Drummer Cafe Community Forum

Trying to develop phrasing around the 4 over 3 polyrhythm.

Is it possible to use page 37 (Syncopation book) to develope 4 over 3 polyrhythms?

I advise??

Thanks!!!

Hey Wind, sure it would be possible to use this to develop 4 over 3 phrasing. I've done this by playing an ostinato with my feet (bd,hh,hh) in three and then read the pages of Synco. with my hands, either as written or with 8th on the ride and read the pages with my other hand. Of course you could also do this by playing four with your feet and interpreting the pages in swing time (threes), either way it works, and you should do it both ways if you want true inderdependance with 4 over 3.

Thanks for your advice Hummertown. I was actually 
thinking to play four on the bass drum and triplets
with my hands. I was just wondering if it was a very
popular exercise. 

What else do you use to develope phrasing over the 4-3  ?

Thanks!!

I have used Gary Chaffee's pattern series of books, specifically the rhythm and meter book as well as the sticking patterns book. Also Marco Minnemans Extreme Interdependance is a good one, but really I prefer to develop my own exercises like the one that I gave you because I can taylor them to my needs at that time.

All notated expressions, both figurative and literal. ;)

I think of polyrhythms in terms of how people hear what I play, not just what I know is technically correct. This becomes important in terms of cultural context.

(http://www.gaddabout.net/threes-notation.gif)

I suggest in an American context playing Latin rhythms, the bass player is most likely thinking in terms of example 1. If you attempt to play a figure of 4 over the expression of threes in example 2, your bass player will hate you. The repeated figures are both equal to half notes and they are both grouped in threes, but a Brazilian would definitely know the difference. So would a Cuban. So I try to learn them both, even though the average (American) ear in the audience would not neccesarily be able to distinguish the two phrases.

true enough gaddabout but those two phrases go hand in hand in Cuban music.....you hear it all the time, especially from the vocalist (though I relize that is a Brazilian bass/bd rhythm, I was refering to the same pattern minus the downbeat, the "tombao"(sp?) ). Conga players phrase in dotted and eighth triplets all the time against a relitivley straight groove.

I say learn both and learn what appropriate for the music that you're playing!!!

Yup, and it's very cool. But Cubans playing with Cubans is one thing. Trying to keep your bass player from Ames, Iowa, happy is another story. ;) I suppose it's a lesson in pragmatics more than anything, and I've definitely benefited from understanding the difference in phrasing. I was taught a Brazilian samba on a surdo, and there are so many nuances to playing that sucker, I'd have to be a mathematician to write out the literal notation! hehe


Since when are hand percussionists a slave to tempo? hehehe (Just kidding, y'all. Settle down.)