Polyrhythm Generator & Visualizer

A polyrhythm is two or more conflicting rhythms played at the same time, for example three evenly-spaced notes against two, both fitting in the same bar. The layers line up on beat one, drift apart, and lock back together at the start of every cycle.

Polyrhythms are the backbone of West African drumming, and run through jazz, progressive rock, metal, gospel, and electronic music. Getting comfortable with them radically improves your timing, independence, and feel.

The generator above builds two or three layers, with counts from 2 to 9 in polyrhythm mode or 2 to 16 in polymeter mode and plays it back with a distinct click per player, so you can hear each layer as well as see it.

The two get mixed up constantly, and the tool above has a mode for each:

Polyrhythm: same bar, different splits. Both players start and end the bar together, but one divides it into 3 while the other divides it into 2. Every bar realigns on beat 1.

Polymeter: same pulse, different loop lengths. Everyone plays the same underlying eighth-note pulse, but one player's phrase is 7 pulses long while another's is 4. The downbeats drift apart and only realign after the least common multiple, 28 pulses for 7 over 4. This is the Tool and Meshuggah trick: a riff cycling in 7 while the drums hold a groove in 4, so the same riff keeps landing in a different place against the backbeat until everything clicks back together.

Try the 7 over 4 preset in polymeter mode and watch Player A's downbeat walk across Player B's groove.

Odd meter describes a bar’s length. A 5/4 bar has five quarter-note beats; a 7/4 bar has seven. Try counting Take Five in five or Money in seven.

Alternating meter changes the bar length in sequence. The Schism exercise counts five eighth notes, then seven. Lateralus counts nine, then eight, then seven. These bars happen one after another, rather than as simultaneous polyrhythm layers.

1. Start with the composite. Use the counting grid above: the cycle shows exactly where every hit of both layers lands. Clap the combined pattern slowly as one rhythm first.
2. Use words. 3:2 is "hot cup of tea" (hits on hot, cup, of, tea). 4:3 is "pass the gosh-darn but-ter". Phrases encode the spacing for free.
3. Split your hands. Tap layer A with your right hand, layer B with your left, at a slow tempo. Only speed up when it stops requiring thought.
4. Switch your anchor. First feel A as the beat with B floating over it, then flip. Hearing the same pattern both ways is what makes it usable in real music.

The tool doubles as a polyrhythm metronome: set your ratio, pick a slow tempo, and practice hands separately against it. Work on your basic timing first with the regular metronome; subdivisions there are the stepping stone to full polyrhythms.