Polyrhythms are one of the most interesting tools available to any musician. They can be used to unleash our creativity on many levels.
I think polyrhythms are fascinating to play, to hear, and first of all to understand.
They make things more interesting by adding variety to our phrasing, by giving us new ideas and also by increasing our technique, as they typically are pretty challenging to master.
In this study we practice 7 of the most interesting polyrhythms. From the classic examples to a couple of really advanced ones, which use quintuplets. And even a three layer polyrhythm! We can use these pages to understand how this system works and start to become acquainted with some musical implementation.
Here is the Pdf with the full lesson, for you to save and print, in which I also explain the difference between polyrhythms and metric modulation:
As soon as we feel comfortable with these, we can move on and start having fun with our own ideas, creating new variations and even using them in music that we are playing.
As usual you can click on each of the exercises to go to its specific time in the YouTube video where I play them.
And if you need more clarity about the theory and concepts of drumming, I recommend you spend a minute checking this in-depth method:
‘Theory & Concepts’ – Altitude Drumming – Volume 1