Cross Rhythms

[colette]

Dose anyone have any tips for learning to play irregular overlapping note groups, such as 5 over 6, 8 over 6, 4 over 3, and less common ones like 7 over 6 and 11 over 9 etc. I don't know how to improve my perception of these difficult rhythms, I just want to know if there are any strategies for learning to play them.

[ted]

Doesn't it all depend on how rhythmically "intrinsic" to the music these numbers are ? A fast passage where one hand plays rapid fingerwork in groups of say seven, and the other in groups of say, eleven is not really rhythmically dependent on these numbers. You can think in groups and provided there is at least one coincident note or even some event you can feel, it's just a matter of letting each hand go independently.

If some of the notes in the groups are missing, or the numbers are "intrinsic" to a certain rhythmic feeling (parts of Rhapsody In Blue, Dave Brubeck, certain jazz transcriptions) then the problem is much more difficult and each case must be solved in its own way.