PreSonus Blog

Polyrhythms Demystified

Look, there’s no two ways around it—polyrhythms are HARD. Playing one beat at a time is difficult enough for some folks, but how about playing a three-count beat with your left hand and a simultaneous four-count beat on the right? Moving on to other time signatures, particularly in odd meter, doesn’t just add to the difficulty—it multiplies.

Until today, I had never before seen such a lucid, impressive, and concise demonstration of polyrhythms as robertinventor has assembled on his YouTube channel. His expertly-crafted visuals (created with his own software, Bounce Metronome) drive home the timing in a much more digestible manner than the best drummer you know may be capable of. All of these videos begin at a slow tempo and gradually accelerate. Play along!

The playlist embedded above has some of the more rudimentary demonstrations robertinventor offers. Once you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor and are ready to move forward,  I strongly recommend checking out the rest of his channel for a look at more advanced, esoteric polyrhythmic concepts, including syncopated harmonic polyrhythms, sonified pendulum waves, and my personal favorite, the Inharmonic “Golden Rhythmicon” Fibonacci Sequence.