Discipline

(início)

The easiest way to understand what is happening in the piece is to either
listen to it in headphones, or disconnect one of your speakers. Adrian Belew's
part I believe is hard left and Robert Fripp's is hard right. If you listen to
each line separately, you will get a better idea of what is going on.
The opening section is in 5/8 with Adrian playing Part A and Robert
playing Part B.

After many measures of that, Adrian drops down a half step and plays this:

On top of that, Robert starts a new theme in 4/4 played on top of Adrian's 5/8.
(These are pretty much straight 16th notes)

After all that they both return to playing Part A and B again, but after
several bars, Robert drops 1 note and plays in 9/8 against Adrian's 5/8.

Once the 9 against 5 cycles through, they go back to Part A and B for a
brief while followed by a repetition of Part C and D.
Now a completely new theme emerges. Initially Adrian and Robert are playing
the same thing (Part E), but after a few measures once again Robert drops a
note, Part F, and plays 14/16 against Adrian's 15/16.

Adrian begins a 10/8 phrase to which Robert plays 16th notes against.

The modulate up a minor 3rd and continue in a very similar pattern.

Adrian and Robert play Part K in unison, until once again Robert drops
a note and plays 14/16 against 15/16 (Part L).

The final theme comes out in Part M. Adrian plays this against Robert's
completely new variation on it, Part N. After only once or twice through,
Robert drops a note and begins Part N2. Eventually they again modulate up
another minor 3rd, and begin Part O. Robert is playing Part P on top but only
for a few measures, the then plays Part P2 (11/16) against Part O (12/16).

Once the 11 and 12 get back into sync, Robert resumes playing Part P
until the final phrase.
This is the recapitulation of the main theme of Discipline, it is an
octave higher than part E or F and is unaccompanied by drums or Stick.
Adrian and Robert play Part Q until Robert decides to drop a note for the
last time (Part R).

Eventually the 14 against 15 cycles and they are once again in unison
playing Part Q until the end of the piece.

Keep in mind this is only ONE way of hearing the phrases. I think they
actually begin with a pickup note or two, but the phrasing for all other
repetitions sound this way. At least to me. :)
Part H and J were VERY difficult to transcribe and just as hard to play.
There might be a FEW errors in it, but most likely it is quite accurate.
During Part L, I believe Robert screws up. Yeah, I know it is hard to
believe, but he misses the high D and it only happens once. Considering the
style of the piece it is very unlikely that this is SUPPOSED to be that way
because it would be the ONLY thing that never repeats. Who knows?
Part M and O are EXTREMELY difficult to play. I not entirely convinced that the
distorted chords are not a third guitar part, though with Adrian Belew, you
never know. :)
The chords that enter at Part N and P are actually the right hand part of
Levin's Stick part. The notes are just movements of parallel fourths,
g#&c#, f#&b, c#&f#, b&e. Then for Part P, up a minor third. As far as I can
tell, that is the only section that has a predominant Right Hand Stick
Part.
Any questions, comments, or correction please e-mail me at :
mtkeen at stthomas dot edu
Enjoy!

Date Submitted: 6-May-94
By: Taylor Sherman (sherma2 at cooper dot edu)
These are some minor changes to Matt Keen's exquisite transcription of
"Discipline" [above].  As far as I can tell, the notes are all right, it's just the
measure lines that are in the wrong spot. Note that now RF just drops the
last note of the measure to do his 14 v. 15 thing, like usual. If anyone
has any comments feel free to email me.

                                         sherma2 at cooper dot edu
                                         May 5th, 1996

Date Submitted: 21-Feb-97
Some more minor changes to Matt Keen's original Discipline
transcriptions.  I noticed that the arpeggioed sequence RF plays over
AB's 5/4 early in the song is actually a transposed version of the
main RF part during the verse in Elephant Talk.  So here's the
new version, a G#m arpeggio.  Thanks to Reginald Hunt for his
Elephant Talk tablature.
                                Taylor Sherman
                                sherma2 at cooper dot edu
                                February 21, 1997

New part D:

Date Submitted: 20-May-97
By: James Beard (jwb2 at ukc dot ac dot uk)
Revision to original tab for opening of 'Discipline'
I was listening to Discipline on headphones, and realised that the tab that
you have up is slightly wrong for the opening 2 guitar parts. Here is what
I think it should be. Please listen to your copy on headphones to see if
you agree with me. The main thing that I was hearing that was different was
a D followed by a C, instead of a recurring C!
Here we go:

I think this is what it should be.
The other interlocking part is the same, but it starts on the 3rd note of
the 5-note sequence, thus: