4 against 3 Rhythm - how to

I've got 2 against 3 nailed.

Trying to play some of the 'Brahms 51 Exercises'. He's got a lot of 4 against 3.

With polyrhythms such as 2:3, 3:4, 3:5, 4:5, 3:7 and 4:7 the best approach is to learn the composite rhythm until you can execute it without conscious effort. At that point you'll begin hearing the polyrhythm.

In 3:4, the least common multiple is 12: _ _ _ 123412341234 _ _ _ _ 123123123123

Marvin Wolfthal

I find that being able to hear it is very important. I have used notation software programs to set up and listen to particular rhythms until I could play them in my head.

against 3.

clap right hand doing the 4 (or 3 if that is what is in the left) against the right thigh, clap the left hand 3 (or 4) against the left thigh. Repeat, practice until you understand how the two work together.

Dan

: I've got 2 against 3 nailed.

: Trying to play some of the 'Brahms 51 Exercises'. He's got a lot of 4 against 3.

If you take Marvin's common denominator below, you'll find that you can put words to the cross rhythm. The phrase I learned is: 'Pass the gol -den butter'

'Pass comes' in both hands - all other syllables are performed by alternating hands. The hand with '4' plays on 'pass' the' -'den' -'ter', and the hand with '3' plays on 'pass', 'gol'- and 'but'-. In terms of counted numbers, out of 12, both hands play on 1, the '4' hand plays on 4, the '3' hand plays on 5, the '4' hand plays on 7, the '3' hand plays on 9, and the '4' hand plays on 10.

Regards, Bruce Wheeler

: The phrase I learned is: : 'Pass the gol -den butter'

I find that 'Not very difficult' fits the rhythm better.

Well, I can't make this phrase correctly divide into 12 as a common denominator. As spoken by a native English speaker, this phrase would subdivide into 8. I'll use the word blank to fill in the 'empty' spots in the rhythm: 'Not blank ve ry dif fi cult blank' , 'not blank ve ry dif fi cult blank'. Also the accentuation pattern is reversed from the phrase I used, which COULD work to bring 4 into the forefront and the 3 into the background, but with an underlying denominator of 12, it's nearly impossible to say VE ry , when the longer stretch of time follows 'ry'. In that situation, the mouth is tempted to say ve RY and FI cult instead of fi CULT.

In other words, very and -ficult need to be closer together than any of the other syllables, but they don't WANT to be closer together when speaking the phrase 'not very difficult.'.

However, maybe I'm being dense.......

Regards, Bruce Wheeler

The way 3 against 4 was always taught at the conservatory was

'Why did he come today', with hands together on 'why'.

This works for situations 4 against 3, where the group of 12 is divided into 3 groups of 4, as evidenced by the accentuation on Pass, gol, and but. However, there are situations where the opposite is more appropriate, 3 against 4, where the group of 12 is divided into 4 groups of 3. In this case, 'eat butter, it's divine' works, with accents on eat, but, it's, ine.

PS, when I first heard your phrase, it was 'goddamn butter'