
Polyrhythm () is the simultaneous use of two or more
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...
s that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (
cross-rhythm
In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the Musicology, musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where
the rhythmic conflict fou ...
), or a momentary section. Polyrhythms can be distinguished from
irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single
part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. Concurrently in this context means within the same rhythmic cycle. The underlying pulse, whether explicit or implicit can be considered one of the concurrent rhythms. For example, the
son clave is poly-rhythmic because its 3 section suggests a different meter from the pulse of the entire pattern.
In western art music
In some
European art music, polyrhythm periodically contradicts the prevailing meter. For example, in
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
's opera ''
Don Giovanni
''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...
'', two orchestras are heard playing together in different metres ( and ):
They are later joined by a third band, playing in time.
Polyrhythm is heard near the opening of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
's
Symphony No. 3. (See also
syncopation.)
Chopin often explored the rhythmic possibilities inherent in the independence of a pianist's two hands. A spectacular example may be found in his
Étude, Op, 10 No. 10.
Alan Walker comments that while this piece is straightforward for listeners, "From the player’s point of view, however, nothing is straightforward. Chopin has placed him inside a veritable hornets’ nest of cross-rhythms and syncopations. The melody first emerges from a background of triplets, then of duplets. Accents are changed without warning, shifting the balance of the phrase sideways, so to speak, together with the place of each note within it."
Polyrhythm is a particularly common feature of the music of
Brahms. Writing about the
Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 78,
Jan Swafford (1997, p. 456) says "In the first movement Brahms plays elaborate games with the phrasing, switching the stresses of the meter back and forth between and , or superimposing both in violin and piano. These ideas gather at the climax at measure 235, with the layering of phrases making an effect that perhaps during the 19th century only Brahms could have conceived."
In "The Snow Is Dancing" from his ''
Children's Corner'' suite,
Debussy
Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
introduces a melody "on a static, repeated B-flat, cast in triplet-division cross rhythms which offset this stratum independently of the sixteenth notes comprising the two dancing-snowflake lines below it." "In this section great attention to the exactitude of rhythms is demanded by the polyrhythmic superposition of pedals,
ostinato, and melody."
Hemiola
Concerning the use of a two-over-three (2:3)
hemiola in Beethoven's
String Quartet No. 6, Ernest Walker states, "The vigorously effective
Scherzo
A scherzo (, , ; plural scherzos or scherzi), in western classical music, is a short composition – sometimes a movement from a larger work such as a symphony or a sonata. The precise definition has varied over the years, but scherzo often r ...
is in time, but with a curiously persistent
cross-rhythm
In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the Musicology, musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where
the rhythmic conflict fou ...
that does its best to persuade us that it is really in ."
Polyrhythm, not polymeter
The illusion of simultaneous and , suggests
polymeter:
triple meter
Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble":
Sports
* Triple (baseball), a three-base hit
* A basketball three-point field goal
* A figure skating jump with three rotations
* In bowling terms, three strikes in a row
...
combined with
compound duple meter.
However, the two beat schemes interact within a metric hierarchy (a single meter). The triple beats are primary and the duple beats are secondary; the duple beats are
cross-beats within a triple beat scheme.
Composite hemiola
The four-note
ostinato pattern of
Mykola Leontovych's "
Carol of the Bells" (the first measure below) is the composite of the two-against-three
hemiola (the second measure).
Another example of polyrhythm can be found in measures 64 and 65 of the first movement of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
's
Piano Sonata No. 12. Three evenly-spaced sets of three attack-points span two measures.
Cross-rhythm
Cross-rhythm
In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the Musicology, musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where
the rhythmic conflict fou ...
refers to systemic polyrhythm. The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music'' defines it as “The Regular shift of some beats in a metric pattern to points ahead of or behind their normal positions.” The finale of
Brahms Symphony No. 2 features a powerful passage where the prevailing metre of four beats to the bar becomes disrupted. Here is the passage as notated in the score: Here is the same passage re-barred to clarify how the ear may actually experience the changing metres: “Polyrhythms run through Brahms’s music like an obsessive-compulsive streak...For Brahms, subdividing a measure of time into different units and layering different patterns on top of one another seemed to be almost a compulsion — as well as a compositional device and an engine of expression. ”
Another straightforward example of a cross-rhythm is 3 evenly spaced notes against 2 (3:2), also known as a
hemiola. Two simple and common ways to express this pattern in standard western musical notation would be 3 quarter notes over 2 dotted quarter notes within one bar of time, quarter note triplets over 2 quarter notes within one bar of time. Other cross-rhythms are 4:3 (with 4 dotted eighth notes over 3 quarter notes within a bar of time as an example in standard western musical notation), 5:2, 5:3, 5:4, etc.

In auditory processing, rhythms are perceived as pitches once they have been sufficiently sped up. Furthermore, intervals of rhythms are perceived as intervals of pitch once sufficiently sped up. As such, there is a parallel between cross-rhythms and
musical intervals: in an audible frequency range, the 2:3 ratio produces the musical interval of a
perfect fifth
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval f ...
, the 3:4 ratio produces a
perfect fourth
A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...
, and the 4:5 ratio produces a
major third
In music theory, a third is a Interval (music), musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four Semitone, half steps or two ...
. All these
interval ratios are found in the
harmonic series. These are called harmonic polyrhythms.
Sub-Saharan African music traditions
Comparing European and Sub-Saharan African meter
In traditional European ("Western") rhythms, the most fundamental parts typically emphasize the primary beats. By contrast, in rhythms of sub-Saharan African origin, the most fundamental parts typically emphasize the secondary beats. This often causes the uninitiated ear to misinterpret the secondary beats as the primary beats, and to hear the true primary beats as cross-beats. In other words, the musical "background" and "foreground" may mistakenly be heard and felt in reverse—Peñalosa (2009: 21)
The generating principle
In non-Saharan
African music traditions, cross-rhythm is the generating principle; the meter is in a permanent state of contradiction. Cross-rhythm was first explained as the basis of non-Saharan rhythm in lectures by C.K. Ladzekpo and the writings of David Locke.
From the philosophical perspective of the African musician, cross-beats can symbolize the challenging moments or emotional stress we all encounter. Playing cross-beats while fully grounded in the main beats, prepares one for maintaining a life-purpose while dealing with life's challenges. Many non-Saharan languages do not have a word for ''rhythm'', or even ''music''. From the African viewpoint, the rhythms represent the very fabric of life itself; they are an embodiment of the people, symbolizing interdependence in human relationships—Peñalosa (2009: 21).
At the center of a core of rhythmic traditions within which the composer conveys his ideas is the technique of cross-rhythm. The technique of cross-rhythm is a simultaneous use of contrasting rhythmic patterns within the same scheme of accents or meter
The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
... By the very nature of the desired resultant rhythm, the main beat scheme cannot be separated from the secondary beat scheme. It is the interplay of the two elements that produces the cross-rhythmic texture—Ladzekpo (1995).
Eugene Novotney observes: "The 3:2 relationship (and
tspermutations) is the foundation of most typical polyrhythmic textures found in West African musics." 3:2 is the ''generative'' or ''theoretic form'' of non-Saharan rhythmic principles.
Victor Kofi Agawu succinctly states, "
heresultant
:2rhythm holds the key to understanding... there is no independence here, because 2 and 3 belong to a single Gestalt."
The two beat schemes interact within the hierarchy of a single meter. The duple beats are primary and the triple beats are secondary. The example below shows the African 3:2 cross-rhythm within its proper metric structure.
The music of African
xylophones, such as the
balafon and
gyil, is often based on cross-rhythm. In the following example, a Ghanaian gyil sounds a 3:2-based
ostinato melody. The left hand (lower notes) sounds the two main beats, while the right hand (upper notes) sounds the three cross-beats. The cross-beats are written as quarter-notes for visual emphasis.
The following notated example is from the
kushaura part of the traditional
mbira piece "Nhema Mussasa". The mbira is a
lamellophone. The left hand plays the ostinato bass line while the right hand plays the upper melody. The composite melody is an embellishment of the 3:2 cross-rhythm.
Adaptive instruments
Sub-Saharan instruments are constructed in a variety of ways to generate polyrhythmic melodies. Some instruments organize the pitches in a uniquely divided alternate array, not in the straight linear
bass to
treble structure that is so common to many western instruments such as the
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...
, or
marimba.
Lamellophones including
mbira, mbila, mbira huru, mbira njari, mbira nyunga, marimba, karimba,
kalimba, likembe, and okeme. This family of instruments are found in several forms indigenous to different regions of Africa and most often have equal tonal ranges for right and left hands. The
kalimba is a modern version of these instruments originated by the pioneer ethnomusicologist
Hugh Tracey in the early 20th century which has over the years gained worldwide popularity.
Chordophone
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners.
Musicians play some ...
s, such as the West African
kora, and doussn'gouni, part of the
harp-lute family of instruments, also have this African separated double tonal array structure.
Another instrument, the
Marovany from Madagascar is a double sided box zither which also employs this divided tonal structure.
Trough zithers also have the ability to play polyrhythms.
The
Gravikord is a new American instrument closely related to both the African kora and the kalimba was created in the latter 20th century to also exploit this adaptive principle in a modern electro-acoustic instrument.
On these instruments, one hand of the musician is not primarily in the bass nor the other primarily in the treble, but both hands can play freely across the entire tonal range of the instrument. Also, the fingers of each hand can play separate independent rhythmic patterns, and these can easily cross over each other from treble to bass and back, either smoothly or with varying amounts of
syncopation. This can all be done within the same tight tonal range, without the left and right hand fingers ever physically encountering each other. These simple rhythms will interact musically to produce complex cross rhythms including repeating on beat/
off beat pattern shifts that would be very difficult to create by any other means. This characteristically African structure allows often simple playing techniques to combine with each other to produce polyrhythmic music.
Jazz
3:2 cross-rhythm
Polyrhythm is a staple of modern
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
. Although not as common, use of systemic
cross-rhythm
In music, a cross-beat or cross-rhythm is a specific form of polyrhythm. The term ''cross rhythm '' was introduced in 1934 by the Musicology, musicologist Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980). It refers to a situation where
the rhythmic conflict fou ...
is also found in jazz. In 1959,
Mongo Santamaria recorded "
Afro Blue", the first jazz standard built upon a typical African 6:4 cross-rhythm (two cycles of 3:2). The song begins with the bass repeatedly playing 6 cross-beats per each measure of (6:4). The following example shows the original
ostinato "Afro Blue" bass line. The cross noteheads indicate the main
beats.
2:3 cross-rhythm
The famous jazz drummer
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as ''My Fa ...
took the opposite approach, superimposing two cross-beats over every measure of a jazz waltz (2:3). This swung is perhaps the most common example of overt cross-rhythm in jazz. In 1963
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
recorded "Afro Blue" with Elvin Jones on drums. Coltrane reversed the metric hierarchy of Santamaria's composition, performing it instead in swing (2:3).
In popular music
Nigerian percussion master
Babatunde Olatunji arrived on the American music scene in 1959 with his album ''
Drums of Passion'', which was a collection of traditional
Nigerian
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...
music for percussion and chanting. The album stayed on the charts for two years and had a profound impact on jazz and American popular music. Trained in the
Yoruba sakara style of drumming, Olatunji would have a major impact on Western popular music. He went on to teach, collaborate and record with numerous jazz and rock artists, including
Airto Moreira,
Carlos Santana
Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
and
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman, September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until February 19 ...
of the
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
. Olatunji reached his greatest popularity during the height of the
Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Afro-Cuban music makes extensive use of polyrhythms.
Cuban Rumba uses 3-based and 2-based rhythms at the same time. For example, the lead drummer (playing the
quinto) might play in , while the rest of the ensemble keeps playing .
Afro-Cuban
Afro-Cubans () or Black Cubans are Cubans of full or partial sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba associated with this community, and the combining of native African a ...
''conguero'', or
conga player,
Mongo Santamaría was another percussionist whose polyrhythmic virtuosity helped transform both jazz and popular music. Santamaria fused Afro-Latin rhythms with
R&B and jazz as a bandleader in the 1950s, and was featured in the 1994 album ''
Buena Vista Social Club'', which was the inspiration for
the like-titled documentary released five years later.
Another form of polyrhythmic music is south Indian classical
Carnatic music
Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha.
It is o ...
. A kind of rhythmic
solfege called
konnakol is used as a tool to construct highly complex polyrhythms and to divide each beat of a pulse into various subdivisions, with the emphasised beat shifting from beat cycle to beat cycle.
Common polyrhythms found in jazz are 3:2, which manifests as the quarter-note triplet; 2:3, usually in the form of dotted-quarter notes against quarter notes; 4:3, played as dotted-eighth notes against quarter notes (this one demands some technical proficiency to perform accurately, and was not at all common in jazz before
Tony Williams used it when playing with
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
); and finally time against , which along with 2:3 was used famously by
Elvin Jones
Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such albums as ''My Fa ...
and
McCoy Tyner
Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960 to 1965, and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA J ...
playing with
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
.
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...
, especially towards the end of his career, experimented with complex polyrhythms, such as 11:17, and even nested polyrhythms (see "
The Black Page" for an example). The highly avant garde album produced by Frank Zappa,
Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band found extensive use of polyrhythm and cross-rhythm. The
metal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
bands
Mudvayne,
Nothingface,
Threat Signal,
Lamb of God, also use polyrhythms in their music. Contemporary
progressive metal
Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...
bands such as
Meshuggah,
Gojira,
Periphery,
Textures,
TesseracT
In geometry, a tesseract or 4-cube is a four-dimensional hypercube, analogous to a two-dimensional square and a three-dimensional cube. Just as the perimeter of the square consists of four edges and the surface of the cube consists of six ...
,
Tool
A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
,
Animals as Leaders,
Between the Buried and Me and
Dream Theater also incorporate polyrhythms in their music, and polyrhythms have also been increasingly heard in technical metal bands such as
Ion Dissonance,
The Dillinger Escape Plan,
Necrophagist,
Candiria,
The Contortionist and
Textures. Much
minimalist and
totalist music makes extensive use of polyrhythms.
Henry Cowell and
Conlon Nancarrow created music with yet more complex polytempo and using irrational numbers like
:
''e''.
Peter Magadini's album ''Polyrhythm'', with musicians
Peter Magadini,
George Duke
George Martin Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as ...
, David Young, and
Don Menza, features different polyrhythmic themes on each of the six songs.
#Doin' Time and a Half: Has the polyrhythmic theme of 6 over 4.
#Five For Barbara: Mostly in with a recurring section in featuring 5 over 4.
#The Modulator: The beginning tempo modulates to two times faster and then modulates back to two times slower.
#Seventy Fourth Ave: In , with different instruments playing a 4 over the 7 occasionally.
#Samba de Rollins: Includes a drum solo based on 3 over 4.
#Midnight Bolero: In , has a continuous interlude of 2 over 3 and then 4 over 3.
King Crimson
King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...
used polyrhythms extensively in their 1981 album
''Discipline''. Above all
Bill Bruford used polyrhythmic drumming throughout his career.
The band
Queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
used polyrhythm in their 1974 song "
The March of the Black Queen" with and time signatures.
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.[Talking Heads](_blank) ' ''
Remain in Light'' used dense polyrhythms throughout the album, most notably on the song "The Great Curve".
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist and guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal—alo ...
frequently tends to use polyrhythm in its drumming, notably from songs such as "Sleepwalker" or the ending of "My Last Words", which are both played in 2:3.
Carbon Based Lifeforms have a song named "''Polyrytmi''",
Finnish for "polyrhythm", on their album
Interloper. This song indeed does use polyrhythms in its melody.
Aphex Twin
Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...
makes extensive use of polyrhythms in his electronic compositions.
Japanese girl group
Perfume
Perfume (, ) is a mixture of fragrance, fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), Fixative (perfumery), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agre ...
made use of the technique in their single, appropriately titled "
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm () is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rh ...
", included on their second album ''
Game
A game is a structured type of play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or video games) or art ...
''. The bridge of the song incorporates , in the vocals, common time () and in the drums.
The
Britney Spears single "
Till the World Ends" (released March 2011) uses a 4:3 cross-rhythm in its hook.
The outro of the song "Animals" from the album ''
The 2nd Law'' by the band
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
uses and time signatures for the guitar and drums respectively.
The
Aaliyah
Aaliyah Dana Haughton ( ; January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001) was an American singer, actress, dancer, and model. Known as the " Princess of R&B" and "Queen of Urban Pop", she is credited with helping to redefine contemporary R&B, p ...
song "Quit Hatin" uses against in the chorus.
The
Japanese idol
An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese popular culture, Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in other performance skills such as acting, dancing, and modeling. Idol ...
group
3776 makes use of polyrhythm in a number of their songs, most notably on their 2014 mini-album "
Love Letter", which features five songs that all include several rhythmic references to the number 3776. A secret track on the album has the group's leader, Ide Chiyono, explain some of the uses of polyrhythm to the listener.
The National song "
Fake Empire" uses a 4 over 3 polyrhythm.
The Cars' song "
Touch and Go" has a rhythm in the drum and bass and a rhythm in the keys and vocals.
Harpist and pop folk musician
Joanna Newsom is known for the use of polyrhythms on her albums ''
The Milk-Eyed Mender
''The Milk-Eyed Mender'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom, released on March 23, 2004, by Drag City.
Background
Newsom wrote all the songs on the album except for "Three Little Babes", a traditional Appala ...
'' and ''
Ys''.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard used polyrhythms extensively throughout their discography, most notably on the album ''
Polygondwanaland''.
In
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
,
bolero songs are composed with against .
The
Britney Spears song "
...Baby One More Time" contains a 16:9 polyrhythm in the beginning of the music video (the boot tapping 16 times every 9 times the clock ticks - a full cycle can be heard from 0:05 to 0:14).
The Sky Signals song "Amaterasu" is constructed around a 5:4 polyrhythm.
Examples
The following is an example of a 3 against 2 polyrhythm, given in
time unit box system (TUBS) notation; each box represents a fixed unit of time; time progresses from the left of the diagram to the right. It is in bad form to teach a student to play 3:2 polyrhythms as simply quarter note, eighth note, eighth note, quarter note. The proper way is to establish sound bases for both the quarter-notes, and the triplet-quarters, and then to layer them upon each other, forming multiple rhythms. Beats are indicated with an X; rests are indicated with a blank.
:
A common memory aid to help with the 3 against 2 polyrhythm is that it has the same rhythm as the phrase "not difficult"; the simultaneous beats occur on the word "not"; the second and third of the triple beat land on "dif" and "cult", respectively. The second 2-beat lands on the "fi" in "difficult". Try saying "not difficult" over and over in time with the sound file above. This will emphasize the "3 side" of the 3 against 2 feel. Now try saying the phrase "not a problem", stressing the syllables "not" and "prob-". This will emphasize the "2 side" of the 3 against 2 feel. More phrases with the same rhythm are "cold cup of tea", "four funny frogs", "come, if you please", and "
ring, Christmas bells".
:
Similar phrases for the 4 against 3 polyrhythm are "pass the golden butter"
or "pass the goddamn butter"
[Sep 2007. ''Guitar World'', p.102. Vol. 28, No. 9. ISSN 1045-6295.] and "what atrocious weather" (or "what a load of rubbish" in British English); the 4 against 3 polyrhythm is shown below.
:
As can be seen from above, the counting for polyrhythms is determined by the
lowest common multiple, so if one wishes to count 2 against 3, one needs to count a total of 6 beats, as lcm(2,3) = 6 (
''1''2''3''4''5''6 and
''1''23''4''56). However this is only useful for very simple polyrhythms, or for getting a feel for more complex ones, as the total number of beats rises quickly. To count 4 against 5, for example, requires a total of 20 beats, and counting thus slows the tempo considerably. However some players, such as
classical Indian musicians, can intuitively play high polyrhythms such as 7 against 8.
Polyrhythms are quite common in late
Romantic Music and
20th-century classical music. Works for keyboard often set odd rhythms against one another in separate hands. A good example is in the soloist's cadenza in
Grieg's
Concerto in A Minor; the left hand plays
arpeggios of seven notes to a beat; the right hand plays an ostinato of eight notes per beat while also playing the melody in octaves, which uses whole notes, dotted eighth notes, and triplets.
Other instances occur often in
Rachmaninoff's
Piano Concerto No. 2. The piano arpeggios that constitute much of the soloist's material in the first movement often have anywhere from four to eleven notes per beat. In the last movement, the piano's opening run, marked 'quasi
glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...
', fits 52 notes into the space of one
measure, making for a glissando-like effect while keeping the mood of the music. Other instances in this movement include a scale that juxtaposes ten notes in the right hand against four in the left, and one of the main themes in the piano, which imposes an eighth-note melody on a triplet harmony.
List of basic polyrhythms
See also
*
Beat (acoustics) – another example of the same effect (mathematically), but with two continuous waves rather than a hit of the instrument only at every peak and trough of either wave.
*
Euclidean rhythm
*
Ewe music
*
Xenochrony
References
Sources
*
Further reading
*
Peter Magadini (1993). ''Polyrhythms for the Drumset''. .
tudy in polymetric independence for drummers.*
Peter Magadini (2001). ''
The Musician's Guide to Polyrhythms''. .
olyrhythm reference book.
External links
Superimposed Subdivisions (Polyrhythm Hell)– An article by Heikki Malmberg
* C.K. Ladzekpo'
Novotney, Eugene D. (1998) "The Three Against Two Relationship as the Foundation of Timelines in West African Musics", PhD thesis. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. an article on polyrhythms and the African drumming tradition
– Article by Steve Vai on polyrhythms
More polyrhythms
An athenaCL netTool for on-line, web-based MIDI polyrhythm generation
polygnomeA polyrhythmic metronome application for Linux
Polyrhythm experiments using Improvisor and AudioCubespolymathAnother on-line, web-based MIDI polyrhythm generation tool which uses symbolic input
Polyrhythm Lessons Information on applying polyrhythms on the guitar
Post on triplets and duplets in West African music
Metronome for Rhythms and Multi-Beat PolyrhythmsAudio clips of many polyrhythms
Video clips of many polyrhythms like the ones used to illustrate this article
4 different time signatures polymeter example of 4 layer time signatures (2:4, 3:8, 5:16 & 7:8) played by Denny AJD simultaneously on a drumset.
Polyrhythms ...an Introduction Peter Magadinivia YouTube
Drum Solo with Metric Modulations – Peter Magadini (2006) from the Hal Leonard DVD ''Jazz Drums''The 26 Official Polyrhythm Rudiments (2012) ''Modern Drummer Magazine''– Pete Magadini
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