Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Thanks to Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring! Go to DollarShaveClub.com/12tone to get your first starter set for $5.
What if, with just a couple simple rules, you could make a piece of music over a millennium long? I'm not the first person to ask this question, not by a long shot, but I kinda stumbled onto a pretty cool answer just by playing around with rhythms. Well, polyrhythms to be precise, or to be even more precise, polymeter, which spell-check is telling me isn't actually a word, but I know better. So how does it work? How can we make something that sounds ordered and coherent at short time scales when the whole thing lasts an order of magnitude longer than most humans do? That's, uh... That's what this video is about, so I guess watch it if you want to know the answer? Or don't. I'm not the boss of you.
Patreon: patreon.com/12tonevideos
Discord: discord.gg/QapX2MS
Mailing List: eepurl.com/bCTDaj
Facebook: facebook.com/12tonevideos
Twitter: twitter.com/12tonevideos
Instagram: instagram.com/12tonevideos
Email: 12tonevideos@gmail.com
Last: youtu.be/x1CBPV1_uTI
Adam's Syncopated Tuplets video: youtu.be/F4TyBe6AHEI
Adam's 7:11 Polyrhythm video: youtu.be/U9CgR2Y6XO4
Script: docs.google.com/document/d/1tuz7ogOeFzcd-u6sL_pQ1zVT-YNZMDNbBjDTGjHMniI/edit?usp=sharing
SOURCES:
longplayer.org/about/how-does-longplayer-work
longplayer.org/about/conceptual-background
britannica.com/art/polyrhythm
Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Ron Jones
Howard Levine
Duck
Brian Etheredge
Gabi Ghita
Elaine Pratt
Ken Arnold
Khristofor Saraga
William (Bill) Boston
Owen Campbell-Moore
Mitchell Fund
Len Lanphar
Paul Ward
Benjamin DeLillo
Susan Lingenfelter
Anton Smyk
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Dov Zazkis
James Treacy Bagshaw
Christopher Lucas
Hendrik Payer
Andrew Beals
Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Duncan Dempsey
Patrick James Morley
Alex Knauth
Lukas Gigler
Tyler Leite
Paul Grieselhuber
And thanks as well to Corvi, Henry Reich, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Abram Thiessen, Anna Work, Oliver, Jc Bq, Adam Neely, nico, Michael Fieseler, Rick Lees, Ben LaRose, Justin Donnell, rhandhom1, Dave Mayer, Thomás, Davis Sprague, Justin Aungst, Harold Gonzales, Paul Quine, Alex, Marc Himmelberger, Chris Borland, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Daniel Gilchrist, Arnas, Sarah Spath, Skylar J Eckdahl, billy roberts, Elliot Burke, Alex Atanasyan, Amlor, Greg Borenstein, Tim S., Elias Simon, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Jerry D. Brown, Lauren Steely, Fabian, Nathan Petchell, Blake Boyd, Trevor, Michael McCormick, Lilith Dawn, Jonathan Beck, Dmitry Jemerov, Ian Seymour, Charles Gaskell, Luke Rihn, Rob Holton, Ohad Lutzky, Jon White, Kurtis Commanda, James A. Thornton, Benjamin Cooper, Kevin, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Elliot Winkler, Payden Nissen, Tom Evans, John Bejarano, Brian Dinger, Nervilis, Stefan Strohmaier, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Shadow Kat, Adam Kent, Max Wanderman, Lee Rennie, Richard T. Anderson, Angela Flierman, Mark Feaver, Tyler Lukasiewicz, Kevin Johnson, Brian McCue, Stephan Broek, Hape Company, Matt Giallourakis, Marcøs, Ryan Nicholls, ml cohen, Sylvain Chevalier, Darzzr, Roger Grosse, David Hardin, Rodrigo Roman, Francois LaPlante, Jeremy Zolner, Matthew Fox, Paper Coelacanth, Britt Ratliff, Koen Hoogendoorn, Tae Wook Kim, Eddie O'Rourke, Ryan, Jon Bauman, Vincent Sanders, John July, Volker Wegert, Paul Koester, Danny, Matthew Kallend, Patrick Callier, JH, Joshua Gleitze, Jake Lizzio, Ben Straubinger, Emilio Assteves, Alex Keeny, Alexey Fedotov, Charles Hill, Harry Hume, Valentin Lupachev, Joshua La Macchia, David Conrad, John Paul Welsh, Lisa Lyons, DSM, Gary Butterfield, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Elizabeth von Teig, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, Chris Chapin, max thomas, Jamie Price, Kennedy Morrison, Red Uncle, Tiago de Caux, Toby M. Schreier, Daniel Garcia, Kirk Natoza, Doug Nottingham, Scott Howarth, Barendo, Smackdab, Nicholas Wolf, Ben Phillips, Hex86, Scott Nystrom, Douglas Anderson, ZagOnEm, Robert Beach, Todd Davidson, Fahzbehn, chaoticgeek, Lionel Dresta, veleum, and Kevin Boyce! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
Thanks to Dollar Shave Club for sponsoring! Go to DollarShaveClub.com/12tone to get your first starter set for $5.
What if, with just a couple simple rules, you could make a piece of music over a millennium long? I'm not the first person to ask this question, not by a long shot, but I kinda stumbled onto a pretty cool answer just by playing around with rhythms. Well, polyrhythms to be precise, or to be even more precise, polymeter, which spell-check is telling me isn't actually a word, but I know better. So how does it work? How can we make something that sounds ordered and coherent at short time scales when the whole thing lasts an order of magnitude longer than most humans do? That's, uh... That's what this video is about, so I guess watch it if you want to know the answer? Or don't. I'm not the boss of you.
Patreon: patreon.com/12tonevideos
Discord: discord.gg/QapX2MS
Mailing List: eepurl.com/bCTDaj
Facebook: facebook.com/12tonevideos
Twitter: twitter.com/12tonevideos
Instagram: instagram.com/12tonevideos
Email: 12tonevideos@gmail.com
Last: youtu.be/x1CBPV1_uTI
Adam's Syncopated Tuplets video: youtu.be/F4TyBe6AHEI
Adam's 7:11 Polyrhythm video: youtu.be/U9CgR2Y6XO4
Script: docs.google.com/document/d/1tuz7ogOeFzcd-u6sL_pQ1zVT-YNZMDNbBjDTGjHMniI/edit?usp=sharing
SOURCES:
longplayer.org/about/how-does-longplayer-work
longplayer.org/about/conceptual-background
britannica.com/art/polyrhythm
Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Ron Jones
Howard Levine
Duck
Brian Etheredge
Gabi Ghita
Elaine Pratt
Ken Arnold
Khristofor Saraga
William (Bill) Boston
Owen Campbell-Moore
Mitchell Fund
Len Lanphar
Paul Ward
Benjamin DeLillo
Susan Lingenfelter
Anton Smyk
Chris Prentice
Jack Carlson
Dov Zazkis
James Treacy Bagshaw
Christopher Lucas
Hendrik Payer
Andrew Beals
Thomas Morley
Jacob Helwig
Duncan Dempsey
Patrick James Morley
Alex Knauth
Lukas Gigler
Tyler Leite
Paul Grieselhuber
And thanks as well to Corvi, Henry Reich, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, Abram Thiessen, Anna Work, Oliver, Jc Bq, Adam Neely, nico, Michael Fieseler, Rick Lees, Ben LaRose, Justin Donnell, rhandhom1, Dave Mayer, Thomás, Davis Sprague, Justin Aungst, Harold Gonzales, Paul Quine, Alex, Marc Himmelberger, Chris Borland, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Daniel Gilchrist, Arnas, Sarah Spath, Skylar J Eckdahl, billy roberts, Elliot Burke, Alex Atanasyan, Amlor, Greg Borenstein, Tim S., Elias Simon, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Jerry D. Brown, Lauren Steely, Fabian, Nathan Petchell, Blake Boyd, Trevor, Michael McCormick, Lilith Dawn, Jonathan Beck, Dmitry Jemerov, Ian Seymour, Charles Gaskell, Luke Rihn, Rob Holton, Ohad Lutzky, Jon White, Kurtis Commanda, James A. Thornton, Benjamin Cooper, Kevin, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Elliot Winkler, Payden Nissen, Tom Evans, John Bejarano, Brian Dinger, Nervilis, Stefan Strohmaier, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Shadow Kat, Adam Kent, Max Wanderman, Lee Rennie, Richard T. Anderson, Angela Flierman, Mark Feaver, Tyler Lukasiewicz, Kevin Johnson, Brian McCue, Stephan Broek, Hape Company, Matt Giallourakis, Marcøs, Ryan Nicholls, ml cohen, Sylvain Chevalier, Darzzr, Roger Grosse, David Hardin, Rodrigo Roman, Francois LaPlante, Jeremy Zolner, Matthew Fox, Paper Coelacanth, Britt Ratliff, Koen Hoogendoorn, Tae Wook Kim, Eddie O'Rourke, Ryan, Jon Bauman, Vincent Sanders, John July, Volker Wegert, Paul Koester, Danny, Matthew Kallend, Patrick Callier, JH, Joshua Gleitze, Jake Lizzio, Ben Straubinger, Emilio Assteves, Alex Keeny, Alexey Fedotov, Charles Hill, Harry Hume, Valentin Lupachev, Joshua La Macchia, David Conrad, John Paul Welsh, Lisa Lyons, DSM, Gary Butterfield, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Elizabeth von Teig, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, Chris Chapin, max thomas, Jamie Price, Kennedy Morrison, Red Uncle, Tiago de Caux, Toby M. Schreier, Daniel Garcia, Kirk Natoza, Doug Nottingham, Scott Howarth, Barendo, Smackdab, Nicholas Wolf, Ben Phillips, Hex86, Scott Nystrom, Douglas Anderson, ZagOnEm, Robert Beach, Todd Davidson, Fahzbehn, chaoticgeek, Lionel Dresta, veleum, and Kevin Boyce! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
