Hemiola in Electronic Music

A Hemiola is a rhythmic arrangement where one voice imposes a meter (time signature) over a voice playing in a different meter by accenting specific notes. There are many popular adaptations and arrangements of Hemiola that vary in complexity. They are evident in most electronic, dance, and club mixes and are often programmed to happen automatically when a note is pressed using delay lines and synced modulation rates. The traditional Hemiola is 2 over 3. Here is what it sounds like… 2 over 3

But this Hemiola is just the tip of the iceberg….

Complex Hemiola

Below, I will walk you through a more modern type of Hemiola you may have heard the last time you were in the club. It takes some math and brain-busting to explain, but once you sense the direction, you will feel the groove, and it will make perfect sense. It is created by imposing eight dotted 8th notes over a basic, non-syncopated beat in 4/4. Here is the neat part - you can hear three different meters in this groove because of how the math works. Every six quarter notes, the dotted 8th notes pattern will sync up with the beat, creating ANOTHER imposed meter. Let's break it down... A bar of 6/4 has a total of twenty-four 16th notes in it.

Eight dotted 8th notes are also twenty-four 16th notes in total.

So... here is how they line up.

The beauty of Hemiola is that, unlike in Mixed and Polymeter, you're not changing the time signature - so there is no need to adapt the meter in Lumit when they occur. You're accenting specific notes in a pattern synced to a different pulse. All that matters is feeling that "master" quarter note and knowing when the parts will synchronize (cadence together).

Subdividing and Context

This is perhaps the most remarkable thing about using Hemiola. Once the impositions are sequenced in their skeletal form, you can subdivide or augment them in many ways. And, as long as the original accents are there, IT WILL STILL WORK. Check out my example with some subdivisions and accompaniment edited in…

A Final Note

I hope this clarifies and de-mystifies some of the neat things you've admired in EDM and other electronic music genres. I will leave you with one of my favorite types of Hemiola. It is a more experimental type found in a lot of metal and electronica - ⅞ over 4/4, synchronizing every 7 quarter notes. See if you can figure out how to sequence it!