This Is Why Your Breakdowns Suck...

[@NikNocturnal]

00000000000000000000000000000000000 1

[@ktakk1]

when ur so early that nik's comment still has 10 likes

[@trecemundos]

Thanks Bros! I'm now in Drop D1 (with a=449) in the 7 string guitar because I love to have 40hz (D#1 with a=448/449) /science said it's the sound of an eartquake/ and 50hz (G1 with a=448/449) notes (check it out in comparation with regular a=440hz E1 (41,2hz) / D#1(38,8hz) and G1 (48,9hz) / G#1 (51,9hz) , they sound very insteresting to me). -> instrumt.com/u/generador-de-tonos This it's also achievable with 423/424hz but a semitone higher (E1 and G#1). But i'm thinking in maybe up or low a semitone (Drop C#1 or D#1). It will depend on the "proper" tension for the actual strings. And for that maybe I will remove the central spring (muelle en español) of the Floyd Rose for "proper" string tension for Drop tunning. Thoughts? xDD

[@michalkleban5697]

FUCK YASS

[@ktakk1]

@layney boy r u jealous that i have fast fingers?

[@blackspine343]

thanks for tab comrade

[@laurenbabic]

#11) blegh producer pack

[@BaenaCarcosa]

How could I forget this very important step

[@erikback3144]

Back in 2009-2010 the blegh was a standard i love hearing bands that do that now and pig squeals too

[@grantbowers2319]

2020: breakdowns with baena 2021: *BAEKDOWNS WITH BAENA*

[@mikeminol]

BAEKDOWNS WITH BREANNA

[@MET4LIST]

2022: BAENA WITH BREAKDOWNS

[@nmurdock012]

No, my breakdowns suck because I suck at guitar

[@BaenaCarcosa]

Me too

[@stevei4860]

same.. been learning some periphery songs.. well.. trying ... and let me just say that its tough lol. sick band tho. side note... the guys in that band do not know theory either and that well... youve probably heard their music haha

[@lichkrieg4898]

Honestly it's nothing to do with skill, its more of a writing thing than anything.

[@kanvolu]

@@stevei4860 actually they know a decent amount of music theory

[@kfury1527]

In the words of Nik during his suffering covering Through the Fire and Flames. *WE PLAY BREAKDOWNS CAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME!*

[@BiRDiEHere]

*Polymeter* Me: cough cough, Meshuggah, cough cough

[@jessejohnson9321]

Why did I hear “cough cough Meshuggah cough cough” as a breakdown

[@havvot948]

#1) dissonance #2) dissonance #3) wammy dissonance

[@BaenaCarcosa]

All the flavors of dissonance are present

[@holywaffles4950]

You and Nik are an amazing duo

[@gasket1996]

Ship it?

[@holywaffles4950]

@@gasket1996 ship it

[@killiammusicandgaming]

69 likes

[@gasket1996]

70

[@areyoujelton]

I had a breakdown today. It wasn’t good.

[@cryptic3420]

A br00tal breakdown

[@courtnrysalamone7677]

Try some dissonance man

[@JCaleb]

dang I'm early, better tell a joke... Asking Alexandria

[@aizatsyafiee4090]

Attack attack

[@jovianjanitra5494]

Miss may i

[@colincolin7237]

Deserves top comment

[@MichaelKee]

Oh my god.....

[@Blegh_bree]

Even better joke. Bring me the horizon

[@georgevillegas8685]

it’s like his jaw doesn’t move when he talks

[@yuno3364]

might be bells palsy. or he has a dip in his lip

[@joanbighorn9778]

“Early days of metalcore in the 2010’s.” Hol up.

[@mysticmagicsmurfdarklord6844]

Uhm, yeah, metalcore started in the 90s Silly fellow, he is

[@nolter3078]

Wait i thougth this was a joke, but it end up being useful lol

[@TheSVERguy]

Bro don’t be scared of releasing tutorials. You make sick music and being open about not know everything under the sun about music theory is refreshing. It inspires me to want to learn more about theory because I know absolutely dick about it.

[@brianbaugusmusic]

This is a dope vid. I think if I had to add anything, It would be the production side of it. Adding bass drops, impact snares, reverse snares, samples/sound effects, etc can really turn a boring breakdown into something heavy also.

[@jessejohnson9321]

Samples from pop culture is something that needs to come back lol

[@beaconx_sxe3193]

@@jessejohnson9321 i love how new west coast beatdown has started using hip hop samples

[@jamesadamgleason9471]

Except everyone does that now. It's like how much can I make weird edm sounds with my guitar

[@ufoufo2788]

Music theory enthusiast time! #1 - That interval is the minor second, and it's technically wrong to call it a chord since it's only two notes! The "panic chord", or simply dissonant intervals are the tritone, major seventh, major ninth, and minor second; and stacking them together makes for some beautiful ugliness! I personally think the minor second gets too much love, we should panic on some other intervals too sometimes :p #4 - the best metric modulation imo is going from quarter note time-keeping to dotted eighth note time-keeping, sounds absolutely fucked >:) #7 - this is technically also a metric modulation! #9 - polymeters are awesome, you nailed the explanation i think (#11) - dynamics are key. changing any aspect drastically will always turn heads. Try messing with switching pickups or guitar tones, volume, modulation (pedals), etc. The sure fire way to make any breakdown heavy is to make the part before it not-heavy. Dynamics are key

[@drpibisback7680]

The minor 9th I believe is what powers The Dillinger Escape Plan's 43% Burnt - it's the _bwahwahwahwahwah_ in the _bwahwahwahwahwah..._ *CHUG CHUG* part.

[@ShadowFirePictures]

Andrew be like yeah idk how to explain polyrhythms, then gives a perfect explanation of polyrhythms

[@jmd4free]

If you're writing breakdowns the black tongue shirt is a must

[@GunDrummer]

dude all you gotta do is BANG BANG BANG BOING BOING BOING BLEGHHH PAAAAHHHHHHH ......BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM

[@calebschoepske5064]

i had no idea you didnt know music theory. ive been trying to write my own music, without any lessons other than youtube so that honestly kind of gives me alot more hope

[@aether_antares7761]

Andrew baena: i don’t know much about music theory Me, a total guitar bleb: THERE IS HOPE!!!! THERE IS HOPE!!!! Thank you for this awesome video! Make more of these video’s they are so help full

[@AgainstTheeWickedlyMusic]

Great video as always, and love seeing the collabs between you two! This was actually pretty helpful, especially to those of us who wanna djent but don't wanna read stuff for hours to figure out how music works 😆

[@JimWitschey]

I am a music theory nerd and I appreciate you putting your ideas and vocabulary for them out there. I love hearing how people talk about things when they were trained differently from me.

[@rob8311]

"early days of metalcore, 2010" 🤔

[@bencepatyi4032]

Yeah I was surprised when he said that

[@CDCrest]

I think he was referring to the early days of the "modern" iterations of metalcore

[@carlost1837]

More like early 2000’s

[@namrekcanad]

Yeah i was thinking early 2000s more along the lines of bands like unearth and such rather than of mice and men

[@namrekcanad]

Yeah youngins..

[@AidenMalacariaMusic]

Damn you guys are good at tutorials! Really great explanations and breakdowns!

[@bostonconnorsmullet]

The most fitting shirt for this video.

[@somebodynobodymusic]

This is a great video man! I'd love to see more. I just started playing a 7 string and using these techniques in drop G is sick!

[@Mike-ok6vy]

Ive only learned from tabs myself and this video really helped me understand so much more about making my own heavy riffs !\m/ thanks man

[@kadensabourin2571]

dude nik should use this drum pack for his own music it sounds so much better than the one he has now. his tone sounds sooo good over that

[@theoriginalemim]

"since the early days of metalcore, like 2010" Ha.

[@gnarlyrayjepsen5085]

children bruh, even my introduction to the genre in 2003 was late

[@ericchambers6863]

For real. Panic chords are basically tied to early, early bands like botch, Norma Jean, converge, coelesce, etc

[@gnarlyrayjepsen5085]

@@ericchambers6863 fuck you're my bro for those knowledge drops, hydra head really moved the genre forward and I still go back to those records. norma jean took what they were doing and made it marketable

[@OTTOAUDIO]

Eric Chambers bravo, came here to say this. Minor 2nd chords (panic chords/horror chords etc) go back to Norma Jean ‘bless the martyr’ who heavily mainlined it in the scene 2002-2005, they played like 300 shows a year and every band anywhere began over using it. Then it became cliche and cheese but all the post hardcore bands kept using it and no one noticed it was overdone or stopped doing it. Kids kept coming into the scene fresh blood and had no awareness of this history and here we are today in 2020 still way way overused. Before Norma Jean it was Coalesce Botch Converge then before that Kurt from Converge said he borrowed from Meshuggah who probably was inspired by King Crimson.

[@cisrael468]

Yo Andrew has gotten so much better at speaking on camera over the years. Loving the chanel and Carcosa!

[@jackasmodeus4513]

I wasn't confused of your explanation of the polymeter technique, we both don't know music theory much lol thanks for this!

[@jfd3010]

Hi Andrew, great video, greetings from Colombia

[@jussi-pekkalaakko8768]

Very informative and clean package. Thanks Andrew and Nick!

[@RichChanLikesTacos]

🤙🤙🖤🖤

[@Wind-nj5xz]

4:08 That's actually syncopation

[@josemanuelgomez2224]

Also guitar + drums sounds like a polyrythm

[@tylercrews9025]

yeah no

[@thetylersherman]

"Syncopation" is what you're looking for for the offbeat drums. The offbeat irregularity makes you want to move your head.

[@christianmunch7160]

Very awesome video man!

[@bikingintokyo]

It seems like the "offbeat drum one" is more like "accenting specific parts"

[@SuperMultimitch]

i think the technical term is a hemiola, which is a different feel than the tempo. could be wrong, but that’s how i understand it

[@IslamFalmi]

Yeah I'm not really a music theory genius but I don't think that really counts as metric modulation

[@guylumalfaro3176]

if the snare matched every 3rd hit of the cymbal then it would've had a different feel. metric modulation can be very subtle, but most of the time in metal (unless you're OAA) it's a pretty straightforward jarring change in feel. he had the definition right, but the example was kind of meh.

[@ThorsShadow]

About dissonance: Dissonance isn't defined as a minor second (the interval of 1 half-step). Dissonance is very simply just anything, that doesn't sound melodic or harmonic. Best example is the tritone or diminished 5th/augmented 4th. Play a power chord but lower the second note by 1 half-step, i.e playing the open E string and 1st fret of the A string or 7th fret on the D string, 8th fret on the g string and so on. The tritone sounds so dissonant, that it was forbidden to be used in church music in medieval times. It was called "diabolus in musica" (Latin, translated as "the devil in music" I guess).

[@drpibisback7680]

Technically dissonance is a kind of Harmony - it's the opposite of consonance, which is when notes sound nice together.

[@Wazules]

This was awesome, not a lot of tutorials cover breakdowns, cause they are seen as easy and basic, but this is a great way to make them... not easy and basic!

[@invujerry]

I love that you linked Ben’s video. Between him and Adam Neely they are able to explain complex ideas somewhat simply.

[@Ginger2Rocker]

alternating guitar panning is my absolute favorite. more bands need to do it. my favorite example of this is in TAIM - “Laceration Penetration”

[@JMetalGuitarist]

I LOVE this video. I already knew about the dissonant half step chords and the whammy pedals but I didn’t know about the downward pitch shift thing. Very cool 😎

[@GunDrummer]

LOLOLOL AT 10:40

[@rubevanderwielen9323]

Thanks a lot for this one! a lot that i already knew, some other things that i learned, but i gotta say that what i already knew does work (speaking out of experience) and the new things i learned i'm surprised they do actually work!

[@TamSixx666]

Honestly I love these kinds of videos. Thank you so much for this!

[@Duhaktweva]

Thanks for the info . Now to implement them into my practice

[@joelmacy9558]

Amazing video man it was super helpful please do more of these types of videos 🤘❤️

[@feralnomad392]

Great video man, i've used some of these techniques but I definitely learned some more. Awesome work, you've earned a sub

[@あなたがすごいだよ]

Also, make use of augmented 4ths/diminished 5ths (tritones) for dissonance as well!

[@PartyChicken407]

Thanks for doing this video man. More tutorials would be great but at the minimum, this was excellent. Cheers man.

[@danielczegle1033]

808 Bass/sub drops make a breakdown heavy af too.

[@dylandoge1627]

“Early metalcore” “2010”

[@SimonMedia666]

I think that your explanations are very good :) also breakdowns sounds really good and heavy :)

[@Letorito99]

This was great dude!! Helped a lot

[@MatthewAlenius]

THIS IS NOT BAKING WITH BAENA

[@negativespace8358]

WE WANT BAEKING WITH BAENA

[@LaurierLachance]

This is quality content bro 🔥

[@patfix]

That Polymeter was actually explained really well. I didn't find it that complicated.

[@damachin9180]

Given that I don't know theory myself, everything was explained quite thoroughly. Great video as always!

[@peeweesermon2231]

This is so sick dude thank you!

[@blankspace0000]

Carcosa has fucking sick breakdowns. Paying mad attention to this vid.

[@apoplexiamusic]

so polymeters is basically Meshuggah :D thanks for the awesome tips, always insightful and inspiring!

[@ronburgundy2660]

Into the moat used a lot of poly meters. Very simple to follow once you notice how long one riff is. Specifically the intro song to their first album. Into the Moat - Century II.

[@cameronblake4372]

I personally don’t like panic chords (they were overused in the 2010s) but you show a lot of cool and fun techniques to try out in writing. Breakdowns can get boring

[@ricksanchezito8972]

Dudeeeeeeeee. I have been wondering how guitarist get those "panic chords". I thought it was some effect, which it kinda is with the whammy, but I thought it was a lot more complicated. Thank you!

[@thaurr8619]

That meshuggah riff was WOOOOOOOOW

[@guichaky3918]

The polymeter breakdown was so sick

[@dase_band]

What plugins can I use to to obtain pitch shifting up sounds? (Preferably for dissonant chords) Helppp lol

[@osc4r_14th]

Love you, Baena

[@ImRe4n1m4t3d]

Chuglord Supreme with Extra Sauce! HOW YOU CAN SLAM, CHOP, CHUG, and GLUG YOUR WAY TO GLORY

[@Misanthropic-King]

This video was dope thanks dude

[@dyamicorriveau9677]

Ive been watching you and nik for a minute and just realized you were the guitarist for galactic pegasus. Ayyy

[@ChLyricsyt]

6:36 this is my favorite type

[@RunescapeGod]

Right, so polymeters are basically the same as 4 tick xarpus. Got it

[@mattmendoza2667]

got my subs men your so humble. tnx for the knowledge men kudos

[@funeral7596]

Awesome vid man

[@blakehaas3205]

Nik and yourself have helped me become a way better metal guitarist. You guys are true djentleman. 👍

[@madfinnishgamer38]

You were sort of on the right track with metric modulation, but there's more to it than just playing "slower". In fact, metric modulation can also go faster. The theory behind the concept is that a note that isn't the current quarter-note beat becomes the *new* quarter-note beat. Simple example: an instrument plays a 4:3 polyrhythm, where the dotted 8th note (the "4" in 4:3) in a sense "foreshadows" the metric modulation. The other instruments can then start playing a new melody/beat to the rhythm of the dotted 8th note, and thus, the dotted 8th has become the new quarter-note, meaning that the tempo has changed accordingly as well. Metric modulation always involves a tempo change - otherwise, it's merely a polyrhythm.

[@RsAndTechno]

5:47 we need more of this

[@alexshoru]

Nice video! Love it!

[@xpurexheartx]

Early metalcore days of 2010. Earth Crisis and Converge are rolling right now

[@reecewilshire7045]

1. Norma Jean does the best panic chords 2. Disrespect your surroundings is the OG triplet breakdown Great vid!

[@AustinBrake98]

Those aren't triplets. The breakdown is done with a technique called gallops which is an eight following two 16th notes. A triplet is 16th notes to each of the 4 beats.

[@mojolito]

@@AustinBrake98 Your explanation is correct but the song doesn't even use gallops. There are just two strokes per chug

[@travis8106]

Thank you king 👑

[@nexxys1]

Hey Andrew! Loved the tutorial. Could you show how to layer two different time signatures in reaper as I’m trying to figure out how to polyrithm in between parts of a song for a long time?

[@ImRe4n1m4t3d]

lol loved that attack attack crabcore gif lolol

[@tfwnoyandere]

8:31 hippity hoppity your breakdown is now my property

[@internaldiscordance4238]

what pitch shifting vst are you using?

[@BaenaCarcosa]

I use an actual Whammy DT pedal

[@internaldiscordance4238]

@@BaenaCarcosa ah nice, too bad its so expensive :l

[@AaronMorgan666]

@@internaldiscordance4238 sweetwater.com All i got was the same pitch shifter and 3 patch cables. Only about $275 and I'm only paying about $20 a month no interest on most items. I want to buy some big stuff with it but I have to wait.

[@puredragonn]

@@internaldiscordance4238 You can use Melodyne, it sounds like a real Whammy for only half the price.

[@MediaBoy13]

You can use ReaPitch if you use Reaper

[@MegaDylan180]

Did someone say "Crucify me" 😉

[@CloudShys]

NAIL ME TO A WOODEN CROSS THERES NOTHIN ABOVE THERES NOTHIN BELOW

[@MegaDylan180]

@@CloudShys Heaven and Hell lives in all of us And I've been cast astray

[@kubaj8397]

@@MegaDylan180 I AM THE OCEAN I AM THE SEA THERE IS A WORLD INSIDE OF ME

[@cthallborgtheineffable5583]

Nik goin' strong showing off those Vildhjarta vibes.

[@user-O_06660_O]

Hey, Andrew! BEAUTIFUL SHIRT.

[@johanndjents5890]

That was actually helpful. Thanks :) Can you maybe do a tutorial about the pitch shift stuff? Can you recommend any plug-ins that can do that?

[@sampicton22]

Great job!

[@nottristan6209]

What string gauges do you use

[@Nag0l64]

Dont be so nervous bro be confident your good bro...

[@metalstorck1625]

"Proffesional breakdown enthusiast" I can tell by the shirt

[@jakelee8789]

Very well explained to those who doesn't know theory. Just another great example that theory isn't necessary to play awesome! Don't get me wrong I love theory but it's just a tool that the skilled uses, And you my friend are skilled!

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

1:43 Panic Chords 2:32 Dissonance 3:35 Whammy/Pitch 4:42 Off Beat Chugs 6:36 Panning Left & Right 7:35 Half Time Drums 8:35 Leads 11:10 Polymeters 11:50 Triplets

[@AspireAndInspire]

Little addition to #2: Dissonance isn't strictly a difference of 1 semi-tone. "Dissonance" is a general term for and interval or chord with a lot of tension , so it's essentially just an unpleasant noise. 1 semi-tone is an interval which itself is very dissonant. The Tritone (6 semi-tones) is another extremely dissonant interval. Also, if most of your song follows a specific key, you can achieve a lot of simple dissonance by intentionally playing notes outside of that key.

[@Bandguy333415]

We called panic chord clash chords back in my day lol.

[@samomac]

I know nothing about guitars or music theory but I was hoping to see #5 in there and explained. Always sounds tough as fuck when bands do this in breakdowns.