Secrets of Playing 2 Against 3 – Four Steps to Master Polyrhythms on Piano

Whether you are a beginner or intermediate pianist, chances are that you have already stumbled or will soon stumble upon polyrhythms on the piano.

Passages containing polyrhythms create a situation where hand coordination becomes several times more difficult than passages where the rhythms in each hand simply match up. Many piano students try to stay away from polyrhythms, but it is impossible to stay away from them forever. As you get better at playing the piano, sooner or later, you will have to learn how to master polyrhythms on piano.

What is a polyrhythm?

A polyrhythm is one or more rhythms deriving from different meters playing at the same time. The most common example of a polyrhythm is playing groups of duplets in one hand against triplets in another hand. This is also known as “two against three.”

Another common polyrhythm is playing 3 notes against 4 notes. It becomes more complex as otherrhythms one against another. Chopin, for example, loved giving the right hand odd passages of 7, 11, or 13 notes against the more orderly groupings in the left hand.

How not to practice polyrhythms on the piano

There is a strange idea that if you know the notes in a piece well enough, you may approach a polyrhythmic passage by just “going for it” and leaving it to chance to work out.

We want to make it very clear – this strategy will not help you figure out how to master polyrhythms on piano. Not fully knowing what you are doing with polyrhythmic combinations will leave you stressed and confused. Everything you do at the piano should be 100% intellectually processed — nothing should be left to chance. 

How to practice polyrhythms on the piano

While these can be challenging to practice, there are some secret tricks that many pianists use to practice and master polyrhythms.

We are about to share the four steps that will ensure that you are playing your polyrhythms smoothly and comfortably but first let’s quickly mention how not to practice them.

Step 1: Begin by practicing each passage that contains polyrhythms with hands separately.

It is important to do this many times. There is never a need to rush into playing with hands together with anything at the piano, but even more so with polyrhythms. Practice your hands alone until the rhythms are solid and steady, the fingering is all settled, and for the best results – until it’s fully memorized. 

Quick tip: start by practicing and memorizing the hand that contains the simplest pattern first. Often, the easiest hand is the left hand; in most cases the right hand has more notes against the left hand. If you start thinking that the right hand is “harder” and practice it first, often the left hand is ignored. And then when you start putting hands together it turns out that it is the “easier” left hand that you don’t know well enough and is causing problems with coordination. 

Step 2: Take a pencil and align the notes that match and mark the notes that don’t match.

(you should have it handy for every time you practice piano anyway) In the video attached to this blog (see below) I’m using lines for matching notes and arrows for the notes that don’t match. 

Now, go ahead and start playing with hands together however slowly you need to, and simply align matching and mismatching notes. You don’t have to worry about smooth rhythms – this is now a specific task of putting notes in correct order on the timeline. It will probably sound very clunky at first and that’s ok. 

If you are playing a very common 3 in right hand and 2 in left hand, then pattern soon emerges: both-right-left-right, both-right-left-right, and so on. You can write it down in your music as B-R-L-R. Try saying this out loud as you play – gradually you will get used to this pattern mentally and physiologically.

Quick tip: continue practicing with hands separately as you do this step making sure each hand is playing its rhythm smoothly. 

Step 3: Register which fingers you use on matching notes

As you continue to practice with hands together, start registering which fingers you are using on matching notes. You can pause on the notes that are pressed together and notice “here I have 4th against 5th finger, here I have 2nd against 3rd finger”, etc. 

Concentrate on the tactile feeling in these matching moments, you can try to close your eyes to maximize the tactile muscle memory. Repeat after repeat this will be getting easier and flow more naturally. You may still feel that it sounds angular and uneven but the order of the notes itself should be getting more and more familiar. 

(Meanwhile, continue playing with hands separately about a third of the time you are practicing your passage.)

Step 4: Remember that the listener’s ear only registers higher notes being played evenly or unevenly.

What we are about to tell almost feels like insider trading information. It’s almost not appropriate to talk about it even though this information reflects the reality of life. So here it goes: in the ideal world of professional piano playing each hand in polyrhythms should be playing perfectly evenly. 

The reality, however, is that the listener’s ear only registers the higher notes being played evenly or unevenly. So that would be your right hand. 

Basically, if you play your right evenly and your left hand is aligned correctly but is not necessarily even, then in most cases a listener will perceive the passage as played evenly.

At the very least we can say that if you achieve this step successfully then you are playing almost perfectly. 

Here is how to work on this: play the right hand alone super evenly a couple of times and then add your left hand only thinking about and feeling the fingering in the matching points. You are still trying to make your right hand as even as possible but you absolutely shouldn’t care if your left hand is even or not. Full attention to the even right hand and the matching points. Eventually your left hand will be playing evenly on its own. But again, people will hardly notice it either way. 

As you get better and better at this you can think and feel about less of the matching notes. For example, only register your first and third beats in each measure instead of all four beats, or even just the downbeats. But you should not ever stop feeling the matching notes. If you allow yourself to forget about them, then your hands will begin to misalign and you might have to redo much of the work you put into this. 

Maintenance practice for polyrhythms on the piano:

If you don’t rush through your steps, then you should have your polyrhythms solid both mentally physically. However, unfortunately, this is not something that just clicks one time and then stays perfect on its own – you still have to brush up on your coordination once in a while. So just go over the steps again occasionally for some good maintenance practice. 

Watch the video below for tips on how to master polyrhythms on piano:

Good luck and check out Riverside Music Studios for piano lessons or masterclasses if you are in NYC!

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