Hello again!
Today I’ve got a quick rhythmic exercise for you. It shouldn’t be too difficult. Here goes:
For those of you not familiar with the terms polymeter or metric superimposition they certainly can sound intimidating. Conceptually though they’re quite simple. For our purposes today I’ll spare you any long winded explanations and boil it down to this:
Polymeter is simply superimposing one meter on top of another.
We will probably delve a little more deeply into this topic later, but today let’s get started with an exercise so you can experience them for yourself. I find that doing something yourself is a much better teacher than reading about it anyway.
The most common polymeter is 3 against 4 so let’s start there. Let’s take a rhythm in 3/4:
Nothing too scary here I hope. This is a common rhythm.
Now let’s take this pattern and superimpose it over 4/4. This is what we get:
I’ve color coded the individual 3/4 cells so you can see when and how they repeat.
As you can see, because we’re playing a rhythmic idea that is one quarter note shorter than the underlying meter the cell will repeat one quarter note earlier every time.
Also it’s worth noting that the whole polymetric cycle repeats every three bars when both meters converge on the downbeat. This is because our superimposed meter is 3/4. Really it doesn’t matter if it had been 3/4 or 3/8. Any pattern of 3 will cycle back on itself every 3 measures. How many times the pattern repeats itself is determined by the underlying meter. In the example above we see the pattern repeats 4 times. This is because we’re playing over 4/4. Check out what happens when we play the same 3/4 cell over 5/4:
We can see that the overall cycle repeats and converges on the downbeat every 3 bars while the 3/4 cell is repeated 5 times.
Okay, Okay… enough with the explaining. Let’s make some music!
Really this exercise is pretty simple. Count and clap (or bang on a table, snap your fingers, or whatever you’d like) the cell in 3/4. I know it may sound elementary, but count — out loud too if you can. Not too bad right?
Now do the same thing but count to 4. Don’t try and emphasize a downbeat or feel any special connection to the number 1. Just make sure you are actually counting to 4. This is why I wrote out the counting. If it will help you survive the cycle you can accent the beats where each 3/4 cell repeat. In other words you would accent:
Once that feels somewhat comfortable try putting some notes to it. You have 3 attacks (or 3 notes) in the 3/4 cell so maybe pick a static 3 note pattern at first. Maybe a triad?
Here are a couple takes of that example above over an obvious 4/4 groove:
The first is a 4 bar phrase. To even it out we rest on the fourth measure since we’re playing a 3 bar example. The second take we play right through the fourth bar just to get the feel of where we would be if we continued the 3 bar phrase against the underlying 4 bar groove. The last take is the example above over a 3 bar groove so it evens out perfectly.
Next you could try alternating between triads or playing a scale in any 3 note pattern using this pattern.
If you find yourself feeling like you’re falling down the polymetric rabbit hole that’s OK for now. It’s easy, even when you are comfortable playing a polymetric idea, to lose track of your phrasing in the underlying meter. That’s because a lot of music in the western world is based around the 4 bar phrase. If you’re playing an idea that loops every 3 bars it can make it tricky to not lose your place in the form of a tune.
We’ll talk about how to work on that later. For now get your fingers, and more importantly your ears and mind around this polymeter.
Don’t forget to try the 3 against 5 example here too! They’re all fun and beneficial.
I think that will just about do it for now. Until next time have fun practicing! Go play something new.
-postmodernguitarist
PostModernGuitarist 