The POLYRHYTHM Trick That Makes Your Guitar Solos Sound INCREDIBLE [Lead Guitar]
Have you ever wondered what a polyrhythm is?
You may have heard the term thrown around from time to time, but perhaps you've shied away from learning about it because of its seeming complexity.
And hey, I get it. That's a pretty darn complicated sounding word. But let's break it down:
- 'poly' - multiple
- 'rhythm' - rhythm
- 'polyrhythm' - multiple rhythms
...and that's it. I know, anticlimactic. You were expecting something harder, like assembling IKEA furniture without the instructions.
But no — polyrhythms are genuinely simpler than they sound. The word is doing all the heavy lifting here, and the concept is just sitting there going "yeah, I'm two rhythms at once, what about it?"
So the concept is simple enough — but what actually makes polyrhythms useful? When should you use them? And how do you go from "oh, multiple rhythms, neat" to actually making music with them?
As with many concepts in music, there are limitless ways of using polyrhythms, but let's start with one. In the video below, I'll show you how to use them in your lead guitar playing, which is a great application for polyrhythms that doesn't get much attention! (And sounds absolutely great)
Do you know what else can help improve your lead guitar playing? Knowing everything you can about scales and modes on the guitar. If you want to learn much more about scales, check out my Master of the Modes guitar course.
Video Transcription
Hello Internet, so nice to see you! Polyrhythms. Polyrhythms are putting together two or more rhythms that go in and out phase with each other. That's a very short definition that's gonna put me into trouble because there's plenty of nitpickers out there that will say this is not exactly a definition of polyrhythm.
And you know what? They're actually right. A real precise definition of polyrhythm will require a much longer video and we don't want to do that. Because what I want to do today instead is do you know, did you know that you can use polyrhythms when you play lead guitar?
That you can use polyrhythms to write guitar solos or melodies and that makes your guitar solos and melodies sound absolutely fantastically great. Did you know that? A student tells me about all that and let's go and see all the ideas we can take out of polyrhythms for lead guitar.
What are polyrhythms exactly? That's a good question, because exactly doesn't belong in music theory. Because depending on who you ask, they will give you slightly different answers. But basically, okay, the point is any answer that I give here will be controversial.
Okay. So I'm giving the one that makes sense to me and too bad. The idea is that you have two or more rhythms at the same time. And with rhythm in this case, I mean patterns of accents. So for instance, one pattern of accent is putting an accent every two notes.
Like every two notes. And the pattern of accent is putting an accent every three notes. Right? If I put an accent every three notes, I could think of it in triplets. If I think of the main beat like tan, tan, tan, tan.
Right? But I can also think of these as embedded into eight notes. So I'm thinking one, and two, and three, and four, but I'm putting an accent every three of those. So sometimes the accent is on the down bit, sometimes the accent is on the up bit, right?
One and two and three and four and one and two and three. Do you have to have two instruments to do it? No, because I just did it with one. I'm implying a rhythm of one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and then I put an accent every three.
So I just did the polyrhythm by myself. Think one and two and three, right? Now put an accent every three. No, not one, two, and so one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.
It turns around in the beat, no? That's what a polyrhythm is. Yeah, so it's kind of like a change and pattern from one rhythm to the next. Well, they're not next. They are superimposed. They have a rhythm of the rhythm.
They glare on each other. Or you can have a rhythm of five or a rhythm of two, or a rhythm of five or rhythm of three. Okay. And then it can start to get complicated. Okay. Where would be the easiest one to start, I guess?
Well, three versus two is the easiest one to start, sadly. There's one thing you can do to work on them without too much fuss. And the idea is this. First imagine you're just playing in eighth notes, no?
One, two, and three, and four, and one, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two, without any accents. Now you do this. You think of an odd number and an even number. Must be one and one. Okay?
Small ones at the beginning. So for instance, two and one will be great. I'm going to play two notes and then I have a rest of one. And then two notes and the rest of one. Right? I'm playing two notes and then resting for one note.
Right? As long as you pick one even number and one odd number, you're fine. Or again, you can play one note. And then I'll do a rest of two, no? One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.
One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. Or one, one, two, one, one, two, whatever you want to call it. Count it. Makes sense. So you do a two and three or three and two, whatever.
Okay. That's three playing and two not playing, and so on and so forth. Okay? You guys remember that one is a number and one can be used. Okay? People always go like five and seven. No, first of all, one and one, one odd and one even.
Okay? People go like seven and eight. Yeah, good luck managing that the first time. Okay? Pick small numbers. The challenge is there. Make sense? This way you automatically create some kind of polyrhythm and you can start studying this thing.
Okay. Okay. Now, again, depends who you ask, you're going to get a different answer. And a technical answer can be very complicated. And there are other things that are technically polyrhythm, but they don't sound like this, etc., etc., etc.
But let's get a simple thing down that is also useful, okay? Rather than just going for a technically correct thing. And there's also a big debate on what is polyrhythm and what is polymeter. Yeah, yeah, even start.
Okay? That's the idea. Make sense? Good. Yes. Thank you, David. All right. Thank you.