Polyrhythm Reading Challenge

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How's your new year going so far? I kicked off the 30-Day 10min Practice Challenge yesterday, so I'm feeling pretty inspired and excited to keep it up. Even if you can't start with me, I hope you give it a try on your own time. 

Today, I'm sharing my "Polyrhythm Reading Challenge!" 🥳 (You can download the PDF & MIDI reference via the link)

I am a big fan of polyrhythms. I feel "cool" when I'm playing, and it also sounds cool. It is tricky to be accurate if you don't subdivide correctly. When I'm faced with a challenging polyrhythm spot in a piece, I first understand how it exactly fits into the beat, put on a metronome, and practice until it flows nicely. I remember playing Lou Harrison's "Fugue for percussion quartet" in my undergrad - it was a very challenging piece full of polyrhythms but loved how fluid it sounded when we played the rhythms correctly.

That’s why I wrote this reading challenge that lets you work on reading both polyrhythms and notes ⭐️💫 

This challenge will train you to:

  • Work on different polyrhythms against different pulse (metronome)

  • Be a better sight-reader

  • Play rhythms accurately in tempo

If you find this challenge too easy, you can always modify the metronome pulse - for example, in Level 1, you can make the metronome tick only on beat 1 of every measure so that you will have to keep the tempo very accurately. 

On a different note, it's my birthday today!🎂I’m very grateful to be healthy and have started this newsletter last year. Each week, I look forward to sending this newsletter to you, so THANK YOU for your support. 

As always, please feel free to contact me with any comments, requests, or questions by replying to this email. It’s my goal to make this newsletter as helpful to you as possible. 

Here is a little inspiration for today ⭐️

“There’s no substitute for hard work. If you work hard and prepare yourself, you might get beat, but you’ll never lose.” 

– Nancy Lieberman, American former professional basketball player and coach

Have a wonderful week & Happy Practicing!

Chihiro ShibayamaComment