I'm having trouble applying the concept of displacement into a musical context without adding what i feel to be excessive tension. Can you tell me any PT parts showing how to apply Displacement?
Gavin Says:
Rhythmic Illusions (displacements and modulations) are really study material - they're just ways of manipulating rhythm. I never really intended for any of those rhythms to be used in a very literal way like "try playing this example in the middle of YMCA and see what happens".
Studying those concepts helped me in many ways. First it improved my inner sense of time and understanding of placement - secondly it opened up my rhythmic brain to a different way of thinking.
I use modulations more than displacements in PT - but I quite often use displacements for 'fill' ideas. Sometimes I displace rhythms in a compositional way when I'm looking for a different groove for a song - the loop in "Sentimental" was made in that way. There's already a modulation illusion going on with the piano rhythm at the start.
If you use displacement for more than a few seconds it becomes another rhythm - as is the case with "Sentimental".
If you use it as an effect - as in the case 21 seconds into "Futile" - it just has a dramatic unsettling feeling.
In the chapter "History" on the Rhythmic Visions DVD you can see how I use the dramatic unsettling technique for a couple of seconds during fills.