From theory — Western theory · Note values. Rhythm room: Timelines · Catalogue. The timeline is the rhythm; the kit is where you play it.
Sangeet Yatra

Two at Once

A polyrhythm is two evenly spaced pulses that do not divide into each other, played together. Three notes in the time of two. Four in the time of three. You do not count both at the same time. You learn the sound they make together, and you hold one hand still while the other does something that does not fit it.

Five in a beat

Most music never asks for this. Pop and rock, and the styles behind you, split a beat in two or in four, or in three. Three is the triplet, and the shuffle and 6/8 are built from it. Five equal notes in one click is the first split that is neither a pair nor a triple, and it is one hand only. The two-hand versions are the rest of this page.

Right hand on the hi-hat, five taps to every click. Left hand on the snare at beat 2. Right foot on the kick at beat 1. The grid is two beats, then it repeats.

  1. Type 60 in the BPM box. One click is one second, and five notes in that second is plenty.
  2. Say “one-la-li-la-le, two-la-li-la-le”. Every syllable is the same length. The number is the click.
  3. Tap it with one hand on your knee. Land the number on the click and keep the other four evenly spread until the next one.
  4. Play the hat alone for a minute, then add the kick on 1 and the snare on 2.
  5. The common fault is to turn it into 2+3 (“one-two, three-four-five”). Say the same syllable five times in a row to hear the difference.

The setup

Each groove below has one cycle. The ride (right hand, bell) is the faster hand and the snare (left hand) is the slower one. Both hit together on 1, and then the two hands drift apart and meet again at the end of the cycle. The click is the pulse the cycle is measured in, not either hand. Start at 50.

  1. Play the slow hand alone until you could do it in your sleep. It is only a steady pulse.
  2. Play the fast hand alone, with the click.
  3. Say the sentence out loud (given with each groove). Tap the sentence with both hands, one syllable at a time.
  4. Drop the sentence and listen to the shape instead.

3 over 2

Three right-hand notes in the time of two left-hand notes. The cycle is six little slots and it is two clicks long. The right hand plays every second slot and the left hand every third. Say “nice cup of tea”: the right hand plays nice, cup and tea, and the left hand plays nice and of. Both hands land together on “nice”. That sentence is the whole polyrhythm.

This is what the two hands sound like as one line: four hits, one for each word of the sentence.

4 over 3

Four right-hand notes in the time of three left-hand notes. The cycle is twelve slots over three clicks: the right hand plays every third slot, the left hand every fourth. The sentence is “pass the god-damn but-ter”. Both hands play pass. The right hand also plays the, damn and ter, and the left hand plays god and but. Go slower than you want to.

5 over 4

Five right-hand notes in the time of four left-hand notes. The cycle is twenty slots over four clicks, so the left hand is just the click and the right hand plays five notes across it. The sentence is “I'm looking for a home to buy”: eight syllables for eight hits. The right hand plays I'm, look, for, home and buy. The left hand plays I'm, ing, a and to.

Which hand is the click? Practise each polyrhythm both ways round, with the slow hand on the ride and the fast hand on the snare. If one hand is always the “real” one, you have not learned the rhythm, you have learned a trick.

Before you go on

  • Play five even hat notes to every click and say the syllables with them
  • Play 3 over 2 for a minute at 60 without stopping and without speaking the sentence
  • Swap the hands, so the ride plays two and the snare plays three
  • Play 4 over 3 at 50 with the click on, ending every cycle together on the next 1