Polyrhythm - The simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns or meters, common in twentieth-century music and in certain African musics. [Citation]

In layman’s terms a polyrhythm is basically playing two different types of “beats” at the same time over a fixed period. For instance you might play an even 6-note beat along with an even 4-note beat, but have each span the same amount of time (such as 2 seconds for 120bpm or 2 beats per second).

I’ve been a drummer for a long, long time and most of that time I have been way into improvisation. Improvisation yields many interesting results, one of which is “rugged” or “natural” polyrhythms.

Currently I am moving away from being a performer and trying to become a full fledged composer. As a composer I will need to understand how to write the polyryhthms that I hear in my head.

To assist me in my endeavor I bought a book on the subject entitled: “Polyrhythms, The Musician’s Guide,” by Peter Magadini. The book is quite nice as it shows many examples, provides plenty of exercises, and best of all: contains a CD. Now I can easily hear my beloved rhythms of yore and align them with their written music equivalents!

For anyone wishing to know more on the subject I recommend the book I bought, its polytastic (which makes sense, if you think about it… really hard).