Re: Polyrhythms (was Re: Meditations on the awful sounds of theAlesis SR-16 drummachine)

[burnett@pobox.com]

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002, Jon Wagner wrote:

> OK, I'm tired of typing these in but if anyone has questions about 
> examples of specific types of polyrhythms, ask me and I can try and type 
> them up.  My all time favorite is a story about Richard Fynman (sp?) who 
> is a famous physicist who also played bongo drums.  Apparently he got 
> interested in polyrhythms and wouldn't stop until he could feel 12 over 
> 13, or 12 beats played in the same amount of time as 13 beats!  I tried 
> it a few times and I definitely don't feel it yet...  These kinds of 
> things CAN get really mathematical and there are tricks to figuring them 
> out which I can post if anyone wants.
> Jon

My favorite polyrhythm story was one I heard from Philip Glass when he was 
speaking after a performance on the Monsters of Grace tour. He was 
discussing recording Passages with Ravi Shankar, and that Ravi Shankar was 
always teaching all the time. So after a recording session one day Ravi 
Shankar gets everyone participating in playing, and teaches everyone this
simple melody in a nine-beat measure. So he works with everyone, gets them 
going, and everyone's happily playing along. Suddenly Ravi goes off on 
this other rhythm and Glass, confused, asked "What rhythm are you playing 
in now, Ravi?"

"Thirteen and a half!"

"Why?"

""Three times nine is twenty-seven. Divide by two and get thirteen and a 
half!"

best,
Steve