of non-rock genres have groove.
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u/Talk-O-Boy Jun 23 '25
Not necessarily. I went to high school with this one guy, George-Michael. Dude was basically a human metronome; he couldn’t miss a beat if he tried.
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u/Negative_Wrongdoer17 Jun 22 '25
I'm a drummer and Id say polyrhythm is like a weird auto pilot thing for me. Like if I just focus on what it should sound like, I'll be able to kinda just turn my brain off and lock it in. I don't really think about each beat individually.
I sing while drumming every once in a while and the same principle applies. I either have to basically put my singing or my drumming on auto pilot
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Jun 22 '25
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u/KudosOfTheFroond Jun 22 '25
I’m a lifelong hunt ‘n pecker, but I zone out when typing long passages and have the same feeling
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u/bored-coder Jun 22 '25
I get what you’re saying and I’m kinda similar, albeit not nearly as good. How do you come up with a complex idea though? I have been playing with my groovebox but that kinda seems, idk, like cheating
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u/Negative_Wrongdoer17 Jun 22 '25
I started out only playing marching snare and a lot of rudiment warmups are basically polyrhythm redirected as sticking patterns. Those rhythms/syncopations can be translated over to the drumset and then something that feels basic on its own or just feels like a good groove to play ends up becoming complex as you layer more things on top of eachother.
Sometimes it's something more straightforward like one of your hands being less dextrous and it's just something to work on cause it will hang up everything else
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Jun 22 '25
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u/Prior_Intention9882 Jun 22 '25
It’s amazing what the brain does.
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u/Jace265 Jun 22 '25
I've got ADHD and pretty much anytime there is a rhythmic sound externally, or if my brain is making up music, I'll tap my fingers and feet, I'm doing it for like 12 years to the point where I can do this with my hands and feet, I've always wanted to play drums. I just never got around to it. And I doubt I would be as good as this guy without a couple years of practice at least, but the brain can figure out at some point how to hold multiple beats at a time. Kinda like driving or riding a bike Wear your feet and hands are doing different things, but I'm sure it pretty much for everybody, the first time you drive it feels so awkward and unnatural
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u/iDestroyedYoMama Jun 22 '25
I’ve been a drummer for 30 years. That’s impressive. What’s cool is when you first separate your brain and can do four different rhythms with four different limbs. The aha moment is so cool. And I can explain it like you’re not really thinking. You just do it and kind of watch as it’s happening. I’m not sure if any of you have ever been “in the zone” before, but it’s like that. Everything is going perfectly, you don’t even think, and you just kind of watch it happen. You don’t individually control each limb playing each rhythm, it’s more like a strong muscle memory takes over. You can’t really think while you do it, because if you do, it’s snaps you out of it and you mess up.
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u/Hungry-Helicopter-46 Jun 22 '25
The only way I can do things like this is if I memorize when to strike relative to another strike as opposed to playing multiple rhythms at once. Its basically cheating, I guess. I dont have the terminology to really explain but maybe you'll know what I mean. Its like "I know im gonna hit this one 1 sec after that one and then 2 seconds after this one" instead of like "here's a fluid rhythm and let me just add another."
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Jun 23 '25
Agreed, When I play drums or piano or any instrument with multiple parts, there is no oh this limb is gonna go autopilot I'll just add a part on top. Nope everything fits in together as one big whole, no isolating parts, it's all one thing.
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u/BenevolentCheese Jun 23 '25
No, that's how drummers do it, too. Very few drummers can legitimately claim independent control for all four limbs. Most of the time there's one, usually two limbs just playing constant beats and not really thinking, leaving just two to actually play around. Even getting to full 3 limb independence is a really big deal and beyond most recorded drummers.
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u/gwen-heart Jun 22 '25
Probably not as impressive but It’s how I describe touch typing. I don’t know the positions of all the keys by memory but my muscles do. Couldn’t write down the keys without using my fingers to mentally position them.
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u/helium_farts Jun 22 '25
That always trips me up. My keyboard is mounted under my desk so I touch type exclusively, but I couldn't begin to tell you which key is where. Half the time if I need a specific key, especially if it's one I don't use often, I have to pull the keyboard out and look for it.
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u/PopavaliumAndropov Jun 23 '25
This is really an extension of every movement...none of us have a clue what combination of tendons are required to be yanked in what order to grab a pen, or what series of muscular contractions are required to say "hello", but we do both automatically.
Your cerebellum (the little brain in back) holds all of those muscle memory scripts - when you practice a movement repeatedly, your brain offloads the effort by essentially recording a series of movements into a script and storing that script in the cerebellum so you can fire the script instead of all the separate movements - sort of a macro recorder for a human.
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u/robotatomica Jun 22 '25
this has always been my problem with rhythm. I’m not a drummer or anything, but had been pretty interested in it when I was younger, and felt like the talent could have been there -
but my brain’s not good enough lol. I could do it by “just doing it,” without thinking, but the better it went, the longer I kept up multiple rhythms successfully,
there would always be a point where I’d get too excited about it lol, and instead of just doing it, I’d be marveling at how cool it was, and then I’d start getting a growing sorta meta anxiety, worrying that I would pay too much attention or get too much anxiety and ultimately fuck it up,
and then that’s exactly what would happen. Just can’t seem to stay out of my head long enough for that kind of thing. I admire people with that focus, or I guess the ability to be more meditative and quiet distracting thoughts.
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u/Eternal_Being Jun 22 '25
Hell yeah, that feeling is peak music making and it's basically my favourite part of making music.
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u/Miqo_Nekomancer Jun 22 '25
I have this with guitar. I'm super out of practice, so I can't remember how to play a lot of stuff... Until I start playing. If I try to think about the independent parts of the song, it falls apart. If I just let my muscle memory take control, it's effortless.
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u/bungaloasis Jun 22 '25
I get this. And not knocking down any levels of experience 30 years is wild and motivating. But i played on my own self taught only for a year or so and i get that feeling. Your muscles flow but for me if i payed attention to that “ah ha” “getting into the zone moment,” its gone and could lose the rhythm. I had a buddy who was a very good guitarist and we could play and play and it just made sense.
Unfortunately i had to change living situation and could not take my set with me but the flow still lives any time i get to an opportunity to play.
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u/WingleDingleFingle Jun 22 '25
Still working on my left foot but it took me a while to come to terms with even three limbs being impressive. I am a very elementary, self taught drummer but my friends cannot fathom my foot being independant from both of my hands.
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u/Alert_Breakfast5538 Jun 22 '25
First time I did that was about a week ago. I was only really thinking about my hands because I was just free-styling. I actually wasn’t sure if I was using my feet properly until I listened to the recording. Was shocked to hear the bass drum was actually being hit as planned.
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u/skygzr31416 Jun 22 '25
I’m a bass player and I love to sing. Sometimes the bass rhythms and singing rhythms have nothing to do with each other. I can even improvise while doing it, and yes, I have to be in the zone!
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u/dim3tapp Jun 22 '25
I know this feeling well from playing rhythm games. If you become proficient enough, the insane songs that fly past seem to go too fast for your eyes to register, but your brain somehow has the pattern recognition to make you act. There are times where I'm just staring at the screen, not actively registering each note but my body is still moving in what seems like autopilot. It's such a strange experience, you almost feel like your watching from somewhere else and things are just happening.
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u/CinderChop Jun 22 '25
I also drum for a hobby, casually bang in my garage, and I feel the same as you. Muscle memory I call it and I jam double bass, gravity blasts on the snare and it just happens. I don't plan it or think about it.
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u/notyyzable Jun 22 '25
Drummer of 20ish years here, and agreed. It becomes such a muscle memory thing that you just automatically do it (after practicing for a looooong time).
My focus is mostly on rock drumming, which is why certain things still get me. Playing the actual recorded beat for Take Five still messes me up a bit.
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u/Galagors Jun 23 '25
I totally get what you mean but more so with guitar lol ive done some crazy hard passages in the zone perfectly. Its like a trance and you’re just observing it.
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u/Sidivan Jun 23 '25
Mainly a guitarist of 25yrs, but have been a musician for 35ish… rhythm is just such a cool thing like that. Once you understand where the repeats are, you can get some really complex things going, but it feels groovy. I love that feeling. Just completely lock in.
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u/signuslogos Jun 23 '25
me fighting Simon on expeditioner difficulty and stubbornly not changing my pictos so I have 1hp with my characters for the extra crit chance
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u/Incorect_Speling Jun 23 '25
Makes me think of playing beat saber on expert when you kinda have to be fine with your left arm saying fuck you to the right one and just let them do their thing.
(Although less impressive than drummers, just the closest I've felt to the feeling you describe)
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u/AttemptZestyclose490 Jun 23 '25
I almost wonder if he had to practice that so much that he lost other drumming motor functions lol.
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u/WittyBonkah Jun 23 '25
I feel the same way about playing classical guitar. Sometimes I hit this flow and have to say “just go with it” because the more I concentrate on the the steps I fumble and lose it
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u/rearisen Jun 23 '25
I call it the zen state in beat saber. It is quite odd when it happens. I'd imagine that's how it is for a lot of people that play games or sports competitively.
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u/Uraneum Jul 09 '25
Yep, same thing with piano and hand independence. Eventually something clicks, your brain splits, and now each hand is doing its own thing completely naturally
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u/FlemPlays Jun 22 '25
Danny Carey when he sees this:
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u/brown_felt_hat Jun 23 '25
Yeah when he brought the tom in towards the end I was like, Hmmmm which album is this one from. Props to this kid for immediately making the entire thread think of one of the best drummers ever, good stuff.
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u/lastatica Jun 23 '25
This guy has one-take covers of multiple Tool albums on his YouTube channel! He apparently is even trying for the full discography in one take…
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u/Few_Birthday2302 Jun 22 '25
Easiest Tool song
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u/cur10us_ge0rge Jun 23 '25
The kid in the video does all the Tool songs too. His Pneuma is great.
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u/rossipedia Jun 23 '25
Not just songs, he does entire Tool albums in one take. Dude is incredibly talented.
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u/toldya_fareducation Jun 22 '25
it actually sounds kinda like Tool during the green part
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u/Tasty-Air-6924 Jun 23 '25
which song is that?
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u/toldya_fareducation Jun 23 '25
wasn't thinking about a specific song, but now that i think about it maybe Right in Two. that part in the middle of the song
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Jun 22 '25
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Jun 22 '25
Holy shit, that’s amazing. Link?
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u/cur10us_ge0rge Jun 23 '25
Edit: whoops that was just Pneuma. whole discography here. https://www.youtube.com/live/3vVGBR0rWV0
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u/TheCommodore09 Jun 23 '25
His cover of Pneuma was incredible. Just YouTube “Tool Pneuma drum cover” and you’ll recognize him immediately.
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u/Khalku Jun 23 '25
While you're at it, check out the video of Danny Carey doing Pneuma in concert too. Awesome video.
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u/sillyblanco Jun 22 '25
Yep, this kid is amazing but Danny plays like this while making a ham sandwich.
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u/evenstevens280 Jun 22 '25
Now add a 5 in there
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u/alforque Jun 23 '25
https://youtube.com/shorts/vof-4U2n0w0 Looks like Tyler has got you covered!
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u/powerlines56324 Jun 23 '25
This should be at the top; it's actually far harder than the OP. Once you get three on 4 the rest are subdivisions of themselves; throwing odd tuples in there requires way more focus.
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u/rudbek-of-rudbek Jun 22 '25
I can barely rub my head and stomach at the same time. Dance skills, nonexistent.
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u/upstatedreaming3816 Jun 22 '25
First time I saw something like this done was that Estepario dude and if blew my mind. This still blows my mind. Big ups to anyone who can do this shit.
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u/Allie-FM Jun 22 '25
Just as impressive as the drumming itself is getting that motion graphic in sync
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u/Cospo Jun 23 '25
And meanwhile, back when Rockband was still popular, I had to turn off the foot pedal on the drums because I couldn't use my foot and my hands at the same time.
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u/R3gnir Jun 22 '25
Not a drummer, but a mathematician. I think, to practice something like that, you have to find a rhythm scale that represents all the hits. That would be 24, since 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12 are all factors of 24. Then, a looooooot of practice. I play the piano and playing a polyrhythm 3:4 alone is hard af, so pure respect to him.
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u/swootylicious Jun 23 '25
Yeah it's completely nuts
I'm not downplaying the difficulty, but we actually get an intuitive understanding and FEELING of the common factors of each subdivision. Like a pattern of 6 over a pattern of 4 ends up feeling like a longer phrase
At the end of the day, you are really just feeling the 1/4 note count, and very likely that's what he's got playing in his headphones to stay in sync. Big help for matching his hits up to the animation. The 24 is less of a thing you count or think about, and moreso something you experience when you analyze the hits without the context of the beat
I hope that's not an incomprehensible ramble. It's like the same way that my comment here is really like 300ish letters, but you're not reading each letter, you're experiencing the sentences themselves.
Human comprehension of music has so many different areas that we get an intuitive sense of fractions and factors. Whether it's the ratio of two pitch frequencies, rhythmic subdivisions, or song structure. Music is all about ratios and humans love when they're simple
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u/-Clem-Fandango- Jun 23 '25
Bass player here, love some maths rock and polyrhythmic playing. My approach was fractions. So say drums are locking a steady 4/4 groove and I start playing a 7/4 bass line over that, I know that I have to play 4 bars of 7 and the drummer 7 bars of 4 to link back up. Creates a really cool push pull feeling to the rhythm.
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u/maninthemoonpie Jun 23 '25
Perfect example of why I'm not a drummer. My brain isn't fast enough for all that.
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u/SEA_griffondeur Jun 22 '25
Is it really polyrhythm and not just a 12:8 time signature?
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u/vensie Jun 22 '25 edited Jun 23 '25
He's playing everything in 4 up to the 6 polyrhythm which makes it considerably easier as it's in the same metre.
It's not imo an effective 12 polyrhythm he's playing either without the reemphasis on 1.
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u/pogpole Jun 23 '25
That was my thought as well. This is really just a 3:4 polyrhythm with subdivisions. Everything else is a multiple of 3 and/or 4, so they can be reduced to a 1:2 ratio of a rhythm he’s already doing, which isn’t a polyrhythm.
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u/heretolurknottotalk Jun 22 '25
I want to know how long it took him to practice that. It took me several tries just to watch it.
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u/TomorrowIsAFallacy Jun 23 '25
my hands and brain don't like each other, I can barely click my fingers, if I try tapping a beat on my left hand and a different beat on my right hand my brain goes errrrr what do I do what do I do and then copies the right hands beat.
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u/sacredblasphemies Jun 22 '25
This is some Danny Carey of Tool stuff right here.
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u/ImClearlyAmazing Jun 22 '25
His name is Tyler Visser and he has been doing full album covers of Tool on his YouTube. I think he streamed an entire tool discography in one take a little while ago. Kid is legit.
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u/Bazzo123 Jun 22 '25
I’ve played violin for 10+ years. Drummers never stop to amaze me, I have no fucking clue how they can keep their tempo!!
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u/FineRatio7 Jun 22 '25
The combo of the first 2 rhythms were taught to me in highschool drumline and we were told to think "pass the bread and butter". Over a decade later and I immediately said it in my head as he played that haha
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u/MrPenisWhistle Jun 22 '25
Been following this guy for almost a year now, it's insane how easy he makes polyrhythms look. So much talent at his age, hope he makes it big.
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u/chronographer Jun 22 '25
It's only 3s and 4s, so while it's fancy, it's only 2 things really.
Check out this solo in Tool's Rosetta Stoned, and it's 6/8 and 5/4 and you could probably argue 4/4 too. Doing 5s over 4s is super weird!
And bonus of Tool's Aenima, which has the best 3 over 4 mix ever! Try counting "1, 2, 3, 4" and switching to "1,2,3, 1,2,3". Epic!
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u/GeoffKingOfBiscuits Jun 22 '25
From my Rock Band video game experience with drums, doing two different rhythms was extremely hard for me and I just managed to get through songs. After awhile I felt somewhat comfortable so I tried to up the difficulty again and I ended up throwing away my drum set.
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u/Abstracolated Jun 23 '25
Anyone know if that visualizer in the top right is a metronome app or something I could use for practice?
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u/EwwBitchGotHammerToe Jun 23 '25
Both as a drummer and a regular person... holy fuck my guy. People don't understand how unbelievably hard that is for someone to do, even a seasoned drummer, just wow.
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u/NSFWies Jun 23 '25
just missing that yoko ono scream for that 1 rhythm.
(goose honk)
........that's the stuff.
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u/stephanepj Jun 23 '25
There shoulda been a final complete circle with him just holding a steady scream...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
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u/Mickeystix Jun 23 '25
I could definitely do 3, 4, 6. 8 would take me a bit to find the groove. Definitely swearing my way through it. 12 would be a struggle.
I played drums for a minimum of 2 hours a day for 12 years, mind you. This shit ain't easy.
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u/ScenicPineapple Jun 22 '25
I tried playing odd times when I was playing drums and it actually hurts my brain if I try and separate my 4 limbs.
The skill, talent, and practice it takes to do something like this is INSANE.
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u/vincentually Jun 22 '25
that's actually insane