Polyrhythmic Ostinatos

2019-05-18 Filed in: Time Manipulation | Drum Lessons | Videos written by: Alain Rieder

Polyrhythmic Ostinatos - part 2

Here is the adaptation of an article that was published in the April 1998 issue of Batteur Magazine from France. I recently added a video that demonstrates the concept. An excerpt from a recording of Vinnie Colaiuta with Jing-Chi illustrates the article.

Example 1

Here are three hi-hat (or ride cymbal) ostinatos (each line is played four times).

Example 2

The same ones, played in a 3-bar sequence.

Example 3

The three-bar ostinato, applied to other bass-drum patterns

The three-bar ostinato can also be viewed as being in 3/4 and played over 4/4:

Example 4

This example is an application of this concept, to Exercise 4 from my Time Manipulation Drum Book.
Each pattern is played twice, but if you listen to the sound file the hi-hat plays the previous shifting hi-hat pattern, instead of the eighth-notes that are written.

This video illustrates the concept. Again, this is Exercise 4 from my Time Manipulation Drum Book (page 25), played with Polyrhythmic Ostinato 5 (page 127). In this video example, I played each pattern twice, before moving on to the next, and I have added random ghost notes.

Jing Chi

To hear a fine example of this rhythmic concept, listen to the next track, which is a short excerpt from a Jing Chi song.
I wrote this lesson in 1997, and the CD came out in 2001, but it perfectly illustrates the concepts I developed in this lesson.

CD: Jing Chi (Tone Center 40212) © 2001
Track 03: Tengoku
Drums: Vinnie Colaiuta
Guitar: Robben Ford
Bass: Jimmy Haslip