Bass Teacher REACTS | POLYPHIA "Ego Death" feat. Steve Vai | Clay Gober HYBRID Picking On BASS?

[@LowEndUniversity]

The most challenging thing about Polyphia is simply describing what they do. Yeah - it's guitar, bass, drums...but hardly anything about it is traditional - maybe the chord progression, or some of the techniques used - but the presentation is so fresh. How would y'all describe it?

[@michaellorenz7177]

This may seem harsh, but to me, it's kinda like video game music. The few times they pop up on my Pandora stations, it's never been unpleasant, but nothing has really stuck as memorable, either. They do have their sound, it's no mistaking them for anybody else that I've heard. 🤷‍♂️ not bad, but not for me. I can appreciate the talent, and Tim's unique approach to his instrument.

[@DruNature]

they are the coolest musicians of all time, I think they blend the popularity of celebrity culture like Kpop and metal culture and Jazz/classical virtuosic elitism into this casual approach that everyone can get into. it's super technical but like you said soulful at the same time and despite having some catchy parts is impossible to play. It creates this fanbase where everyone is on level ground you can either just love the music or be a super skilled player and we are all welcome. Truly one of the greatest bands of all time. I would argue that Tosin really is the king of the genre though, he's the real best at this style and he kinda created the whole instrumental prog scene that Scale the summit and Polyphia play in now! Shout out to Intervals! Love this channel, keep up the great work, I love your playing on V, one of my very favorite albums of all time

[@danielboyd7810]

They use lots of modern pop and Hip Hop chord progressions so it sounds really catchy, familiar and it gets stuck in your head even though it's highly technical. They also in there latest albums use a lot percussive guitar techniques and of course amazing drumming. If I had to describe at as a genre I would say it's a prog metal hip hop fusion

[@mammothaudioengineering]

I wouldn't even start with the "instrumental" aspect of it. I'd describe it as "a fusion of modern hip hop, trap, pop and RnB, but also, there's lots of guitars. It also happens to usually not have vocals, although they occasionally bring in a singer for some songs" I think it's just really well written beats and progressions that borrows a lot more from pop and hip hop than it actually does from other contemporary guitar music. I think if you left out a lot of the super flashy guitar playing, their songs would still be recognizable as something written by them and not by their peers (be it Animals as Leaders, Plini, Intervals, Arch Echo, Berried Alive or whoever else is doing instrumental guitar music). Their guitar sounds are often so heavily processed, it might as well be synth. Which is cool, in my opinion. It sounds fresh and it kinda shifts the focus back onto the song instead of just being a shredathon.

[@comeridewithmeAE]

I'm Brand new to them, and they are definitely some sort of technical guitar pop, with a bit of blues, metal, and electronic thrown in. Don't usually go for instrumental music, generally too repetitive for me to get into, but they have a lot of interesting techniques and sounds worked into each portion of the song that they stay interesting.

[@EtoDemerzelSpaceBurial]

Clays tone on “ABC” is really cool, too and that’s another really unique song

[@srsbsns7673]

Most of the album they roll all the lows off the bass tone so there's just the attack on the strings, and then the entire bottom end is Roland 808s. It's an interesting sound, but it's not all on Clay's bass or his tone, unfortunately.

[@Safaridor]

Plus, it’s one of the few songs that clay has uploaded the bassline on his KZbin channel for.

[@technickn9n3]

he does get a 808 tone in some songs, but ya@@srsbsns7673

[@pippin45]

The thing I absolutely love about this song is how narrative it is. It opens with the main theme, sort of quietly almost from another room. Then you get a section of that frantic, kind of spastic development and exploration, before it comes back to the main theme again, but this time stronger and more confident. After that you get a second section of exploration and variation as it journeys even further from where it originally started. Then finally it quiets back down and you hear the main theme, but it has this new development to it as if you're hearing the "real" theme for the first time. It gets big, flexes for a while and ends on this massive epic moment, before we finally hear that main theme being played on a completely different instrument, as if someone else is telling the story of what happened. It's such a cool, cinematic composition and it's so uniquely Polyphia.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Pretty fantastic way to depict this track - well written, Philip!

[@jimschips940]

LISTEN TO THE AUDACITY!! It’s on the same album, and it has some absolutely fantastic bass. It’s my personal favorite Polyphia song for both clays.

[@chimkim]

Polyphia and Anomalie is not a collab I expected but one I needed all the same, they crushed it on that song

[@egress99]

You nailed it around 7:36 regarding Clay’s role…Scott and Tim are bringing a lot of bright, acidic, lemon-like quality to the structural tone while Clay is bringing that deep, oily umami. And in the middle you have Clay A. sort of tying both sides of that epicurean equation in….now I’m hungry.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Dude I love describing tones with food lingo. You’re speaking my language 😅 - always used to salivate when Petrucci talked about guitar tone as a depiction of chocolate cake.

[@slickydee5507]

Clay's hybrid picking on bass is so badass, just perfect. It's like slap bass to my ear but the thumbed notes are picked.

[@koryhelm8515]

You should check out The Omnific - Antecedent. It's 2 bass players and a drummer. That track features Clay Gober from Polyphia as well!

[@technickn9n3]

haha I bet he would struggle to pick a song to do, I love that band lol those 3 are INSANEEEEE

[@twelvestepstonothing]

Just saw them both play together last night in Sydney.. Amazing!!!

[@RoddAlex]

thanks for sharing this!! I was looking for more instrumental bands to add on my list.

[@auronsoverdrive4514]

It doesn’t matter how many times I listen to this track, it fills me with emotion. Such a euphoric sound and such clever interplay between the guitars, bass and drums. The snare is so punchy, Clays pops on the bass too filling in just at the right time and the virtuosos solos are just amazing without sounding ridiculous. Just fantastic all round.

[@outlaw454070907]

Clay's playing on Crush has always been my favorite. Really showcases that hybrid picking thing you mentioned.

[@EtoDemerzelSpaceBurial]

That song is what got me into them. Loved that era of the band but I dig what they’re doing now too

[@alexburchell1891]

Crush is still my favourite Polyphia track. No words, and somehow more catchy than most stuff I've heard on pop radio

[@BakUtUmHam]

@@alexburchell1891 FINALLY some people who enjoy Crush. It's my favorite song from them too and the intro bass riff was what initially got me into the song. So melodic and... just sweet.

[@donbishop6994]

Vai definitely took a back seat and let these guys shine like a diamond. Amazingly done. Steve is an awesome dude and easily could have stole the show, him stepping back was great to see.

[@vector_____]

One of the things I love about the ending with the trumpet is that if you listen to the album (where this is the last track) that would lead right into the first track 'Genesis' that features Brasstacks. It reminds me of the loop of "the hero's journey".

[@ARSZLB]

i am in fucking LOVE with the bass tone on this, i've never heard a bass cut through the mix so cleanly while sounding absolutely RAW at the same time 🤘🏻

[@Vincent_Roy]

I just recently got into Polyphia. I would say that GOAT on New Levels New Devils would be one to check out. I got Charles Berthoud's version of Playing God in my head since 2 weeks, I watched this videos dozens of times. When this happens it means that I must learn the song. I ordered some strings to tune one of my basses accordingly. See you in a few years if I survive.

[@kylekeeler6631]

I’ve seen them more than any other band I’ve ever seen live. My room mate in college went to high school with Clay Gober so I found out about them like RIGHT after they put out the Inspire EP. I can understand where people could be upset, but they are completely them now and no one can do what they do

[@Real28]

Reverie is my fave from them because of how funky and bass driven it is. Not many reacts on it.

[@frailty7280]

its crazy just HOW underrated Clay is despite how massive polyphia is a as a whole. how is it that he has a 15 bar solo on Goat and this is the first video about Clay Gober ive ever seen

[@RebeccaWorters]

The song is great but your reaction is the most insightful reaction to anything Ive ever seen. You earned my sub.

[@russellward4624]

I don't think Clay has always used Ibanez. He used to play an Ernie Ball Bongo. Think he became an Ibanez endorsed artist on New Devils.

[@kaydenember3882]

Kiesel too

[@Moonwatch19]

Clay is playing a special edition SR5005. Beautiful bass.

[@bsievwiwvwjw7053]

I'm not normally a fan of straight up calling people who criticise things "haters", but I genuinely don't get how so many people say Polyphia are "boring" or "don't have feel", I can't think of anything else to call them.

[@Seakow]

What I find really interesting is there's an interview with Tim and he said that the Vai solo isn't actually the solo he recorded. They chopped it up a bunch and they initially thought they offended Vai.

[@LowEndUniversity]

I actually saw that headline circulating just a few weeks ago, and knew that going into this (kind of why I chose this song, was intrigued!), but didn't mention as I had no idea what to expect. It still sounds like Steve, but I'm curious to hear the unedited version (if it exists). Whatever they did, it still had a lot of Steve's flair to it, I thought!

[@MattPula]

my favorite thing about Clay's basslines is his sense of space. He knows when to rest and add his accents EXTREMELY well. Edit: ha, right after I posted this comment I got to 6:10 in the video where you say the exact same thing basically

[@DaveyLuvGravy]

If you haven't heard it, I would LOVE to see you react to G.O.A.T. by Polyphia. It has a solo performance for each of them in a sequence, and is a well composed and arranged as ego death, I think. It uses amazing space and gap and half-beat movements that work so well together. Playing God is an exceptional song too. Right now Polyphia is top of my list for most interesting musicians. I have been watching reacts and examines by everybody and they universally love the sound and have seen so many different amazing observations of the video itself, like the inside a room alone making music at the start through the evolution of making the song and releasing it to the world. Or how the song moves from a day cycle of morning to evening as the song evolves to include a more metal sound and adds more instruments. About how the integration of Steve's unique sound into Polyphia's music, without changing their or his unique voice, is a masterclass in arrangement and mixing. Every specialty, from producers to acoustic musicians are finding greatness in their songs and videos. I would suggest that we are seeing the birth and evolution of a whole new genre of music here. Anyways, who am I to make such grand statements? I like them and that's enough. for each of them

[@Hebes24]

I think a great video from their latest album to look at would be their full band playthrough of "Neurotica". There's some good focus shots of Clay in there and the bass is very clear in the mix in that video! kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y17dm3tqjbONe68

[@sampseth5887]

Got into polyphia a few months ago. And in all honesty I obviously love where they're going with their newer stuff but when I got into their Renaissance album it's quickly become my favorite by them with their songs like Culture Shock and Crush, especially in terms of Clay's playing on those in particular.

[@Janokins]

I only got into Polyphia maybe 1 or 2 years ago, and the way they play is nutty. I think I saw one video where they had the song written out, all the notes they wanted to play, but they had to work out how to actually play it physically with their hands because it was certainly not intuitive.

[@barrettflorida]

Best rhythm section in the biz. Drums and bass can't be overlooked

[@joshuabarber5104]

A band I’d really recommend that’s in a very similar bracket structure wise is “the omnific”, they are a three piece consisting of two bassists and a drummer, “scurryfunge” is one of their biggest songs and really shows off their capabilities whereas “antecedent” features clay of polyphia and is frantic but still remaining very melodic

[@sanyo_neezy]

This song is just so heavily underrated

[@russellward4624]

If you want to check out more Clay I'd recommend Omnific "antecedent" that features Clay.

[@geoff3610]

I love the little walk down Scottie does at 4:57

[@marksarabia7694]

this man needs to see O.D.

[@marksarabia7694]

and G.0.A.T.

[@marksarabia7694]

also Crush

[@ARSZLB]

this is the only song that still blows my mind all over again every single time I hear it. if Polyphia never gets inducted into the R&RHOF, there is something very seriously wrong with our world. these guys are simply legendary, in the truest and most literal sense of the word. i'm so glad i happened to stumble upon this band a few months ago, their music is just absolutely undeniably good while still retaining a good degree of catchiness. i often find myself throughout a day whistling or humming the guitar lines from this song, and that's the icing on this flawlessly baked cake of musical goodness. 1000/10

[@f.b.jeffers0n]

I mentioned Remco before, but ~4:15 is = to my favourite part of his style. He has a unique finger style. I mean, maybe not, but I've never seen anything like it...

[@NoLimitHonky]

Love the two Clays on drums and bass. However if you want a better example of his technique, look into "G.O.A.T." from "New Levels New Devils" and that gives you some sweeeet-azz tone and even a killer solo near the end. Love Polyphia!

[@thebrownage8599]

your eyes kind of squinted at a particular part... and i was hoping you were going to bring up that, incredibly difficult looking, triple reverse slide thing scotty did at 5:38 of YOUR video... not theirs lol... that 3x reverse slide thingy he did blows my mind every time i see it. (correction... 4x reverse slide)

[@rob0nemusic369]

Finally someone is talking about Clay Gober

[@Monty4G63]

Clay did do a playthrough video for this song.

[@onsesejoo2605]

I am only now seeing this video of yours. Perhaps you should check their live studio performance of "Neurotica" for analysis ?

[@bannedintheuk]

The Omnific - Antecedent (clay sober does a bass solo)

[@Kynowah]

Please listen to nightmare by polyphia clay shine so bright in that song

[@beterborker4808]

You should react to Erlend Caspersen. Either The Evangelist or A Lightless of Mind. One of the best metal bass players out there.

[@OldGoat-cw8he]

Clay is the glue that holds this amazing collection of musicianship together.

[@dimitriid]

Hmm, well Polyphia certainly covers the 'low end' part of this university very well: From a production perspective even though is absolutely *not* to my taste they have a unique sound that merges that physical bass drum, the 808 kick and the bass so it punches through quite heavily. That being said I always find it...Odd that people point out the bass in Polyphia songs. Don't get me wrong I've seen Clay Gober shred like nobody's business and when I am looking at a bass guitar isolated playthrough you can really see that he's very tasteful with his embelishments almost exactly like a drum player with fills except not just rhythmic but also melodic ones too. However again: if you put a gun to my head I can point those out but if I am just listeing to Polyphia on my own there's so much guitar stuff going on and the mix for the low end is so overwhelming I often really block out any details he's throwing in and it's just the *BOOM BOOM* /rest for the entire bar/ *BOOM BOOM* (repeat) the entire song. But I mostly consider a kind of a me issue and the band themselves are really proud of their unique production and mixes and point it out frequently so more power to them.

[@ERACLAB]

On some songs you can hear Clay shred which sounds pretty unique and cuts through the mix pretty cleanly, but I agree that a lot of the time bass gets overshadowed by guitars and considering how it melds with drums it can become hard to distinguish.

[@dimitriid]

@@ERACLAB Yep and to add I think that's legit what they're going for: Both Clays usually work in rhythmic unisound down to the specific fills where the bass does the exact same rhythmic accents as the drum fill. That's why I am trying to be careful to explain is not to *my* taste because I don't think it's a production *issue* but a *feature* the band actively wants and it shows in how they talk about being inspired by modern pop music, hiphop, etc.

[@meatharbor]

Some of this kinda reminds me a bit of Animals as Leaders. In a bit of a different vein, though, you may want to check out Scourge of the Offspring by Cattle Decapitation and, I suppose, probably something like Namamekashiki Ansoku Tamerai no Hohoemi from Dir en Grey. Or maybe Lotus. I think I prefer Namamekashiki, though. The Vestige of Scratches recording, especially.

[@cloud72315]

Oh man! If you’re into this side of instrumental music, check out Jacob Umanskys play through for Lock & Key!

[@DruNature]

OH awesome, though I really REALLY wish you would do one of CLays bass tracks from their previous album New LEvels new Devils, I think his tone was outstanding on that album, try the song so strange!

[@vladimirchesnokov9351]

Wow. I didn't know there were bass teachers

[@beastnighttv]

listen to GOAT by Polyphia lots of Bass in it

[@BeeFizzle]

Thanks!

[@michaelanthony9068]

Great commentary.

[@LowEndUniversity]

Appreciate you Michael!

[@PaulInPorirua]

I have watched a lot of these reaction views, and this definitely the best in terms of analysis. One niggle... perhaps this is my age, or perhaps it's because I'm not American, but 'spastic' is a word I would never use, even in a musical context. But other than that, this was thoughtful, insightful and another excuse to listen to Ego Death...

[@dalweed100]

🎉🎉🎉 it's me or you post your video more often?? Really enjoyable content as usual

[@LowEndUniversity]

Hey! Yes - trying for 2 per week if I can...life's crazy busy, but making these videos is a fun escape and I look forward to them so much. Thank you for all your constant support! I will add Omnific to my list.

[@dalweed100]

@@LowEndUniversity 👍 I think the song "antecedent" , 3 bass player(clay glober in feat), "objet de vertu" most iconic tube, "wax and wane" most slappy song, take a pick ;)

[@captainshiner42]

You should check out the song "(O)rdinary" by Avenged Sevenfold from their new album. It has some sweet bass and is a great arrangement overall. Johnny Christ is such an underrated rock bassist.

[@chrisfong7200]

Can anyone tell me what those black and white square things are in between clays pickups?

[@dellebelphine-moralez3510]

Clay’s playing may or may not be inspired by how Corridos bassists play 😅

[@mrmeach1967]

He said “girthy.” Hehe

[@CrumblexEloi]

Maybe it's time to meet 5 beautiful ladies in high heels and dresses playing classic heavy metal? For starters, I recommend the song Break the Wall from their earlier albums. Boasting over 70 hit singles, they won Best New Metal Band at the Metal Hammer Awards in 2018. The girls play heavy, thrash, power and prog metal, they also have some beautiful ballads - kzbin.info/www/bejne/a4HGYYuBZdGBo7c

[@Huntersanso]

Listen to reverie you get more of a bit of bass solo

[@h5gamer798]

Drown has REALLY good bass

[@colinbarbeau8678]

Best Clay's solo (in the middle of the track): kzbin.info/www/bejne/maCVp5-Jqpd6pdk

[@theenlightenedone5429]

i find it funny that he has a bass in his hands and doesnt even use it.

[@joshuafried1399]

It's not hybrid picking... it's hybrid plucking

[@angan8003]

Check aknoasis-obscura play by linus klausenitzer

[@prototype9904]

I respect the legendary skills of Polyphia, but personally, that style does nothing for me....

[@Slaveternal]

It’s tech elevator music. Don’t be fooled by the math.

[@InsaneMonk89]

I’m not saying this to piss anyone off this is just my humble opinion, I don’t get the new sound 🤷🏽‍♂️ I appreciate and respect this new approach to sound different in a oversaturated genre but idk. I feel like Clay has taken a step back compared to their first couple albums, could’ve gone with another band or song imo. I wanna see dissection of the bass guitar not THREE lead guitars 😩😂

[@ThaBeatConductor]

Did you listen to all of RTYWD?

[@pievancl5457]

I agree.. I’ve noticed that a lot of the cooler bass lines on the newest album seem to be played by Tim on the 8 string as part of the riff, with Clay just mirroring it or accenting it in the background. I mean.. it sounds good but I wonder why.

[@chillsleepvids5083]

Incredibly talented but the most pretentious try hards I've ever seen

[@mikenapolo2490]

🥱techincally difficult, yes...too many guitars...just a bunch of mumbo jumbo IMO...straight instrumental just doesnt do it

[@OldGoat-cw8he]

They rewrote Steve Vai's part and asked him if he could play it this way instead. WHO has the nuggets to tell Steve Vai how to play?

[@beurksman]

I think the bass is tuned to drop A.

[@joshua-ov4ne]

😅 I've never heard so much bs in my life you know nothing you are the epitome of the saying that those who can't do teach

[@LowEndUniversity]

Bless your little heart, Joshua 🤭