Sleight of Hand

mookie_in_eugene

Sleight of Hand has always been a very interesting song for me to listen to. I have never been able to figure out one thing and that is what is the time signature(s) for the song, or is the whole song confusing due to the syncapation?

harrisonmerwin

mookie_in_eugene wrote:

Sleight of Hand has always been a very interesting song for me to listen to. I have never been able to figure out one thing and that is what is the time signature(s) for the song, or is the whole song confusing due to the syncapation?

its a tricky song with the odd drums and odd guitar pattern, you cant really play it alone cause you'll get lost in the picking, its a GREAT song though.

Pearl Jam and toast

harrisonmerwin wrote:

its a tricky song with the odd drums and odd guitar pattern, you cant really play it alone cause you'll get lost in the picking, its a GREAT song though.

It took awhile but I've got it down by myself... Although to be honest I'm probably skipping some of those 5th measures by accident.

Loveeeeeeeeee love love playing and listening to that song


As for the time sig. I'm not really sure what it is... The verse might be something like 5/4.. but that fifth mesaure isn't always there... like 9/4 or 13/4 ?

Ike Winston

To me, it seems like the fundamental time signature of the verses is 5/8...or 25/8 if you take the five measures all as one. Chorus goes to straight 4/4 as I recall. Try counting by fives during the verses and see if that makes sense, as for all I know I could be completely wrong!

mookie_in_eugene

Ike Winston wrote:

To me, it seems like the fundamental time signature of the verses is 5/8...or 25/8 if you take the five measures all as one. Chorus goes to straight 4/4 as I recall. Try counting by fives during the verses and see if that makes sense, as for all I know I could be completely wrong!

That's the best that I was able to come up with too. For a mainstream band who plays more than just 4/4 is rare these days. Then this song throws something that is neither 4/4 or 6/8, but 5/8 (if we're correct). Wow!!! How refreshing and challenging! It's just another reason to love PJ.

BTW, the time sig change is very affective in Army Reserve. Just thought that I would throw that in here since we're on the time sig subject.

harrisonmerwin

sleight of hand has proven to be one of the more interesting songs in PJ history. The recording itself is probably one of the best recorded songs in recent history, the "binaurality" (excuse me for making up a word) is magnificent, it sounds best on headphones, not in a car, PC or anything, you need the concentration of sounds split between two speakers with no outside distraction, aka, headphones. And the composition comes across extremely odd to me. Its clearly in odd timing, but what catches me is that its one of VERY few PJ songs which is recorded a 1/2 step down (Even Flow is another, but they play standard live, and i cant think of the other few) What is odd though is that you can hear the struggle eddie has when singing flat, he sounds sharp in a few spots, and i really don't knwo why they chose this method for recording, since every other song on binaural is in regular tuning (key wise anyways, nothing odd, a few guitars are open tuned but thats a different game) My theory on sleight of hand just to add to the effect, is that it was slowed down on tape to really draw out the echoes, reverberation, delay, etc of binaural recording, and by slowing it down to an even step, then they could add any additional parts at a later time. But then...why wouldn't they record all the guitars sharp. Is it effect? creativity? or them just doing it because? who knows, any other thought on sleight of hand? its such an magnificent peice. good job Jeff

mookie_in_eugene

harrisonmerwin wrote:

The recording itself is probably one of the best recorded songs in recent history, the "binaurality" (excuse me for making up a word) is magnificent

Binaurality.....Hmmmm...yes, I concure. What's Webster's phone number? If google can be a word, then why not binaurality.

I've been so spaced out on the song timing that the 1/2 step down didn't even occur to me. I'll make sure to try to listen for it the next time I hear Sleight of Hand.

Pearl Jam and toast

Yeah i never got why people hated the production on Binaural.. i think it's brilliant.

harrisonmerwin

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Yeah i never got why people hated the production on Binaural.. i think it's brilliant.

binaural lacks on the car stereo system, i think thats the kicker.

mca47

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Yeah i never got why people hated the production on Binaural.. i think it's brilliant.

I LOOOOVE Binaural and how it was recorded.

It def. needs to be listened to w/ headphones. Awesome!!

keeponrockin

I remember listening to it in class on my iPod one time and being amazed at the way it was recorded.

mookie_in_eugene

Also the album art for Bin fits perfectly to the album, especially the way Sleight of Hand sounds. Plus we get a little bit of an astronomy lesson. As I've said before, PJ is always trying to show/teach us new things.

Thumbing My Way

I'm gunna listen to it tonight w/ headphones I think

Pearl Jam and toast

mookie_in_eugene wrote:

Also the album art for Bin fits perfectly to the album, especially the way Sleight of Hand sounds. Plus we get a little bit of an astronomy lesson. As I've said before, PJ is always trying to show/teach us new things.

Yeah being one person who's always been fascinated by space I loveeeeeeeeeee the artwork in it.

^^ I can imagine Binaural recording could take from the car listening enivro but i still think it's ingenious.



By the way, anyone know which songs were done in Binaural exactly?

I know the whole album was not..

harrisonmerwin

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

By the way, anyone know which songs were done in Binaural exactly?

I know the whole album was not..

Its not been confirmed which songs were recorded binaurally and which were not. Some of them have just peices done this way, like only one instrument, etc. Heres a list of the few that really feature the recording technique:

- Of the Girl
- Sleight of Hand
- Nothing as it Seems
- Parting Ways

these three feature the most of the technique where almost every instrument is dramatically reverberated by the binaural technique, very very cool listening. I can almost garuntee every song has an instrument or two that are mic'd liek this, and i think a HUGE part of eddie's vocal sound on this album is the use of simultaneously using two mic's during recording, then mixing them together post recording.

keeponrockin

What does recording binaurally mean?

harrisonmerwin

keeponrockin wrote:

What does recording binaurally mean?

go here! i made its own thread if you somehow missed it

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?p=3597324#post3597324