'Pneuma' is way EASIER than you think

[00:00:00]A a hello. Is it working? It is working.

[00:00:03]So, Numa by Tul is a song that barely got any internet attention.

[00:00:12]Anyway, even though everyone and their mom made videos about how complex this song is, I actually think it's pretty simple. Not easy, but simple. It's basically this.

[00:00:24]And that's it. Let me show you.

[00:00:30]Hello everyone, my name is Yuggev and welcome back to Timeconuming. Yeah, let's do it. This song has four main themes. There's the intro, which is a pretty straightforward 44. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 And there are the heavy breakdown sections that are also a pretty straightforward 44 as well. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1. They both lean on a three note grouping, but other than that, it's nothing too fancy. But none of you are here for those sections, are you? The other two themes are the main bulk of the song. So the first one is, of course, the theme from the verses. This is a big 33 beat pattern that I divide like this. 33 33 32, which happens twice. So again, 3 32 and then 32. The bass in the beginning of the song plays this pattern. But notice, and this is a bit confusing, that he starts on the pickup. So he starts on this two. And I decided to not put this two in the beginning because the later context of the music implies that this is actually beat one.

[00:01:42]1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 Ah, top-notch bass playing. Anyway, I've seen people divide this pattern into 14, 12, and 7. I saw 12, 11, and 10. I saw big 7, big 7, and small five, which if I had to choose any of these, I would choose this one. I also saw sixes and fives. There are many ways to divide this pattern. But honestly, none of this actually matters. In my opinion, the discussion of what's the time signature here is kind of irrelevant. You can group these in any way that makes sense to you as long as the groupings make musical sense and as long as the meter that you choose helps you appreciate, understand or play the song better. So to illustrate this further, I'm going to leave these threes and twos as they are instead of grouping them into larger time signatures. These smaller cells already contain the accents that define the groove and grouping them into bigger bars creates a hierarchy of accents that I don't really hear in the song. It implies a heavier downbeat every so often. So like all beat ones where those would be. Whereas to me all of these little twos and threes carry a similar amount of weight. I hope this makes sense. And I mean, if you twist my arm and force me to choose a time signature, first of all, I'm going to fight back, but then I'm going to probably say 338.

[00:03:13]Anyway, I'll call this section A, which also means that there is a B involved.

[00:03:19]And that B is this 25 beat pattern. 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 2 The A part happens a million times during the song, but this B section shows up four times only and always in the same kind of like form, the same context, which is a A B A like this.

[00:03:50]1 2 1 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 That's one of the main patterns. Let's go over the other one. But before that, if you like the videos that I make, the easiest free way to support me and the channel is by subscribing, commenting, sharing it with your friends, liking, doing all that. It really does help. The more people see it, the more YouTube likes me, and that's a good thing. I also have a Patreon page that you are welcome to check out. And my new executive producer, Mr. Tom, who's one of my best and oldest friends, convinced me to open a buy me a coffee account for like one-time donations because the thank you button here on YouTube doesn't appear on demonetized videos apparently, which uh like all of my videos are. So, uh yeah. Anyway, back to the video. All right, so this other one, line number two, is a bit simpler. It's also a 33 beat pattern, but divided differently.

[00:05:10]So 3 2 and then 2 3 and two. And this whole thing happens again. So 3 2 and 2 3 and two. And lastly 3 22 two. You'll understand in a second why I separated these twos from all the other ones. It's kind of like a column response thing.

[00:05:26]Like this. 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1.

[00:05:37]Great. Now, that's basically it. 90% of the song is built from these two lines.

[00:05:43]So, you might ask yourself, where does that signature tool complexity show up?

[00:05:48]And that's exactly what I'm going to talk about next. Catch this. This is awesome. Seriously, the secret here is orchestration and instrumentation. And tulle are masters at that. You see, these two lines both sum to 33 beats, which means that if you play them one on top of the other, they will align and restart at the same time. So during the song, you'll get sections where the whole band plays one of the two lines.

[00:06:15]Or you'll get sections where some of the band members play line number one and some play line number two, one on top of the other. And I can't stress this enough, this is really, really cool.

[00:06:27]Check this out. Okay. So, the song starts with bass playing line number one.

[00:06:41]And then guitar and drums join it as well. Playing the whole AABA form.

[00:07:04]Also notice how on the After every B section, the drums accent this group with a crash.

[00:07:20]The next part has vocals join line number one. And notice how his accents fall exactly on these groups, but the guitar plays line number two over it.

[00:07:30]And this time it's in a high octave.

[00:07:38]1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 We're going to run 2 down.

[00:07:54]Come on. How awesome is that interplay?

[00:07:57]Also, in the previous video that I did, the tool Mishuga Dream Theater video, some guy in the comments said that the video is very inaccurate because I use an eight string guitar cutout to play a tool song and Adam Jones doesn't play an A string guitar. So, I'm going to be using a six string guitar and I'm going to D-tune it to D.

[00:08:17]Huh. Nice.

[00:08:19]>> Okay. After that, they go back to line number one, the Aaba form all together.

[00:08:28]We are will >> with that crash here of course one spot which leads to the heavy part. Fast forward a bit and bass comes in playing line number one.

[00:09:08]Guitar comes in playing line number two an octave lower and more aggressively.

[00:09:23]Drums join here and vocals join here with that spooky lower doubling voice.

[00:09:32]>> Child release the light. Wake up now. Child wake up child.

[00:09:44]Wake up now child. And then once vocals lay out, the drums join line number two and opens up a bit, leaving the bass alone on this side.

[00:10:04]>> Notice how heavily the drums impact the feel of the whole thing.

[00:10:14]Then they all go back to the AABA thing, introducing the cool tab-ish sound.

[00:10:25]This flesh, this mess, this dream.

[00:10:37]Wake up. Remember we are born.

[00:10:42]>> And of course there's the crash.

[00:10:45]>> One word. We are all one spark.

[00:10:54]>> From here we go to another heavy section that leads into the instrumental that leans on the intro theme. The instrumental section has some fancy drum stuff happening, but I think I'm going to tackle that in a separate shorter video because I suspect that most of my audience aren't drummers. Is that true?

[00:11:13]Who are you guys? Are there any drummers here? I'm sure there are. Are there any guitar players here? Bass players?

[00:11:18]Contrabasalika enthusiasts?

[00:11:22]Wow. Anyhow, when the instrumental ends, we get the guitar playing an aggressive version of line number one.

[00:11:38]followed by a super satisfying bass, drums, and guitar unison of line number two where Danny Kerry plays the best fill of the song. Yo, it's so good.

[00:12:08]And then when the vocals join, they all go back playing one last AABA form with that flanger thing going on. And it's all just an epic climax to the whole thing.

[00:12:29]Heat. Heat.

[00:12:57]Then we have another heavy riff, a guitar solo, and the song ends. Now that's pretty freaking slick. It's so cool what you can do with just a few musical motifs. It's It's so awesome.

[00:13:10]Superimposing these really cool rhythmic patterns one on top of the other is such a strong and dominant flavor in Tulle's music that it really becomes part of their identity. This happens in many of their songs and it's probably one of the factors that makes this band so unique and outstanding. I love this band. Let me know if this all makes sense to you because I hope it does. Or if you have any questions or comments on anything I said. And at this point, I also want to thank my beloved Patreon supporters. You guys are still the best.

[00:13:45]I love Tulle. Always did and I always will. And on that note, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the future.