Polyrhythms

Polyrhythm n. Music
The use or an instance of simultaneous contrasting rhythms.

Every time you dance, you're performing a salsa dance rhythm. If you happen to be dancing to the tumbao moderno or a song containing it, then two simultaneous contrasting rhythms are being used and you've established a polyrhythm. And if you were to clap your hands on the pulse as well, then you would have a three-layer polyrhythm as represented in Figure 3 (below).
 

Figure 3.1. Simple three-layer polyrhythm
 

Salsa has two consistent properties.

• It is polyrhythmic in nature. This includes the dancer's rhythm pattern in addition to individual instrument patterns. Be under no illusion, there are many ways of varying the dancer's rhythm pattern, but we have to learn the rules first before learning how to break them.
   
• There is a master rhythm or key, called “clave”, that locks all the layers in place. The clave will be the primary subject of the tutorials immediately to follow.

Polyrhythms are the theme and the vehicle by which you will learn to dance to individual instrument layers in Phase II soon to follow. Being able to perform the salsa dance pattern to a single instrument layer is the ultimate goal.

“Why is that?” I hear you ask.

There are many occasions in salsa when the music breaks and the rhythm is maintained by a single instrument. If you were familiar with the instrument, its patterns, and the salsa dance rhythm's position relative to the patterns, you'd be able to continue dancing where others would grind to a halt.

However, there is no way of predicting what that single instrument would be - it could just as easily be the piano, bass, conga, clave... The only way to be assured of coping with this situation is to learn how to dance to each percussion and rhythm layer. I know it sounds like hard work but trust me, it's fun and it builds your confidence.
 

A Polyrhythmic Education
It's essential that you become accustomed to the concept of polyrhythms since they feature so prominently in this programme. The structure of Phase II will involve a process of subtraction and/or substitution of rhythmic layers, as we progress through four developmental stages:

• Whole context
  A four-layer polyrhythm comprising:
  Salsa dance pattern, instrument pattern, tumbao moderno, clave
   
• Pulse context
  A three-layer polyrhythm comprising:
  Salsa dance pattern, instrument pattern, tumbao moderno
   
• Clave context
  A three-layer polyrhythm comprising:
  Salsa dance pattern, instrument pattern, clave
   
• Isolated dance context
  A two-layer polyrhythm comprising:
  Salsa dance pattern, instrument pattern

We will be addressing the common percussion and rhythm instruments in turn, in this manner. This way you can be assured of being able to handle whatever the musicians decide to throw at you on the dance floor.
 

A note to the unWeary
You may have noticed a steady “pitter-patter” of softer strokes in the tumbao moderno. These are “ghost” or unaccented strokes played by the “toes” i.e. fingertips and “heel” of the palm of the non-dominant hand. You can listen to what they sound like on their own by playing the samples listed in the Index of Tracks.

The heel-toe strokes are collectively called la marcha [the march], which functions as a metronome filling in time to ensure the accented stokes are played on time. Ghost strokes are usually inaudible because they are played very softly, and are drowned out by other instruments.