Rhythm: Polyrhythms

These exercises consist of three bars. The first bar is ordinarily accented, in the second bar the accentuation is changed as to fit the polyrhythmic structure and in the third bar only the accents are left.

Practice these using Konnakol. Always sing the upper voice. Begin slowly. Repeat the first bar until your timing is steady (quintuplets and septuplets might take a while if you’ve never practiced them). When going to the second bar, try to maintain the steady flow and change the syllables and accents. If this is too difficult, change the syllables only and gradually increase the accents. When this feels comfortable, go to the third bar. Try to keep the feeling of the underlying polyrhythmic microtiming.

Try to get a feeling for the whole polyrhythm. Eventually you should be able to switch bars directly without needing time to get comfortable. Also practice going directly from the first to the third bar.