Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-the-circle-of-fifths/
What is the Circle of Fifths? It’s a powerful tool from music theory. A way of thinking about the relationship between notes and chords that go together in music. Learning the Circle of Fifths helps you to more easily play by ear or improvise, by understanding the musical connections between notes and the chords. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-the-circle-of-fifths/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/seven-reasons-to-learn-a-new-instrument/
Why learn a new instrument? Although it might seem too soon if you haven’t yet mastered your first instrument, in fact there are a range of benefits which come from learning a second (or third!) instrument. Here are seven good reasons to learn a new instrument. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/seven-reasons-to-learn-a-new-instrument/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/male-female-duets/
Duets have become a staple of modern music. Here are some of the best Male-Female duets for the next karaoke night or to add to your repertoire! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/male-female-duets/

Where do you find the good bassists? How can you meet a producer who’s on your wavelength? Is it even  possible to find a backup singer who has the right vocal range and a workable schedule?

Enter Vampr, the missing link between you and your perfect musical collaborator. Simply set up a profile with links to your work, start browsing through potential collaborators, swipe right on those you’d like to work with, and let the magic happen!

The comparisons with Tinder will be aplenty – except this app isn’t a hopeful shot in the dark at a successful match. Vampr easily allows you to specify what you’re working on, who you want to collaborate with, and what your musical goals are. It also eliminates the issue of distance, by enabling you to connect with musicians that aren’t in your immediate circle, or don’t even live in your town – making it that much easier to find the perfect musical co-conspirator.

We spoke with Kevin Clobes, Vampr’s Head of Growth, to find out more about how the app works, the incredible connections it helps its users foster, and what’s next in store for this musical social network…

Co-founders Baz Palmer (lead writer and guitarist of 12x platinum band Hunters & Collectors) and Josh met back in 2011 when Baz was scouting for talent to sign to his then-indie record label. He offered Josh his first ever recording deal and break. Both of them worked together in that capacity for over two years, releasing an album that went on to have millions of streams and touring for another two years. Following the album cycle, they launched Vampr, becoming business partners and deciding to embark on that journey together.

Both Josh and Baz understood the pain of getting started in the music industry and wanted to address it with urgency.

Additionally, they have experienced the benefits a network of like-minded and influential individuals can bring to one’s artistic endeavours. It is their own personal experiences that inform the app, and their credibility in the space that gives them a genuine voice.

I would say there are two main and equally daunting problems faced by musicians today.

The first is the barrier to making connections. A majority of musicians out there do not know where to begin and do not know others with the experience needed to help them explore their passion.

The second issue is location. Even if a musician has said connections, a lot of the time, they live in areas where they cannot properly network or access those connections.

With Vampr, we are bridging these gaps by allowing our users to network with other musicians they would not otherwise be able to meet. We are making location and lack of connections irrelevant by immediately allowing musicians to contact those they need to right from their phone or tablet.

There will never be a technological solution to the creative process.

Even with those producing strictly in a DAW, we often find that we cannot get those drums sounding just right or are having trouble composing a bassline. Collaborating will always be beneficial in these situations because it adds another creative influence to the project.

Generally speaking, a collaborator may bring a whole different outlook or perspective to your project that you might not have conceived on your own. In addition, your collaborator might just have the connection you are lacking to get your music or project off the ground, and into the right hands.

Also let’s not forget, the days of being in a band are not over, and often, people are still looking for other drummers, singers, guitarists, and other instrumentalists.

I would also suggest that as the DIY musician transitions from the bedroom to the wider community (i.e., by playing shows and getting exposure on local radio), they will need support from roles such as publicist, graphic designer, manager, roadie, and so on. And that’s where Vampr can be your musical companion right through your career.

Vampr allows the user to search for the exact person they are looking for in the exact area they are looking in.

Let’s say you are visiting Orlando, Florida for a gig and need a bass player to perform with there. You can simply input that you are looking for a bass player in Orlando and you can start swiping through results immediately. If you are looking for a videographer for your next music video in Los Angeles, plug in those details and connect with one straight away. The possibilities are endless when searching in Vampr.

With technology constantly advancing, you no longer need to be in the same location in order to collaborate with others. These days, everything can be done over the computer. Vampr is a place where musicians can establish those connections and start the conversation of possibly working together.

Also, instead of having to go to networking functions and live events to find others (which can be costly and time consuming), it can all be done with a few clicks – or swipes – on your phone or device.

Vampr is significantly more efficient. Rather than scrolling through endless lists and wishing on a star that what you are looking for will have made or responded to a post, you can now narrow it down so you are only looking through options for what you need.

Our solution has been changing lives daily and we are confident we’ve honed in on the right approach to connecting this wildly fragmented ecosystem!

Yes, absolutely.

Our user base includes numerous Grammy Award-winning songwriters and producers, established A&Rs, and record label executives. With our list of established industry figures growing by the day, one’s chance of connecting with someone of this ilk increases.

In fact, our CEO and co-founder Josh Simons recently took a shot in the dark and hopped on Vampr in hopes of advancing his songwriting career, which he is pursuing on the side of developing the app. He ended up connecting with Grammy Award-winning producer Anthony Kilhoffer of the G.O.O.D. Music camp, and subsequently producing a record called “I’m Fine” by Cyhi The Prynce feat. Travis Scott – a record that was also executive produced by Kanye West! Vampr made all of this possible.

Our new website will highlight similar stories from our user base, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.

We have seen collaborations happen all over the world as a result of Vampr. From Philadelphia to Barcelona, we have seen people form bands, get placed on the radio and release songs on major platforms together as a result of Vampr.

Every week, we post about new Vampr collaborations on our Instagram account @vamprapp, and our new website will dig into this further.

The app is also tailored towards music lovers. If you are simply looking to find some refreshing new music to listen to, the app acts as a music discovery tool. There are tons of fresh new artists on Vampr that are waiting to be discovered and our algorithm will suggest new artists based on your existing musical taste. Record labels, managers, and publicists can use this function to find the most relevant upcoming artists. We will be expanding on this in 2018 however it’s incredibly exciting what you can derive in data when you have a user base as large and engaged as Vampr.

We have just surpassed one million connections!

Think about that for a moment. In many of these cases, lives have been changed forever and the seeds of future mini-economies may well have been planted.

That can sound hyperbolic but when you look at the worth of a single valuable connection… take John and Paul for example. Their union went on to create over $50 billion in revenue for industries well past music – film, gaming, etc. It’s profound. We are excited to continue to dig into ways we can help connect this ecosystem and create value for all participants involved.

When a single solid connection is formed, all members of the industry benefit.

Playing Together

Though networking events can be stressful and nerve-wracking, they can work wonders for your career if you play your cards right.

With Vampr, us musicians can enjoy the same benefits – though thankfully, without any of the dress shirts, bad wine, or awkward small talk – in one user-friendly app.

Start expanding your musical network by downloading Vampr on iOS or GooglePlay. With an interface that connects you with musicians with relevant skills and interests, you don’t have to spend time shooting in the dark – you’ll already know whether your musical sensibilities align with those of potential collaborators just by looking at their profile. Best of all, as Kevin illustrated above, you never know who you’ll end up working with – they may be just what you need to take your music project to the stratosphere.

Lastly, be sure to check out their blog – with such a rapidly-expanding music network and exciting things in the works, this is one company to watch. And you won’t want to miss a beat.

The post Making Musical Connections, with Vampr appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-things-we-learned-about-teaching-music-from-dylan-welsh/
Musical U Resident Pro Dylan Welsh reveals his his approach to teaching, the key to musical improvisation, and how to make traditionally dry topics such as music theory exciting and engaging. Here are 4 things we learned: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-things-we-learned-about-teaching-music-from-dylan-welsh/

We were so impressed with Jimmy’s story and the results that he and his colleagues at Feversham have managed, so we were excited to have the chance to speak with him. And as you’ll learn in this interview it wasn’t just “adding music” that made the difference. It was a particular kind of music education which focuses on developing the inner musicality of each child – and which can be equally powerful for adults too.

In this conversation we talk about:

• The specific kind of music education Jimmy adopted for use at Feversham
• Why this kind of music education was initially a real struggle for Jimmy personally, given his own musical background, and why it’s the exact opposite, a fun and easy experience, for his students
• Whether it was the kind of music education or the increased amount that produced such amazing results

A couple of things we mention which we should probably explain in case you’re not familiar with the UK system: the “PGCE” qualification is the main teaching degree for UK primary and secondary schools, and “Ofsted” is the official body which evaluates schools in the UK.

This is a really interesting and inspiring story even if you don’t have a particular interest in childhood music education yourself, so whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or just a musician yourself, we know you’ll get a lot out of this one.

Listen to the episode:

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Links and Resources

• Feversham Primary Academy
• Improving school results not with maths, but with music
• Jimmy’s YouTube channel
• British Kodály Academy
• About Solfa
• Jimmy’s Twitter

Transcript

Christopher: Welcome to the show Jimmy, thank you for joining us today.

Jimmy: Thanks for having me, you’re very welcome.

Christopher: So you have a phenomenal story of success with Feversham and I’m keen to hear all about that, but before we dive in, I would love to know about your own musical story, and what your own music education was like.

Jimmy: Well yeah, my upbringing was we had a piano in our house, which was just brilliant. My parents weren’t musical but as soon as I could reach the keys I started playing on it, and started picking out little tunes on it. Luckily I had parents who could support me, you know, we weren’t a particularly well off family but my parents kind of prioritized me learning music. So my mum used to walk me three or four miles every week to my piano lessons. I was lucky to have piano lessons all my life growing up, and it was quite interesting. So when I came to go to university my reading skills were very poor. I was very learning classical music and very bad at reading, so it was quite hard work a lot of the time. And then I discovered Jazz, and I’ve always been able play by ear, so that kind of opened up a new world for me. It was a little bit late for my university choices.

I went to study English at Lancaster University, I finished my degree and I didn’t really want to work in journalism or sales, so I had a kind of epiphany when I was sat in the middle of a field meditating, and sort of suddenly realized that I had to devote the rest of my to music. So I went to Leeds Music College, learnt Jazz and music production there, and never looked back from there really, it’s the best decision I ever made.

I managed to find a lot of professional work, despite not being able to read music well because I had the skills in being able to listen to pieces and play them straight away, and then transpose them into whatever key, so that’s sort of where my skills lay. I have managed to get sort of quite a lot of work doing that, and then I got into teaching and was teaching secondary. I was thrown straight into a tough school, with a lot of behavior problems, it was probably one of the hardest places where you could go to work as a teacher. So that was eye opening, quite interesting work.
Then I had a job teaching music A’ Level for a couple of years which was great, but then when the cuts started to come in, I started to get more and more demands, can you do this Btec course, can you do that Btec course, can you do this maternity cover but we can’t offer you any more hours to do it, sort of thing. And I ended up doing 70 hour weeks, every week, and was getting paid for three days, so I thought, “Right I’ve had enough of this, I’m going to quit.” They were offering some voluntary redundancies so I kind of bit their hand off and thought, “Right I’m never going to teach again.”

Went to try and be a professional musician and if it was the weekend all the time I would have done okay, but it’s quite hard earning a living and not knowing where your next bit of money is coming from. So I started doing a bit of supply teaching, just to get a regular steady income. Started working in primary schools and absolutely loved it. The children were so enthusiastic and an absolute joy to teach, but obviously I didn’t really know what I was doing with teaching kids that age, because I had come from teaching 18 year olds who’d been learning music most of their life, to teaching 5 and 6 years who were brand new to it.

That’s a really common problem, because music teachers are generally trained to teach secondary school, and primary school teachers are not trained to teach music. So we’ve got this situation where nobody is actually trained to teach primary music or specialist courses and things. But on the PGCE system, which is the main route into teaching for most teachers in the UK, there’s not really any qualifications which enable people to work in primary schools as a music specialist. So that’s something we’re very much looking to promote.

I landed at Feversham, and as I say didn’t know an awful lot but was able to get some professional training in the Kodály approach, which is what we use. You start to see results very quickly. When I started at Feversham they hadn’t had any music at all, so it was quite exciting to have a blank canvas to work with, but it was also quite a challenge because you had two or three kids in each class who were able to sing in tune, and keep a steady rhythm and pulse.
I think in a lot of schools they would be told, “You’re the kids who are good at music, you can do these after school clubs, you can do all the things.” And I’ve always been very against that, I’ve always believed that everybody’s musical and if you nurture it in the right way, everyone can have musical literacy. It’s a system where you start with so and mi, so you start with the really easy, “Duh, Duh, Du, Du, Duh, Du, Du, Du, Du, Du, Du, Duh.” Songs. And that’s an interval which imitates natural speech patterns, so when your mums calling you she will say, “Jimmy, dinners ready.” And you hear it a lot in natural speech. So that’s an interval that everybody can sing in tune.

What you do is build up from there, so you go from those to notes, “So and Mi.” And you add, “La.” So you get, “Duh, du, du, duh, duh, du, du, du, du, duh.” It becomes playground chant, and they you add mi, do, re to that. So you go, “So, mi, so, so, mi, so, la, so, mi. Mi, re, do.” And you build that up over years. And you build the rhythms up slowly over years as well. So that the very secure children can do everything with those, although they’re only sort of doing two intervals in the first year, they can do everything with those two intervals, and when you add the next one they can do everything with that.

So by the time you’ve been teaching them for five, six years, everyone is musically literate, everyone can read well, they can sing well, they can listen to melodies and transpose them. They can actually listen to melodies and write them down better than my A’ Level students could. It’s really striking and really effective methodology for primary schools, but sadly it’s virtually unheard of, even among music teachers, it’s not very well known. So we’re hoping the more people hear about it because of our success.

Christopher: Well there was a ton there that’d like to unpack and dig into to. It’s a fantastic journey and obviously we know the results have really shown the value of that teaching approach. You said that you were someone who could always play by ear. Was that something that featured in your piano learning as you grew up, or did you learn to do it, or was it just something that you did instinctively?

Jimmy: As I remember it, it was something that I did fairly instinctively. So I was quite lucky in that respect, and I think because I nurtured it from an early age, it was something I’ve always been able to do. But I found interesting when I moved into teaching was that quite often the things that you can do well as a musician, you don’t necessarily understand how you can do them, and how you can teach other people. What I found actually in my teaching was that I was better at teaching the things I wasn’t very good at, like the sight reading and things. Because I had to think more carefully about what those first steps were. Whereas with playing by ear it was something I’ve always just done, and it’s hard to teach because I don’t understand how I did it necessarily.

The Kodály approach by naming every note using, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, it’s really effective in developing that ear for music. So it’s a really good system where I can teach people to do what I can do, but I think before I learned that methodology I wouldn’t of been necessarily brilliant at teaching it.

Christopher: That’s really interesting, and you didn’t find it clashed in your head when you were first learning the Kodály approach?

Jimmy: Completely yeah. No it was yeah, it was really difficult for me because just really silly things like if you’re singing in a major key you’ll go, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. If you’re singing in a minor key you will start on la, so you will go, la, ti, do, re, mi, fa, so. What you actually find is we’re so kind of programmed to thinking of do as one, that as soon as I move into a minor key I think … so instead of la, I’d be calling it do, and it’s actually quite difficult I think if you’ve already learned another way to then kind of transpose this new way of thinking onto your understanding. It’s … I’ve completely forgotten what I’m talking about now.

Christopher: That’s alright. So apart from those names clashing, did you find the kind of system of recognizing the notes, and their role in the scale, was a good match for how you were instinctively doing things?

Jimmy: Definitely yeah. It was kind of putting names to what I was doing in my head. And I like I say enabling me to actually teach it, and have a system for teaching what I could kind of instinctively do.

Christopher: Gotcha. So you said something that really resonated with me, which was teaching music to young kids is strikingly different to teaching say teenagers. How much is that purely a function of age, and the fact that a 3 year old doesn’t have the same attention span as a 13 year old, and how much is about the music education itself and what they’re ready for, would you say?

Jimmy: If you look at babies, babies have an incredible sense of pitch, it’s a bit like the swimming analogy. If you throw a baby into a swimming pool … don’t. I hope listeners won’t do that after listening to me, and definitely don’t do it with someone else’s baby. But if you throw a baby into water they will swim. And if you keep them swimming they don’t really need to learn how to swim, they just do it instinctively. And it’s very much the same with music.

Children are born with incredible pitch perceptions, they need to have it to survive, so they need to be able to recognize their mothers voice over predators. And they need to have really good tone and pitch distinctions to recognize that mothers voice, above everything else. They have an incredible ear, some people think that babies have perfect pitch and that they lose it as they get older. But what you do find is, if you do start nurturing at that really early age, and I noticed this when I started teaching the three year olds in nursery. Apparently there is a golden window of opportunity for singing in tune is age three to six. And it’s also before the age of seven that you see the biggest neuro scientific benefits. So in terms of brain development, the magic number is before the age of seven, so you see a huge difference if you start before the age of seven. For example, my year sixes now can’t sing in tune, anything like as well as my year fives, even though they’ve had exactly the same program. And I think it’s just because they started a year later. They started after the age of seven, so I think that really is a magic number.

Sadly though even in primary school that do music, they often don’t do music in early years, which is to anyone who’s in early years is mind boggling. Who wouldn’t sing to children, they get so much out of it. I think that is where music is needed the most and where it’s has the biggest effect.

Christopher: And so you adopted the Kodály approach even though you weren’t someone had been raised in Hungary, and you weren’t someone who felt like they needed to be taught how to play by ear, or transpose, or transcribe. What was it that drew you to it, and what was the learning experience like for you, adopting Kodály?

Jimmy: It was very much the issue of children not being able to sing in tune, so I looked into methodologies. I’ve always been attracted by methodologies which are inclusive of everybody, and believe that everybody is a musician. So that really appealed to me but also it gave me some practical steps to teach singing in tune in a way I could build in. Once I started doing that I started really seeing the results. So yes, everyone can sing, “Duh, Duh, Du, Du, Duh.” In tune. And I could build it up from there.

So you start doing it and it works absolutely brilliantly. And then I think the tendency is to just go really quick with it, so you end up doing really, really complicated things with children too early, and you realize the kids aren’t very secure with it, so you have to go back. So my teaching has definitely slowed down over the past few years, and I’m much more slow and steady, than trying to rush through to the next thing. I’m more about making sure everything is really secure.

It’s … the games are great fun. The games are things you can just start. The Kodály approach is all about music always being a joy and never a torture, in Kodály’s words. There’s a lot of games, and a lot of fun, and children actually learn things quite often unconsciously without actually realizing that they’re learning, they’re just playing a game from their point of view. And that’s really appealing and that’s also something you can do straight away. Even you don’t really understand the methodology fully. You can start pulling the games into your own teaching. So that’s a really easy kind of route in. Then you realize how well the children are learning, the skills in the games. And then that’s when you start to think more about the sequence and how you’re going to prepare children for the next step of the journey, and how you’re going to reinforce those elements they’ve already done.

So it’s definitely got more scientific as I’ve learnt but it’s still very much a process of learning for me. I’ve only been doing it for four years, I’m learning from people who’ve been doing it for 40 years, real experts in it. I think that whilst the experts will probably have more children capable of doing the things they teach them, you notice a huge result just by doing the Kodály approach in terms of miles more children being musical and having that level of musical literacy.

Christopher: Terrific, and you mentioned games there, could you give an example, or maybe describe what one of these classes looks like if it’s not the traditional every kid has a glockenspiel, play these notes that are written on the page kind of class.

Jimmy: Yeah, what I can do, which might be really good for you, is send you some videos.

Christopher: Perfect, we can put those in the show notes for people to watch.

Jimmy: So just to explain it. You will learn musical principles through the game that you’re playing. So an early song that children do is, “See-saw, up and down.” And they’ll move their arms up and down in pairs to the music like a see-saw. It’s just a really simple thing, but very early on it gives them a sense of high note and a low note, and sort of build it up from there. A more advanced version of similar game is a game called High Low Chicka Low. I’ll send you a video of it, because it’s probably quite difficult to explain but you kind of … how would I explain it? So you … the song goes, “High low chicka low, chicka low, chicka low. High low chicka low, chicha low, high.” When you sing a high note you high five your partner high up in the air. You high five below your hand for the low note, and then you hit your hands together for the chicka.

Christopher: We’ll put a link to the video in the show notes. But I think that gives people a sense, and I guess obviously there you’re starting to prepare them for the idea of hand signs and that physical sense of where notes in live in the scale.

Jimmy: Yeah absolutely, yeah. And the hand signs are really effective in giving kinesthetic information to the pitch information that they’re doing. So sometimes a child won’t get a pitch, but as soon as you start doing the hand signs they will get that interval, so they are really effective with children.

Christopher: That’s really interesting. So over the last several years at Feversham you’ve introduced this quite different way of teaching music, and you said they didn’t really have any music before. You’ve also really ramped up the amount of music teaching each child receives, is that right?

Jimmy: Yeah. So as a basic entitlement they get … it’s difficult to put an exact number because some teachers do more music in class away from the music lessons than others, but I would say on average each student is getting a minimum of two and a half hours a week. And then they opt in for the all the after school clubs, and the choirs at lunch times, and things like that then some children are actually doing seven hours of every week, with me. And they’re just absolutely flying as you can imagine, they’re doing brilliantly.

Christopher: Fantastic, and the results you’ve been getting in terms of academic achievement, and attendance, and pupil satisfaction and enjoyment, and parenting engagement, would you say that is primarily down to just increasing the amount of the music, or do you think it’s also related to the methodology, and the more kind of game like joy focused approach to music learning?

Jimmy: I think it’s both. The games provide a lot of fun but they also develop … they’re designed to develop self esteem and confidence in children as well, which is a really big factor, and I think that has a knock on effect in all subjects.

If you look at neuroscientists such as Dr. Anita Collins in Australia, she does a fantastic Ted Talk where she talks about all the neuro scientific benefits for children. I think once you learn about those it’s almost cruel not to give that children really in schools. There’s a huge body of evidence, with study, after study, after study, showing that music provides … how can I put it? It provides the neurological basis for you to study all other subjects, it gets the parts of your brain communicating with each other which should in theory make problem solving in maths, and english, and things like that a much easier process.

There’s also quite a lot of evidence that learning language through singing is really effective. Most of the children in our school don’t speak English at home, 98% of children speak English as a second language, so I think for them you really see the language developing through learning to sing. And then parents see how much the children are blossoming and are just really supportive of it.

Christopher: Fantastic. So you touched on something there which I think is another really interesting aspect of the Feversham story and it’s something that maybe our international listeners who don’t know the UK school system that well would be surprised by, which is the cultural and racial make up of Feversham. And that naturally has a huge impact on how you teach music, I suppose, and particular with one of the tenets of the Kodály philosophy being to use the kind of folk music of the country as the basis of teaching. How have you tackled that?

Jimmy: So our makeup at Feversham is 98% muslim, Pakistani children. So there’s a lot of myths about that community that they’re somehow against music, and that music is Haram and forbidden in their culture, which isn’t true at all. There is a very, very tiny minority of muslims who are saying that with very loud voices, but actually the vast majority of muslims are quite happy with music program in schools, obviously providing that it’s not … I think where it gets difficult is if you’re doing songs about Jesus, and how wonderful Jesus is, or certain pop songs that have sexual content. But I suppose they’re kind of worries for a lot parents who aren’t muslims and I think that once they realize that you’re … what a good program of music you’re giving them they’re broadly supportive or it.

Also we … I think there wasn’t the culture of going to concerts and things like that, so when we first starting doing concerts we’d have two parents and they’d be on the phone the entire concert. They wouldn’t even clap when the children finished a performance because there just wasn’t the culture of knowing of what to do. We sort of tackled that by getting some very well renowned muslim musicians to come into to school to show the children that you can be a muslim and you can be a musician. You can be a very devoted muslim and music can be part of that, so we had Ahmad Hussain come in and he’s had millions, and millions of YouTube hit with his nasheeds which are sort of muslim worship songs, but there’s kind of a pop nasheed industry now. He’s doing very well in that field. He came in, we had an absolute sell out concert and ever since then parents have come to concerts and been really enthusiastic about what the children are doing.

So in terms of the Kodály I think times are very different now to when Kodály was putting his program together, and I think one huge difference is the multiculturalism. So for Kodály it was about exploring native folk songs and so in Hungary lots of Hungarian folk songs, and reestablishing that sense of Hungarian identify, because I think Hungary had obviously under Nazi occupation and then later it became a Soviet state. So I think the idea of Hungarian nationalism was very important, whereas if you start shouting too loudly about British nationalism people will sort of really get the wrong idea.

But we see it as … the majority of the songs we use are British folk songs because that’s the language that the children are learning so the vast majority are, but we do include quite a lot of Muslim nasheeds and things in the program as well, so there’s some variety. We also have a lot of African children and Eastern European children, so we do try and find a balanced program of music that we do, which reflects the community as a whole.

Christopher: Very cool. And over the last several years, apart from these big headline results in terms of academic achievement, are there any stand out examples, or maybe children who you’ve seen really benefit from this, where the traditional lack of music education in the UK school might have left them stranded?

Jimmy: I’m horrified to think what would happen to some of these children if they’d never had the music that they’ve been given here. So there is a little boy, Adyan, in year one, he has some fairly complex learning difficulties which actually result in him not speaking to anybody. Or when he first started he wouldn’t speak to anyone, wouldn’t communicate. You could give him instructions and you weren’t even sure if he’d actually heard them or not and he wouldn’t really speak to anybody.

But then what we found was he loved singing, and would just sing, sing, sing. We very quickly started teaching him through language and vocabulary through song, and once you’ve got him singing you can’t stop him. He will sing verse, after verse, after verse, of songs. We realized that all the time he was kind of running around and didn’t seem to be listening he was taking in all these songs and learning them. And mum had very enthusiastically jumped on this as a way of developing his language, but also showing him off to relatives in Pakistan on Twitter, showing what he can do. He will communicate … he will respond to musical signals, so if you go, “Do, doo.” He will stand up, he you go, “Do, doo.” he will sit down. He will … if you start singing the tidying up song he will start tidying up, he will tidy up and while he’s still singing the song he will go and queue up at the door, ready for the next lesson. Just seeing that profound effect that music’s had on him.

And this isn’t using complicated Hungarian pedagogy, this is simply just singing to a boy, it’s not rocket science. And there’s at least one person in every school who can do that. But I’ve worked in autistic schools and the children have had no music whatsoever, and I think it’s … when you see the huge difference it’s making to his life it’s a no brainer, every child should be having that kind of opportunity to learn and develop.

Christopher: Absolutely. So what’s holding us back as a country in terms of music education? I’m sure the same question applies in a lot of countries.

Jimmy: One thing is not taking it seriously, music is seen like the cherry on the cake, if you get everything else sorted out maybe you will have a bit of time to a bit of music, and because they’re only kids it doesn’t really matter if it’s not high quality, you know. That’s very much the mentality, you know, that it’s something they can learn at secondary school. What we’d like to see is a huge shift towards realizing the vital importance of music in a primary school setting. So we’re very much pushing for primary music PGCE specialisms so that teachers are trained to teach music to children this age, which very few people are.

We’re also looking … the thing is lots of headteachers will say we don’t really have the time or the resources but it’s a matter of prioritizing it. And as long as Ofsted are only recognizing english and maths results in schools, there’s very little incentive for teachers to do much of anything … for headteachers too much of anything else. And you can give them all the neuroscience arguments and almost convince them that it will improve the results but it’s still a big step for them. I think what would really help is if Ofsted actually recognized music in primary schools to the point where you cannot get an outstanding in a school unless your music and creative arts provision is also outstanding.

So we’re trying to come up with a system that isn’t too intimidating for schools, that’s fairly simple for schools to use, but which recognizes music and creativity as core subjects basically, as vitally important core subjects. Because I think they are, I mean I think you can get the results through drilling maths and english, but you end with children who aren’t particularly enjoying their education. Whereas we’re very much about developing the whole child, so developing their confidence, and not just their abilities but their abilities as a human being, that’s going to be going into a brave new world that’s very different to what we went into when we left primary school.

Christopher: So Jimmy, you managed to cram all this extra music time into the curriculum, as it were, at Feversham. How did your head teacher feel about that, how were you able to make such a big change?

Jimmy: It’s impossible really to bring about the sort of changes we did without the support of your head teacher, and I was very lucky. One of the things that attracted me to stay at Feversham when I came on supply was that Naveed, the head teacher, he wanted a music specialist in the school, he wanted somebody who could teach music across the age range and he’s very much coming at it from a – his Masters was in Comparative Religions, so he’s very interested in the sort of spiritual side of life and he believes that music is one of the few things left that actually give you that transcendental experience of taking you away from your everyday life, and the meditative mental health qualities that music brings.

He was very keen for that to be going on in the school. And when I started talking to him about the potential brain development elements of studying music as well he was very keen, and the more I presented him with information and studies, the more excited he was to do more and more music in the school. And I’m very lucky that he’s said yes to everything I’ve asked for.

But what’s been very eye-opening is that people think because we’re an “academy” we have this magic money tree and we’ve got all this funding. We do get quite a lot of funding because we’re in one of the fourth poorest districts in the country, so we do get a lot of “Pupil Premium” money, which is what schools get to support children in poverty, but what’s interesting is that if you start looking into it, usually schools with more Pupil Premium money for the poorest students are the ones doing the least music. And we have exactly the same funding model as all the other local schools, and quite a lot of the other local schools are saying we can’t afford to do music, we can’t afford to have a music specialist, we can only do 20 minutes a week, we don’t have time for anything else. We’ve got exactly the same funding model as them so like I was saying before, it’s a matter of “Is it a priority for your school?”, which again leads us back to Ofsted and if Ofsted don’t take it seriously we can’t expect anyone else to unfortunately.

Christopher: Well it’s fantastic that you had such support from your head teacher, and it’s clear that the results have really paid off the more music you’ve been doing.

Jimmy: Yeah, just hope other schools will follow suit. Because as you mentioned, it’s not just about the academic results and the academic improvement, but about developing the whole child and developing self-esteem and their confidence and their ability to share and work with other children. There are so many benefits to it, which a skilled music teacher at this age can bring out, even if they’ve only got half an hour a week with the kids, you can really start to bring those things out. And it’s just tragic really that more schools aren’t doing what we’re doing.

Christopher: Well I think definitely one of the things that’s most inspiring about the Feversham case is … I think anyone listening to this podcast believes in music education for the sake of music education, and music in education because music is so wonderful. But I think you’ve really demonstrated that it’s not the cherry on the cake, it is something that doesn’t distract from the core subjects, in fact in contributes-

Jimmy: It is the cake-

Christopher: It is the cake.

Jimmy: It is the cake tin. It’s the cake tin, I think. You can look a little bit funny and misshapen without it I think.

Christopher: I think that’s a wonderful visual to leave people with. Jimmy it’s been so wonderful talking to you and hearing this very inspiring and I think just impactful story you’ve created at Feversham. We’ll put some links in the show notes for people who want to learn more about the work you’ve been doing, we’ll definitely have links to those videos you mentioned. Maybe some next steps people can take if they want to see more of this kind of music education in their own schools.

Jimmy: Sure. There is the British Kodály Academy who have done all my training and that’s been absolute gold dust. You can go away on a course for three or four days and come back with loads of stuff you can do in the classroom if you’re a teacher. If you’re … quite a lot of musicians on the courses who aren’t necessarily teachers as well and they quite often really benefit from the musician ship, courses that the BKA offer. Yeah there are quite a lot of opportunities out there to learn more about it. People can follow me on Twitter and Facebook, and I’m kind of always banging on about it all on there.

Christopher: Perfect, well we will have links to all of those in the show notes. Thank you very much again Jimmy for joining us today.

Jimmy: You’re very welcome Chris thanks for having me, cheers, thank you.

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All these styles are typically built on common rhythms that are made up of quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes, and so on.

Things get more interesting as you look at genres such as jazz and metal, and especially at music from Africa and India. This music often has rhythms that are much more elaborate, incorporating polyrhythms and syncopation for more complex (and in some cases, very danceable!) drum beats.

So how do we play, write, and internalize these rhythms?

In this guide to polyrhythms for beginners, we’ll introduce you to the concept of polyrhythms, provide you with examples of this rhythmic complexity, and share some techniques for counting and feeling polyrhythms.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand what makes a polyrhythm, how to count them, and how you can practice them on your instrument. You’ll also be able to clap out the two most common polyrhythms, and recognize them in music. And best of all, you’ll have gotten a taste of the endless possibilities that polyrhythms can give music – and will be equipped with ideas of how you can apply this new knowledge to your own songwriting.

Table of Contents

1. What is a polyrhythm?
2. Where are polyrhythms used?
3. How do we define a polyrhythm?
4. How to Count a Polyrhythm
5. How to Practice Polyrhythms
6. Beyond the Basics

What is a polyrhythm?

Simply put, a polyrhythm consists of layers of simpler rhythms. More than one type of rhythm is played at the same time, with each rhythm containing a different beat subdivision.

The rhythmic tension and release found in polyrhythms makes them danceable, aurally interesting, and more expressive than your typical four-on-the-floor rhythm.

In Western music, the typical rhythm has a marked emphasis on beat one, and every other beat in the bar is considered a secondary beat. When rhythms are layered one atop the other, the pattern of emphasis shifts in different ways, giving polyrhythms a distinct feel – these rhythms have more “fill” and are often more complex than those found in traditional Western music.

Take a listen to Mongo Santamaria’s rendition of “Afro Blue”:

Once you tune your ears to polyrhythms, you’ll notice that it’s possible to count the meter differently for different instruments – the multiple percussion instruments overlap and interweave beautifully to form a complex, cohesive rhythm.

That rhythm you hear right at the beginning of the song is a polyrhythm in itself, and probably sounds quite familiar, as a lot of Afro-cuban music makes use of a polyrhythmic djembe beat to form the backbone of the song. Think about this: when’s the last time you heard a straightforward 4/4 rhythm played on African drums?

Let’s look at some other genres that make use of these intricate rhythmic patterns.

When and where are polyrhythms used?

Presently, you’ll find these intricate rhythms in Indian music, Afro-Cuban music, jazz, hip hop, metal, and even some popular music. However, these rhythms can be traced back to a point of origin…

African Origins

Most polyrhythms that we hear today originated in the musical traditions of Africa, with highly danceable rhythms played on traditional percussion instruments. The organic, complex rhythms served an important social purpose in African culture: they are a musical symbol of the rich relationships between individuals that combine to build the cohesive cultural expression of a community.

Polyrhythms provide a perfect way to musically tell stories on many levels – a rhythmic tradition that has continued and evolved in subsequent styles of African and African-American music.

Watch famed African drummer Babatunde Olatunji demonstrate the Liberian Fanga rhythm:

Note the rhythmic complexity – there is a polyrhythm both within the main djembe rhythm, and between all the instruments being played.

The importance of this rhythmic sensibility can’t be overstated. In fact, the influence of African polyrhythmic drumming has even extended into the present-day dancefloor! Okay Africa details how today’s club music owes its dues to African drumming traditions in a fascinating interview with filmmaker Crudo Volta.

Polyrhythm in Jazz

Jazz was one of the first Western music traditions to embrace polyrhythms, taking cues from African drumming and singing traditions and blending it with Western music sensibilities.

Listen to Avishai Cohen’s “Pinzin Kinzin”, taking note of how the piano, bass, and drums play off of each other to achieve a robust overall rhythm:

If you’re a jazz musician itching to get the basics of polyrhythm down, LearnJazzStandards has excellent beginner exercises with 3:2 polyrhythms for you to sink your teeth into.

Polyrhythm in Rock and Metal

As rock ‘n’ roll spawned genres such as industrial, progressive rock, and experimental/art rock, there arose a tendency to play with rhythm and time signatures. As a result, a great number of artists have experimented with writing music with complex fills, unusual rhythmic patterns, and multiple simultaneous meters.

Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is known for his sonic experimentation, and makes good use of noise, distortion, dissonance, and – you guessed it – polyrhythms. Listen to one of NIN’s more soothing tracks, appropriately entitled “La Mer”, and see if you can spot the polyrhythm:

At [1:22], the drums kick in, playing four beats against the three beats of the piano.

The Hemiola

One of the most common polyrhythmic motifs found in music is the hemiola:

The hemiola is simply three beats with equal value spaced across two beats – in other words, three notes are superimposed onto two. This polyrhythm is found in African music, where it often repeats across the whole song and is referred to as a cross rhythm, or a systematic rhythm that is the base of a piece.

Interestingly, it is also found in Western music, with baroque music making use of the hemiola to surprise the listener and play around with rhythm. David Kulma explains the hemiola using Handel’s famous “Water Music Suite in D Major”:

Essentially, the hemiola surprises the ear by playing with different groupings of a bar of six beats, resulting in a piece of music being felt in two rhythms simultaneously. You can see why it’s one of the most brilliantly simple polyrhythms out there.

How Do We Define A Polyrhythm?

Before we get into playing and counting out polyrhythms, let’s have a look at how they’re constructed.

The Polyrhythmic Formula

Polyrhythms are defined in three ways:

• X over Y
• X against Y
• X:Y

All three mean the same thing, and are used interchangeably. For example, the hemiola polyrhythm discussed above is a 3 over 2 or 3:2 polyrhythm.

Let’s look at what these numbers mean, taking the simple 3:2 polyrhythm as an example.

Generally, Y is the basic pulse, over which the counter rhythm will be played, and X is the counter rhythm.

Therefore in 3:2, X = 3 and Y = 2. The polyrhythm will be played over two beats, with three evenly spaced beats played on top of those two beats – this is also known as triplets over duplets:

Remember that the triplets and duplets take up the same amount of time, so that the first notes in each individual rhythm will sound together. Naturally, this means that the triplets will be played faster than the duplets, in order to arrive on beat one at the same time.

For a more in-depth look at the 3:2 polyrhythm and how to hear it, check out Greg Dyke’s excellent primer.

Let’s look at another polyrhythm, the 4 against 3 polyrhythm:

Here, X is 3, and Y is 4. Therefore, the polyrhythm will be played over four beats, with three evenly spaced beats played overtop. As in the previous example, the only time the beats line up is on beat one.

What is and isn’t a Polyrhythm?

Polyrhythms give the impression of one beat being superimposed onto another, causing conflict. Again, a basic example is the 3:2 polyrhythm, where triplets are played over duplets:

Typically, two rhythms will only be considered a polyrhythm if they have no common divisor other than 1. In the case of a 3:2 polyrhythm, there is no number (besides 1) that will divide into both 2 and 3. We can conclude that 3:2 is, in fact, a polyrhythm.

However, if in the same rhythm the 8th notes are replaced with quarter notes, it ceases to be a polyrhythm. This is because there are no longer contrasting beats. Though it may feel like you are playing in two different times, you are not:

Try out the following short exercise! Determine whether each example is considered a polyrhythm or not using the simple rule above:

1) 5:4

2) 4:1

3) 2:5

4) 3:7

Counting Polyrhythms

The conventional counting method involves using  “ah” and “and” to count out loud. For example, to count 8th notes in 4/4 time, we would use 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and. Similarly, counting 16th notes in 4/4 time would expand to 1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4-e-and-a.

We can tweak this counting method to fit even the most complex polyrhythms.

However, there is a shortcut for playing the simpler polyrhythms out there… Since so many polyrhythms sound like speech, why not start there?

Polyrhythm Phrasing

Many of the simpler polyrhythms mimic the phrasing of simple, short sentences. Therefore, a method that beginners may find easier and more comfortable is associating a polyrhythm with a phrase that fits with the beat. For example, you can use the phrase “Hot Cup of Tea” to practice 3:2 polyrhythms:

For some variations on the 3:2 polyrhythm and how to play them on the drums, check out Niels Myrner’s exercises.

The slightly trickier 4:3 polyrhythm can be remembered with the phrase “What Atrocious Weather”, as follows:

The 3:2 and 4:3 rhythms are fairly straightforward once you get the hang of them. Try playing along with Daily Drum Lesson’s video tutorial.

Complex Counting

As your polyrhythms get wonkier and more complex, it’s harder to find a phrase to fit the rhythm.

This is where some simple math comes in handy. Bear with us, as this little trick will help you count and play even the most bewildering rhythms…

The Lowest Common Multiple

The lowest common multiple (LCM) is simply the lowest number that two (or more) numbers can fit evenly into. We can figure out exactly how to count a polyrhythm by finding the LCM of the two numbers X and Y.

Let’s look at the polyrhythm 3:4 as an example. The LCM is 12, meaning that 12 beats represent a full “cycle” of the polyrhythm – it takes 12 beats for the beat to “align” again.

Let’s lay out this polyrhythm in terms of a grid, split into 12 beats:

As you can see, the beats are evenly spaced in both the “4” rhythm and the “3” rhythm, and the only time the beats occur simultaneously is right at the beginning – on beat one.

Let’s try a 4:5 polyrhythm next. Figure out the LCM, and draw a beat grid of what the rhythm will look like.

Show answer

The lowest common multiple (LCM) of 4 and 5 is 20 – therefore, it will take 20 beats to go through one full cycle of 4:5.

Once you have a beat grid, all that’s left to do is play along! Count out loud, clapping or tapping your foot everytime an “X” appears.

For more complex polyrhythms and how to count them, check out Understanding Polyrhythms by Kevin Barrett and Drum Lessons and Polyrhythm.

How To Practice Polyrhythms

For drummers and musicians with a solid background in rhythm, the road to learning polyrhythms will be an easier one than for those just getting comfortable with playing beats.

Before diving in, remember to quickly remind yourself…

Polyrhythms Are Not As Confusing As They Seem!

Because polyrhythmic drumming has such intricate-sounding fills and is played so quickly, it’s easy to be blown away by the sheer complexity of the rhythms, and to be discouraged by the high skill level needed to even play them.

But as with any type of learning, all it takes is breaking a tricky concept down into its smaller parts; keep in mind that polyrhythms consist of simple rhythms played together in an overlapping manner. Though seasoned drummers will certainly have an easier time with polyrhythms than those with little background in rhythm, with practice, any musician can learn to incorporate them in their practice.

As with anything, the key is to start small and start slow, then work your way up to practicing more complex rhythms and playing them faster.

Put Your Body into It

What better way to internalize polyrhythms than to put your whole body into it?

If playing polyrhythms on your instrument is proving to be too difficult, try using only body percussion to better get a feel for things.

As you saw above, simpler polyrhythms can be counted out with a phrase that fits both rhythms. To complement the “Hot Cup of Tea” exercise above, try slapping your hands on your thighs along to a 3:2 rhythm, with your right and left hands each taking on one rhythm:

Learn with a Metronome

For beginners, learning polyrhythms by ear with a metronome is an excellent idea. Again, be sure to start slow; set your metronome to 60 beats per minute, taking the time to make sure you are getting every individual note/beat and speeding up as you become more comfortable with the rhythm.

If you’re struggling to play a polyrhythm right off the bat with a simple metronome, try out a polyrhythm metronome, such as PolyNome! It plays each beat of both meters for you to play along to, giving you the opportunity to really internalize the feel of each polyrhythm. Especially wonderful is the app’s Practice Log feature – you can keep track of what rhythms you played at what tempos and for how long, and even have access to charts and reports to track your progress.

Use a Sequencer

Did the grid system for visualizing and counting polyrhythms especially appeal to you? If so, your learning style may be best served with an online sequencer tool.

This tool comes with a plethora of instrument options, and has a highly customizable grid that you can edit to fit nearly any time signature and polyrhythm you can dream of. Best of all, there’s a playback button so you can hear exactly what your polyrhythm sounds like and clap or play along.

The sequencer is also great for those wanting to experiment with more complex polyrhythms – the boxes representing a hit can be moved around, shortened, or lengthened with just one click.

Polyrhythms and Melody

Wondering how you can play polyrhythms if you’re a piano player or guitarist?

Try playing a beat on your instrument, whether it’s on one note or a simple melodic motif, while humming, tapping, or clapping overtop in a different rhythm. Start with an easier one such as 3:2.

Once you get better at this, you can lay down a 4/4 beat on a metronome or drum machine, and try playing scales in a different rhythm overtop the beat – for example, a 5:4 pattern.

Mile High Shred’s polyrhythm examples for guitarists illustrate how you can play over drum beats to form your own two-instrument polyrhythms!

Beyond The Basics

Polyrhythms are tricky little beasts that will take some time to really internalize and become comfortable with. Though they may appear intimidatingly complicated at first, remember that polyrhythms are made up of simple rhythms that are already familiar to you. The key is to start practicing simpler polyrhythms with the help of a metronome, and working your way up from there.

The good news: once you’ve nailed the basics, there’s no limit to the rhythmic variation that you can give your music.

You can subdivide one or both of the basic rhythms contained in a polyrhythm even further for another layer of rhythmic complexity. You can switch from 3:2 to 5:4 and back to surprise your listener, signal changes in music by adding a little polyrhythmic motif here and there, and put a rhythmic spin on an otherwise basic 4/4 composition to really make your music stand out out. If you feel you have a good grasp on the basics, check out Time Manipulation’s mini-lesson on some intermediate polyrhythms.

Polyrhythms are all about feel – so don’t be afraid to experiment, get your whole body involved in keeping time, and have fun – there’s no limit to the fascinating rhythms that will emerge!

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