Polyrhythms

[derschoenebahnhof]

Hi,

I am sure there are tons of topics about polyrhythms but my question is a bit different...

I want to learn the Swan by Greg Anderson for 2 pianos, playing it by myself on a digital piano (record one part, record other part while listening to first one).

The hard part is here: several times during this piece, for one of the two pianos, there are fast runs with 1/16 notes that are in groups of 6 for a beat. Simultaneously, the other piano plays four 1/16 notes for one beat. So it is a 4 against 6 polyrhythm, which can be reduced to 2 against 3.

Now the problem is that I do not control both hands like I would in a one piece piano. I have to listen (the digital piano plays the recorded part) to the faster notes (6 for a beat) while playing the slower notes (4 per beat).

Just looking for advice on how I might tackle this one... slowly slowly practice and build up speed, repeating many times until I don't have to think anymore?

How do Greg & Liz do it by the way? They use no visual clues (they said so in an interview and you can confirm that in their video recording) and their sync is spot on 

Cheers,
CG

[enjru]

I'd suggest you record yourself playing the 4 notes to a beat part, then play the recording back out loud while practising the 6 notes to a beat part, trying to co-ordinate the start of each beat you are playing to be at the same time as the start of each beat in the recording, all the time trying to keep an even rhythm.

[derschoenebahnhof]

Ok, that works! I did the other way around though, recorded 6 notes and then played back 4 notes, paying attention to timing. I practiced very very slowly then got up to speed smoothly. Going very slowly then ramping up is the key.

I used this too:

ONE two AND three

where the 2 notes are on ONE and AND respectively.

Interestingly, at higher speed it seems the hands are almost playing by themselves.

Cheers,
CG