polyrhythm

1 7.5

Two or more different beats played at the same time to make a more complex sound

noun
/ˌpɒliˈrɪðəm/

Specialized

: polirritmia

In today's Everything Music, we're going to discuss how to use polyrhythms to create melodic ideas.
visual polyrhythm
three polyrhythms
two-against-three polyrhythms

Examples

African American music is often characterized by strong rhythms, the use of syncopated ostinati, and polyrhythms.

Academic text (1995)
In our music class, we learned how a polyrhythm can enhance a simple melody by adding complexity.
Horse Lords deal in polyrhythms, and lots of them.

Blog text (30)
In our lesson, we taught students a typical West African two-against-three polyrhythm to illustrate this idea.

Academic text (2015)
The band created a unique sound by incorporating a polyrhythm that combined a fast melody with a slow beat.
During the concert, the musicians demonstrated a polyrhythm that featured conflicting rhythms played simultaneously.

How Complex

polyrhythm

Specialized

1 7.5

syncopation

Specialized

2 8.0

rhythm

301 3.3

Surface Forms

polyrhythm singular

polyrhythms plural

Morphology

polyrhythm = rhythm (transparent) = poly + rhythm

The meaning is directly compositional: 'poly-' means many and 'rhythm' supplies the musical pattern sense.

Etymology

Polyrhythm comes from two parts: poly- meaning 'many', as in polygon, and rhythm meaning 'beat' or 'pattern of beats'. So a polyrhythm is when many different beats happen at the same time, which makes the music sound richer and more interesting.