How to play polyrhythms

Welcome, I'm Robert Estrin at virtualsheetmusic.com with a technique video today. We had a viewer ask about polyrhythms, about 3 against 2, 3 against 4. How do you do these strange rhythms where they're not measured so much. Well, 3 against 2 is a lot easier than 3 against 4. I'm going to start with that and show you how to approach 3 against 2 and then were going to move forward to 3 against 4, which is much more difficult, and I'm going to have select compositions for you to demonstrate. First, the Beethoven Sonata Opus 14 number 2 in G major has a wonderful explosive 3 against 2 section.

That was a little abridged version for you to give you a taste. Now, what is 3 against 2? Well, typically if you have 2 against 4, it's all very even, very easy. One, two, three, four, one, two...anybody can do that. When you have 3 against 2, you wonder how do you do that? Well, it's actually not so hard because if you think of three and two it's actually divisible by six, so you've count up to six. The two comes in on the first and the fourth and the three comes in on the one, three and five. One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six. You see how that works? So you can do a 3 against 2 pretty easily because it's actually easy simple math and that's the secret.

One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six. If I do it very slowly, it's easier to count but that's a 3 against 2. It's actually measured. Three against four really isn't measured. Before I get to 3 against 4, just in case you didn't catch what I just did, I'm going to show you an easy way to approach 3 against 2. It's basically just together, right, left, right, together, right, left, right. So the right hand is going one, two, three and the left hand is going one, two, one, two. So one, two, three, four, five, six, together, right, left, right. That's the secret of 3 against 2. It's measured. It's precise.

Three against four is a little more complex. Why? Because it's not divisible. It's not simple mathematics. So how do you learn how to get an even 3 against 4? Three against four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two. You get the idea? Now, it is almost together, right, left, right, left, right, together, right, left, right, left, right. But it's not exactly that because it adheres the secret of how to practice these rhythms. If I were to do that together, right, left, right, left, right with the left hand tapping on the piano, together, right, left, right, left, right, together, right, left, right, left, right, the four is perfectly even.

But if I were to reverse that now and do the right hand tapping up here and the left hand, you'll hear that the three is not quite even. Together, right, left, right, left, right. together, right, left, right, left, right. Hear that that's not together. It's not even. It should be. So, by doing one hand when you're playing the piano, one hand on top of the piano and the other hand playing the piano, you can hear the evenness of the rhythm. This is a great technique to develop an even 3 against 4. You can also do that by tapping your hands trying to get two different sounds as I was just doing, playing one on the piano and tapping the other with simple notes like just the three in the left hand and the tapping, and try to make it.

If you do the 3 against 4, the 3 is distorted. So you have to come sooner on the second note and little later on the third note. You end up with this. And that's the way to practice it, and you could do that on a musical context. For example, The Snow Is Dancing of Debussy from the Children's Corner Suite has this beautiful section. So you got a 3 against 4. You got the 4, and the right hand does the 3. So when you practice it, you can play the left hand up here silently and you can hear the rhythm. When you play the half [SP] stick [SP] on the piano, it's so complicated. It's hard to hear it. So this is a great technique for solving not just 3 against 4 but any complex rhythm. I hope this has been helpful for you. I am Robert Estrin here at virtualsheetmusic.com. If you have further questions about how to approach these rhythms or any questions at all, contact me here at the website. Thanks for joining me.

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---