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 Polyrhythm

All music is dependent on manipulating melody, harmony, and rhythm to create and relieve tension. The creation and release of tension may be as dramatic as Canio's lovely aria at the end of the first act of Leoncavallo's opera I Pagliacci or it may be a subtle and simple as Part C of the fiddle tune Ragtime Annie. The point is that music develops tension and then releases it.

Western music relies on melodic and harmonic tools to create and release tension. Generally western music - especially western popular music - is not very creative when it comes to rhythm. George Gershwin wrote "I've got rhythm", but the truth is he didn't have much and many westerners don't have any. Rhythm is the province of Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In the cultures of these regions, rhythm has developed to a highly expressive, complex art form. We can borrow some of their ideas and use them in our playing. 

Polyrhythm is the simultaneous playing of two or more different rhythms. Sounds impossible, but it really does work. On the dulcimer, polyrhythm works when the left and right hands play different rhythms.  

Poly-rhythms are often more easily learned by listening rather than reading music. An excellent website to help with this is Ancient Future: www.ancient-future.com.   Discussion of polyrhythms and audio files are available on the website.  

The intellectual problem of putting the two lines together may seem overwhelming. It may help you to say the phrase "hot cup of tea”. If you were sending this as a Morse code kind of beat it would sound like DA DIT DIT DA. The HOT and TEA are long sounds. CUP OF are short sounds. The table on the next page shows how your hands work together.

A good way to practice this and build your coordination is to sit down and slap your thighs to this rhythm while repeating the phrase "Hot Cup Of Tea”.

Once you have the coordination down try it on the dulcimer. The right hand takes the three beat part and the left had takes the two beat part. The right hand will stay on one tone or move between two tones while the left hand will play a scale.

The value of this charming rhythm variant is that it can fit nicely into familiar tunes. Try it in the fiddle tune Liberty with a three against two polyrhythm inserted into the A part. It also fits nicely into the B part of Shenandoah Falls.

Polyrhythms work best at the transition and turning points in a tune. Usually you will find them in moderate to fast tempo music, like dance tunes. They don't work very well at a slow pace.