Living in the Mission Impossible

piano3

I’ve been doing some piano recording here at home the last few months. Most of it is short bits of music that I’m inserting between segments of a poker video series called The Eightfold Path to Poker Enlightenment that you can read about (and download the music) here: EPTPE

I’m posting now about one of those inserts.

Most of the recordings are of one piano played with two hands. On some of them, like the one you are about to hear, I did some overdubbing. The link below is to an mp3 that is ten seconds long. It’s one piano, played with one hand, four times, plus a shaker.

So much for the man behind the curtain. What I’m really here to share is a nifty musical rhythmic thing. The Mission Impossible theme music can be conceptualized as having 10 beats per measure, broken down into groups of three beats and two beats, thus:

3-3-2-2 / 3-3-2-2 / 3-3-2-2 / etc.

It so happens that the song “Living in the Past” by Jethro Tull has the same distinctive timing. And the music of these two songs – the notes themselves – happen to meld well. So here comes the Mission Impossible bassline and the Living in the Past melody at the same time. Ready? GO!

Click here to hear it.
 

4 Comments

  • Bryce Posted July 20, 2009 11:26 am

    That is very cool. When I’m devoting more time to poker growth, your series will be the #1 reason I rejoin Deuces Cracked.

  • phat mack Posted July 21, 2009 10:05 am

    >>> The Mission Impossible theme music can be conceptualized as having 10 beats per measure, broken down into groups of three beats and two beats, thus:

    3-3-2-2 / 3-3-2-2 / 3-3-2-2 / etc.

    It so happens that the song “Living in the Past” by Jethro Tull has the same distinctive timing.

    Thanks for the ear worm. For some reason I keep hearing 3-2-3-2/, so now I know what will be running in the background of my feeble brain for the rest of the day…

    😉

    (There’s another song from Tull’s time with this beat, so that’s what I’ll spend tomorrow trying to remember. Dun-dun-dun-di-di, dun-dun-dun-di-di.)

  • Anna Paradox Posted July 22, 2009 5:39 pm

    I love Lalo Schifrin. According to the liner notes of my much beloved vinyl album More Mission Impossible, he thought he’d written the theme in 5/4. However, it’s all in the ear of the beholder.

  • Tommy Angelo Posted July 22, 2009 7:06 pm

    Hi Anna!

    You’re right. It’s all in the ear of whoever is writing it down. There is never a difference between 5/4 and 10/4 to the listener.

    Tommy

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