Polyphia, Playing God - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction
364,213
Published 2023-06-18
Dipping my toes into the more recent progressive Rock music, I decided to go for Polyphia as another band which you have recommended to me many times. This piece, Playing God, I found delightful in many ways. Not only did I enjoy the multiple guitars, but I also really enjoyed the textures and colorations of sound within the music.
Here’s the link to the original song by Polyphia:
• Polyphia - Playing God (Official Musi...
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Amy Shafer, LRSM, FRSM, RYC, is a classical harpist, pianist, and music teacher, Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Director of Harp Studies for The Harp School, Inc., holds multiple degrees in harp and piano performance and teaching, and is active as a solo and collaborative performer. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she teaches privately, presents masterclasses and coaching sessions, and has performed and taught in Europe and USA.
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Credits: Music written and performed by Polyphia
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All Comments (21)
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I remember watching an interview with Tim Henson, and he said what he would do would basically be take chord progressions from Pop songs and arpeggiate them, and then create melodies and harmony from them as he wants his song’s structure to be simple to digest like pop songs but still melodically interesting and technical proficient.
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From a guitarist standpoint, this song is incredibly difficult to play and involves a lot of extended technique that most guitarists just haven't mastered.
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This woman looks and sounds precisely like I would imagine a Harp-playing classic musician to look and sound like and I love it. <3
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If you look for Polyphia's old stuff, you'll notice they were already beasts, technically awesome, with fast solos, powerful riffs and perfect execution. But they were just another prog band in the business. They could easily compete with Dream Theater, but they made their best decision: go beyond everything and create their own style, their own techniques. Now, they are a reference and I love it (and them).
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Fun fact: The whistler is someone from fiver that Tim Henson hired.
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I can highly recommend you watching the music video, then you get a sense of how much of virtuosos the members of Polyphia are. Also Ego Death is another great song.
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as a drummer, the drums on this track are underrated in terms of technicality
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Fun fact: the section at the end with the crazy arpeggios was originally done on an Omnisphere and Tim himself admits that when he originally wrote that part, he did it under the assumption he'd also be able to play it. Needless to say, it's incredibly difficult to play.
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One aspect that really makes this band what it is, is how the bass plays so well with the drums. The bass is locked into the kick drum and plays whenever it plays. Keeps the whole song grounded instead of it breaking apart.
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The most underrated section of the whole song is Scottie's natural harmonic run at 3:10, when he pulls it off in his playthrough video there's this perfect look of satisfaction on his face
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I've never heard ANYBODY comment on the title of the song itself as it relates to the musical themes of the song. Love it!
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Scott LePage doesn't get the accolades that Tim Henson receives though he is also an incredibly adept guitarist, Tim Henson has a special flair though, they do compliment one another very well
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I am a 64 year old lifelong musician (Trumpet) and I just happened across this video. It's always fun to see how someone else reacts to a performance that I can't wait to share with friends, especially fellow musicians. Polyphia is one of those rabbit holes you are more than happy to enter. The lead guitarist Tim Henson is a true monster on his instrument. I am somewhat stodgy in the type of music I play on my instrument but I am also proud to say my taste in music is very eclectic and having YouTube along with all the various Music Streaming platforms enable us to get lost in the music we hold so dear. I look forward to viewing more of your videos, keep up the good work
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Polyphia takes extremely simple and recognizable “pop” chord progressions (in this case i-bVII-VI-V7 which is typical Andalusian style) and then melodically embelishes upon that. These embellishments are always incredibly intentional, stimulating, and ridiculously hard to play. Love these guys. They inspire me!
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Great analysis as ever Amy. In your own time I would highly recommend listening to Moyun's guzheng cover of this piece. Its a truly spectacular rendition and the guzheng is maybe closer to a harp than guitar 😊
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I never noticed it before, but Tim's playing actually does sound like harp like. Probably the nylon strings on the Ibanez. You're at a disadvantage (?) not being to watch Tim playing this piece. It is a masterful performance.
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Excellent analysis! Thank you so much for taking this request. I have to say the quality of analysis is like no other channel out there right now. Please keep doing what you do!
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Amy, thank you for taking the time to analyze what has become my favorite song of the year! Your ability to delve deeply into a piece of music is unmatched, in my opinion. Love your channel and love Polyphia!
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I have been fiending for more content on this song because I'm a layman who cannot fully wrap my mind around how awesome this song is, but can feel it my bones! It was great hearing your interpretation of this song. You also helped me hear part of the song that I wasn't able to recognize before. Thank you.
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When you watch at 7:25 you start to realize that this girl and Tim are just on another level musically. My poor commoner ears just thinks it sounds good and sophisticated, meanwhile she just breaks down and could literally jam along with this band using the harp! I’m blown away and jealous all at the same time!
