Polyrhythms

ON the road to becoming a solid, diverse musician, one of the most important and overlooked aspects is the study of rhythm. As a bass player it’s easy to get caught up in the other areas of practicing (such as scales and arpeggios) and overlook basic rhythmic workouts that most drummers learn early on. This happens because we need to learn the notes on the neck and get a solid foundation in harmony. But you’re sure to benefit by incorporating some rhythmic concepts into your practice routine.

This month I’d like to focus on polyrhythm. Polyrhythm is the simultaneous occurrence of sharply contrasting rhythms within a composition. (I’ve also heard the term “superimposing” used quite a bit as well.) When I first started playing bass, I played with drummers who used these terms and many others. The drummers were always up for a good rhythmic challenge, and who better to help them out than the bass player? To get the most out of a polyrhythm it helps to play with a drummer, a drum machine, or at the very least, a metronome—something that can keep consistent time while you play a contrasting rhythm.

The first polyrhythm I’d like to go over is called three over four. In 4/4 time, three over four refers to feeling three beats evenly in the place of the four downbeats. In order to find where the three beats fall, we need to divide the bar into eighth-note triplets. There are 12 eighth-note triplets in one bar of 4/4. If you divide three into 12 you get four. Therefore, by accenting every fourth subdivision within the eighth-note triplets, you get three equal beats in one bar. Ex. 1 is what three over four looks like on paper; the top staff shows all of the eighth-note triplets, with the notehead from every fourth subdivision circled; the bottom staff shows how the three even beats can be written as a half-note triplet. Ex. 2 is a groove utilizing a three-over-four polyrhythm—again, playing three equal notes in the space of four. When played, both staves sound identical; they’re just notated in different ways.

Next, let’s talk about four over three. In the time signature of 3/4, we will now fit four equal notes into the space of three beats (one bar of 3/4). With this example we need to subdivide the 3/4 bar into 16th-notes. In the space of three beats, we get 12 16th-notes (three beats times four 16th-notes per beat). If we accent every third 16th-note, we’ll have four equal beats in one bar of 3/4. Ex. 3 is what four over three looks like on paper. Ex. 4 is a groove utilizing a four-over-three polyrhythm. Practice playing the pattern over and over, with your drum machine or metronome sounding the three downbeats per bar. Make sure you’re tapping your foot steadily with the downbeats, even while you’re playing the polyrhythm in bars 2 and 4. This might take a while to master, but stay with it!

Exploring new and different areas of music will push you into uncharted territory and (I hope) inspire new ideas. You can have all the harmony and theory in the world at your fingertips, but without a strong sense of rhythm, you won’t get as much out of it. I read an article by John Scofield years ago that really inspired me. He said that he still practices rhythm just as much as he practices harmony and theory. No matter how naturally gifted you are in the rhythm department, there is always room to improve. If you want to hear true rhythmic genius, just listen to some Frank Zappa recordings—he’ll bend your ear! There are tons of other polyrhythms out there to push you even further into the rhythmic stratosphere, so be sure to keep your ears wide open. Until next time, dig deeper and no slackers!

Chris Chaney has performed and recorded with Jane’s Addiction, Alanis Morissette, Michelle Branch, Tommy Lee, Rob Zombie, Celine Dion, and many others.