Polyrhythms - The Musician's Guide Book/Online Audio

by Peter Magadini, Wanda Sykes (Editor)

(Percussion). Peter Magadini's Polyrhythms is acclaimed the world over and has been hailed by Modern Drummer magazine as "by far the best book on the subject." Written for instrumentalists and vocalists alike, this book with online audio contains excellent solos and exercises that feature polyrhythmic concepts. Topics covered 6 over 4, 5 over 4, 7 over 4, 3 over 4, 11 over 4, and other rhythmic ratios; combining various polyrhythms; polyrhythmic time signatures; and much more. The audio includes demos of the exercises and is accessed online using the unique code in each book. To see Peter in action demonstrating various polyrhythms, . To purchase Peter Magadini's stand-alone CD Polyrhythm (different from the audio that accompanies this book), you can visit www.petermagadini.com.

Genres: Music

68 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a more advanced book for musicians. This book is a method designed to teach the creative musician and music student the art of playing polyrhythms. In simple it is "many rhythms" played simultaneously, or against each other. Polyrhythms can also be thought of as two different meters (time signatures) played against (or more accurately, with) each other.

There are three sections of the book:
1. 3 against 2 or 6 against 4(1 1/2 beats to 1 ratio)


2. 3 against 4 (3/4 beats to 1)

3. 5 against 4 (1 1/4 beats to 1)


Each section has polyrhythmic patterns, variant exercises, and solos.

The beauty of this is the student can practice without an instrument (clapping and counting), with percussion and drums, string and wind instruments, and the piano. This book is designed to facilitate rhythmic versatility and rhythmic thinking.

I still struggle with this book sometimes because of the attention to detail required when playing these challenging exercises. Overall a great book and would recommend it to an intermediate musician who can confidently read music. Thanks!

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best technical manuals on how to get into playing polyrhythms on any instrument there is out there.

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very handy little book - especially useful are all the nested tuplets.