Polyrhythm

Literally “many rhythms.” Usually these rhythms are quite distinct from one another.
Polyrhythms within any one piece of music may or may not conform to a central meter.
In Kpanlogo, the first piece you studied, you learned the bell, the rattle, the bomba, the
firichiwa and the hand drum. Each of the patterns played on these instruments had an
independent character of feel, yet they all conformed to a 4/4 meter (4 beats to the bar with
a “1e&a 2e&a...” subdivision). In other forms of polyrhythm one part suggests a different
beat stream or counting system form the other part. This is a particular kind of polyrhythm
is said to be ploymetric (see below). So the term polyrhythm can be used to refer to
independent patterns in the same meter, or to patterns which cross each otherʼs metric
sense (often called “cross beats” or “cross rhythms”).

Polymeter

Two (or more) meters or beat streams sounded (or implied) simultaneously. In African
music the most common polymeter is 3:2 (3 beats in the time of 2 beats). The 4:3
polymeter (4 beats in the time of 3 beats) is present in many standard pattern ideas, but
operates mostly as a generative model for creating particular forms of syncopation. In
other words it serves as the basis for generating patterns that use only part of the
polymeter.

In class we have looked at a few approaches to managing these polymeters.

Vocables

For the 3:2 polymeter we took three-beat stream as the basis and added the offbeat
between the count of two and the count of three, thus:

say: 1 2 & 3

count: 1 & 2 & 3 &

For the 3:4 polymeter we used the spoken phrase “cook the big fat chicken.”

say: cook the big fat chi- cken

count: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a

Composite pattern

The above vocables act as a memory strategy. They also formed the basis for creating the
hand-to-hand execution of the ʻcomposite patternʼ. This is the pattern that results from
combining the two meters into a single linear pattern, wherein each component of the
separate beat streams is thought of simply as part of a linear sequence of events. This
now enables us to play the polymeters as a simple hand-to-hand rhythm:

say: 1 2 & 3

play: tog right left right

say: cook the big fat chi- cken

play: tog right left right left right

(tog = together)

Step-clap execution

Now we can distribute the events between the hands and the feet to separate the two beat
streams.

say: 1 2 & 3

play: tog clap step clap

say: cook the big fat chi- cken

play: tog clap step clap step clap

(tog = together)

Verbal representation

To help you coordinate your hands and feet, make a verbal representation of the sounds
made by each bodily component: the step can be represented by a short “boom,” and the
clap by a short “ka.”
3:2
say: boom ka boom ka

play: tog clap step clap

4:3
say: boom ka boom ka boom ka

play: tog clap step clap step clap

Visual representation

We can now create a visual representation of what is happening physically. The 2:3 can
be seen as ʻi vʼ and the 3:4 as ʻi wʼ.

3:2
ka ka ka

boom boom

4:3
ka ka ka ka

boom boom boom

cook the big fat chi- cken