Using a 3:2 polyrhythm is a great way to spice up your guitar playing.
Playing polyrhythms in single note style, to a backing track or band, is very easy. However playing polyrhythms in solo guitar style, where you play the melody and bass notes at the same time, is a different beast all together.
What is a Polyrhythm
A polyrhythm occurs when a bar of music is divided into different time signatures as you’ll hear in this video.
If you listen closely the bass notes fall on 1 and 2 while the upper voice plays a triplet in the same length of time.
This is a 3:2 polyrhythm. Use headphones to hear the voices more clearly.
For solo guitar (chord melody type guitar) the 3:2 polyrhythm is fine because you can still play it at a reasonable tempo.
For larger polyrhythm numbers, such as 7:3 for example, the speed that you need to play might require a much slower tempo.
How To Play a 3:2 Polyrhythm
The way to play a 3:2 polyrhythm is to get 6 beats going then play the bottom voice on 1 and 4. Play the top voice on 1 , 3 and 5.
The following diagram will help clarify this.
On the diagram you can clearly see that both the bottom and top voices start on 1. The top voice then plays on beat 3 and immediately after the bottom voice plays on beat 4 while the top voice plays again on beat 5.
How to Practise the 3:2 Polyrhythm
Practising the 3:2 polyrhythm is oodles of fun!
Start by playing the above pattern in free time.
Next play the pattern against 6 beats on the metronome so that each beat of the metronome corresponds to each square in the above diagram.
Once you have the pattern under your fingers and can play it easily enough slow the metronome down (maybe to 40 bpm) and play the pattern so that each bottom note falls on a click of the metronome.
You should now be playing the 3:2 polyrhythm!
3:2 Polyrhythm Sheet Music and Tablature
For your convenience I wrote out what I played in the video above.
As always, explore and see how far you can take the polyrhythm concept.
Use Polyrhythms With Everything Else
The video above is just a basic example of polyrhythmic playing.
Try to incorporate polyrhythms into your tunes along with techniques such as back cycling, diminished triads and chords, contrary motion and scalar movement. All these techniques are discussed in our Jingle Bells using Back Cycling Triads post.
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