It's great to have legendary guitarist Dean Brown producing and performing on my new Ghost Jazz Trio album Groovin Smooth to release in March 2023. He's an amazing talent on every level. His contributions to the music world is unmatched and invaluable.

I saw Dean Brown in 1983 at Wolfgang's in SF with a young Steve Smith's "Vital Information". Mike Stern on the other guitar! Dean was so bad ass and grooved so wild. It was a life changer. Great teaching here.

In my opinion, The greatest school for the musician there ever IS!

this is by far the best lesson in the series so far

This guy's 'Unfinished Business' album is excellent! Adding this to my lessons playlist for sure.

These examples are not polyrhythms. They are all polymeters 3/8, 5/8, 7/8 etc over a 4/4 beat. A polyrhythm for example 3 against 2 (the most basic) would be the equivalent tapping quarter notes with one hand against quarter note triplets with the other hand. So in a 7 against 4 polyrhythm you would put 7 evenly spaced beats on top of your 4 normal beats and the 1 for each count would always fall on the same beat every new bar.

Thanks for the lesson Dean. I've loved your playing for as long as I can remember. It's obvious you realize the importance of groove, feel, and timing. SO many teachers (and students) concentrate on melody and speed 1st and foremost, which to me is backwards. I'd rather have a great time feel over being able to shred "faster than the speed of music"! lol I picked up your dvd Modern Techniques For The Electric Guitarist and am looking forward to spending time with it. Thanks again, for all the great music you put out there.

Great lesson Dean. Some would recognize this a funk lesson as well!!

Cool lesson. Reminded me of King Crimson's album "Discipline". The title track to that album is a cluster fuck of polyrhythms between the two guitarists.

Some of the people commenting here obviously don't know how respected Dean Brown is. Yes he may not be the best teacher on KZfaq but he is an awesome guitar player who has been hired by some of the best in the business. How about having the decency of thanking the guy for trying to help less talented and experienced people extend their musical vocabulary. As for who he looks like, who gives a ***!!

i played also poly ryhthms for a long time, but now i know what i have done. i think its quite helpful upload, and thank you for this.

King Crimson w/ Adrian Belew & Rober Fripp were masters of poly rhythm.

@summitthescale Not to mention that they're homorhythmic as everyone is moving in unison. Most people don't seem to understand what polyrhythm really is.

This is called Polymeter actually, Polyrhythm means each bar theres two rhythms playing at once, (3 over 4) for example, so the 3 beats would fill the exact space of the 4 beats.

@OGodTheTubes This should be one of the highest rated comments.

I regret , that I don't really know you but I do know your playing. Thank you for all your contributions.

That's very interesting, thanks for this useful lesson :-)

I have to go with Mr. Brown's definition of polyrhythm that includes both different groupings of the same subdivisions (polymeter) and simultaneous tempi (tuplets). I think the reaction here at the man's "failure" to mention Meshuggah is a bit silly although I do adore them and they did really start my journey into "serious" music. His Charles Ives reference is spot on, and I would recommend people go check his music out instead of getting sore and being blind about music that isn't tech metal.

good stuff teacher, i m the student of you in your ensemble from HK. miss your class, and you!

That was a really great lesson. Thanks.

@PSIboy66 heheh right, but they use cross rhythms more

Might be worth mentioning some guitarists who use this technique all the time. A few I've come across:Al Di Meola, John McGlaughlin, Ed Wynne, Frank Zappa, Steve Vai.

Biffy Clyro right? This was a really cool lesson.

Excellent upload.

@Guitareben Triplets over quavers can be thought of the same way as two seperate time signatures; e.g. 12/8 over 4/4

@MooseyFate100 agreed. one of his bests, amazing track, definitely worth checking out!

Syncopation is a bit more general. It refers to notes not played on the downbeats. Polyrhythms are multiple specific patterns occurring at once

Awesome lesson!!!

"To make this a little more dramatic, just play the accents and now you'll really be able to hear the polyrhythms." What you are doing, accenting a normally weak beat, is called "syncopation". It is also an ostinato. Polyrhythm is simultaneous, different and contrasting rhythms, involving some odd number, such as 3 on 2, 5 on 2, 9 on 2 (as in my video response), and many more.

I was thinking the same thing. Doesn't polyrythm the different subdivision of a measure by different parts of music? For example, a drummer who plays quarter notes with the kick and, simultaneously, quarter notes in 6 with the ride/hi-hat? I know polyrythms in this way ... maybe I'm wrong

Great lesson, Jeremy Irons.

♪ In the last example he says he's adding one extra 16th "note" to make it a 7-note phrase, but that's a little misleading. He adds a 16th-note "rest", not an extra note. He's still playing only six notes.

@Steve128967 Thank you. Meshuggah and Periphery are pretty much 4/4 all the time. Love the music though.

@MaartenIB Thats a sick ass song! more than polyrithms i think the cool thing about lateralus is that it has Lots of time signature changes

Interesting looking guitar ! I like it.

I think this video is describing polymeter, not polyrhythm. Much respect, from an old MI graduate (1982).

blew my mind, thank you for this

@c4bb4g3 because they mostly use polymeters, syncapation and rythmic displacement. But yeah I do get sick of the only band that comes to mind when talking about this even though I do like them. It's like 50% of the comments is saying something about meshuggah.

@ibanezbloke that's really cool, man.

He could have any guitar he wanted, yet he used that Roland GR controller guitar. Obviously because he liked it and they played well, (which they did, I owned one with a GR 700 and 300. They were as good as the best Japanese made guitars). So he was more about what worked, rather than what was cool.

I can play them and feel them all right.But when I stop and think of analyzing them it all messes up and I if I should stop the intellect from questioning.And that goes for "weird" chord voicings I sometimes play ,wanting to know what is it...where is it going to go now? Thanks a lot.

That was a cool lesson

Very useful, thanks a lot.

@perfectmelon it's just an expression meaning that they do it very well. nobody honestly believes they started it, unless they just began listening to music

Top tutorial. Thanks... And thanks for reminding me of the Banana Splits... (06.00)

@SidVicious10101 stuff like Primal Concrete Sledge, the outtro to Domination, and Live In A Hole stand out to me. i only have Cowboys from Hell and Vulgar Display of Power so i'm sure there's a lot more.

It's definitely more calculated. You have to feel it out, but you also have to really be counting the beats.

King Crimson Discipline album is a good one for polyrhythms

gotta love them polyrhythms

Really helpful video, thx!

@ZeppelinRules Those groove patterns get old really quick, but I do love when they are used sparingly. Sometimes it can give a song super groove like in Icarus Lives by Periphery. Not a fan of bands that base every single song off of sporadic chugging though.

previous comments saying that Meshuggah don't use polyrhythms because they're in 4/4...what did Dean Brown just do? did you not watch the video? everything was in 4/4.

that guitar looks fucking comfortable

What model of guitar is this ? It looks very appealing 😃

Hi this lesson is great but too short. Can anyone point me to polyrhythm lessons, book applied to guitar? is there any transcription of this?

so polyrhythms are just beat phrases in a different time signature, correct?

Im still trying to figure out TesseracT's stuff, some of it ive gotten used to just by muscle memory but can someone tell me their patterns they have going on or something?

Where did you get the purple guitar?

I was totally comfortable in my ability to play what he demoed until that last phrase. And I had the thought that sounds like John McLaughlin. I need to practice rests in my Polyrhythms. Godammn that's a hard word to spell, never mind. Luv and Peace. :-)

Chaos of Forms by Revocation!

You had me at Charles Ives!!! :)

Seems i do use those in my playing but i can't djent nor count the notes yet. Damn so frustrating

I plea ingorance guys lol Can someone please tell me about the guitar he's playing? Neal Schon played one live with Journey for a few years but I never knew exactly who made them or where to find them. Looks Fender-esque but The logo on the headstock shows that to be wrong. Please help guys!!! lol

@TheMetalHeaD256 They used polyrhythms? What songs?

@Guitareben what are polymeters?

@mcdefmarx dude your talking about poly meters when u put it in those terms

@TheMetalHeaD256 or meshuggah :) meshuggan and pantera are both in my top 4 bands :)

There are a lot of notes here and also I've noticed some guitar strings

but does it djent?

Right!!! Confusion between polyrythms v/s polymeters

Scale The Summit!

i love polyrhythms. the best ones are in heavy metal, IMO. like Pantera.

@breaker9 The Faceless use 'em as well.

I been playing polyrhythms for years and never knew it o.0

Wish some people would do videos on polyrhythms against odd time signatures, like 5/16 against 7/8.

I don't understand what you're talking about. He has a 4/4 groove and he's playing different note groupings/accents over top of it. That's pretty much all you hear out of Meshuggah

what brand is that guitar?

what he's describing and playing are contradictory. he describes polyrhythms fine (two contrasting pulse or subdivisions), but he ends up playing polymeters in a two bar 4/4 context, which means the 3/16 pulse, 5/16 pulse, ad 7/16 pulse end up being cut short in order to fit in those two bars. he really should have made that distinction before going into any further detail

Ive always do this kind of things, and never realized i was doing polyrithms, ive always tought i was just playing with the accents and group of notes to give a counterpoint or syncopation kind of feel... Nice!

..rhcp are one of the best at this

i'm gonna do this at bass

Listen to Buckethead - Thai Fighter Swarm. He's doing shit there that I can't even fathom, rhythm wise.

Meshuggah play in 4/4 people. They just have long patterns that make it seem polyrhythmic.

@TheMetalHeaD256 hm where?

Hilarious! that comment sounds like a dad yelling at his kids. "what did I just say? I will turn this youtube video around right now!"

not to mention the masters of polyrythming...Meshuggah!

poly rhythm with a quick delay is my shit, just a strong building percussive sound.

Charles Ives reference, FTW.

where have you been all my life?

@summitthescale You're ProgJazzMath on UG right? Haha small world!

@c4bb4g3 most band use polyrhythms without knowing, its just the nature of music.

Meshuggah! Fredrik Thordendal!

@PSIboy66 Because 90% of their music is in 4/4. Thats why.

please someone, can tell me who is the classical musician who use polyrhythms... at the beginning of the video he names to charles ¿?¿?.... english is not my native language, so i don't get it. greetings

just say . . hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus hippopotamus . . a good way to count 5.

I wish it had humbuckers. Can someone tell me what guitar that is? Thanks!

george harrison?

I watched this twice. Dean is the one needing a lesson....... more then one actually.

Mind explode

@FatGuyWithAKatana MESHUGGAH MESHUGGAH MESHUGGAH! "Beams of fire sweep through my head ..."