Gavin's GC Clinic

[Kurtis]

can someone please ask him how the beginning of "cheating the polygraph" is in 7/8. if you play the tune you can clap in 4 or 6 and it works out perfectly. i guess he just squeezes in this 7/8 groove. played it for a bunch of musicians that know their stuff and they agree it ain't in 7/8. be nice if i still lived in LA so i could ask him at this clinic.

[Clint Hopkins]

Kurtis,
This is Gavin's own, hand-written transcription of that groove. Hope it helps.

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

it sounds close to 6 because of where the back beat is placed, but if you listen closely you can tell it's a little off kilter- that's the one extra sixteenth before each backbeat or each "1."

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

i mean i guess technically you could count it in 6. from that perspective, you would be playing a septuplet over every 3 8th notes, or a 7 over 3 feel. i guess it doesn't matter. or you could call it a slow four and every beat youre playing septuplets. might just be more natural to think of it in 7/8 since the structure of the groove is based on 7s.


i think?

[Andrew<3'sVinnie]

also if i remember correctly the chorus transitions to a different feel, perhaps based off the eighth note implied by the 7/8 feel. so to nail that transition it might be easier to think of it in 7/8 rather than 6 or 4 (and have to modulate the time based on the septuplet subdivisions).

that's a lot of gibberish!

[Phil T.]

My head hurts now...

[Juan Expósito]

I am enjoying this again (from another Gavin´s clinic):


And introducing the drummer:

[Manu]

holy shit Gavin and the stick tricks, who would have guessed it

[Kurtis]

also if i remember correctly the chorus transitions to a different feel, perhaps based off the eighth note implied by the 7/8 feel. so to nail that transition it might be easier to think of it in 7/8 rather than 6 or 4 (and have to modulate the time based on the septuplet subdivisions).

that's a lot of gibberish!

not a lot of gibberish at all. in the beginning you can tap 4 quarter notes in between the guitar and bass chords. then it goes into 5. then into 7 when the guitar does a little solo and gavin plays some cool stuff in there also. then it's back to the 4 or 6 thing. in the guitar solo part you can tap 7 eight notes. that part feels in 7 very much so. but then that killer groove gavin starts up again. if you keep tapping in 7 i guess it works also. guess you could play anything you wanted in between those guitar and bass chords. it's just a killer groove. when i first heard it PT played it live before they put it on record. randy and a few others posted up the next day on HOD what was that tune that had that shuffle. people first thought it was a Rosanna (Toto) type of groove. it's such a unique groove. to create the part he came up with is genius.

nice clips Juan.