Drumming Terms | |
Bart Elliott shares standard musical and drumming terms, words, phrases and expressions. | |
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| Polyrhythm | Poly means many ... Polyrhythm means many rhythms. For there to be a polyrhythm there must be two or more opposing rhythms played, heard or implied at the same time. An early classical example of polyrhythm would be Don Giovanni in which Mozart used 3 different dance-rhythms simultaneously.
The simpliest example of polyrhythm would be 3:2 (three against two) or 2:3 (two against three). However, there are more intense polyrhythms such as 5:2 or 7:4 which go beyond the popular triplet based polyrhythm, using other Odd Note Groupings such as quintuplets (5) and septuplets (7). Polyrhythms (aka rhythmic contrasts) are the basic rhythmic principles underlying African-derived musics, including Jazz. |
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