UPDATE: Eh, I decided I didn’t write that page very well. I’ve revised it and posted it below. If you want to get the old one, it’s there, too.
A collection of practice patterns exploring aspects of a 4:3 polyrhythm within a jazz waltz feel, from quite simple to rather involved, easing into an actual 4:3 metric modulation.
To illustrate what’s happening rhythmically, here is that 4:3 polyrhythm, expressed some common ways— as a tuplet, as dotted 8th notes, as a combined rhythm with the quarter notes— the three side of the polyrhythm. On this page we’re doing it the last way, which makes it easier to work out the coordination, but obcures the polyrhythmness of it.
Click the little arrow for some details on that.
The tuplet is the most usual thing to see on a lead sheet. It is expressed in quarter notes because tuplets (usually) involve fitting a larger than normal number of notes in a given space— e.g. 8th note triplets = three 8ths in the space of two. Also, the metric modulation on the page suggests 4/4 time superimposed over measure of 3/4, so expressing the tuplet as quarter notes makes sense in relation to that.
The dotted 8ths are the literal rate of the 4-side notes.
The practice patterns— update, typo, you are not insane— 2 and 3 are the same.
Previously these pages involved a three-voice ostinato rhythm, usually with an independent left hand part. These are just some things to play with, to find their way into your own playing however they do. They become part of your understanding of a waltz,
