Web Sites
- Tempomental, by Steve Vai. It's hard to beat this article for explaining a number of the concepts behind polyrhythms.
- Wikipedia
Books
- A great book about polyrhythms written for all instruments by Pete Magadini. This one's on the advanced side (because it jumps right in to some pretty advanced stuff, though to be fair it starts out simply with quarter-note triplets, or 3:4), but the real bonus is the CD-ROM that's included that features Pete playing and (some light) explaining of the solos in the book
Music Featuring Polyrhythms
- Frank Zappa - Sinister Footwear II, from Them or Us. Pay particular attention to the melody after the guitar solo, but the interlude that happens right before the guitar solo has some nice ones too (Note: this interlude is also the same one from "Wild Love" (@2:50) on Sheik Yerbouti, right before that song segues into "Yo' Mama"
- Frank Zappa - Mo 'N Herb's Vacation, from LSO. Dig the freaky 17:3 tuplet! (P.S. If you happen to know what happened to my Munchkin score of the clarinet part, please let me know. I haven't seen it in at least 10 years and the ZFT are being jerks by not selling these scores anymore.)
- Frank Zappa - T'Mershi Duween (sp?)
- Frank Zappa - The Black Page #1. This is a freaky deaky polyrhythm fest, sucker started nesting these fuckers in this piece.
- Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (all 3 CDs). This set features Frank and Vinnie Colaiuta going crazy experimenting with rhythm. The tracks were taken from live improvs from the shows they did on tours together. It's basically 3 CDs of long guitar solos, so it's not for the people looking for poppy and accessible stuff. But if you're into rhythms (enough to have read this far), you'll definitely find some stuff to like on these CDs. They're some of my favorite FZ recordings. Get The Frank Zappa Guitar Book, transcribed by Steve Vai, for some perspective on the kinds of stuff they Frank was doing on these recordings (there are some drum transcriptions in this book too).
- Pete Magadini - Polyrhythm (CD/Album). You can find this one on the intarwebz. It's worth the money to get this freaky '70s fusion sounding music with a bunch of guys stretching out some rhythmic stuff. George Duke (who used to play with FZ) is on this recording.