Thinking in terms of polyrhythms can allow you to create some really entrancing stuff. This simple lesson will include an example and explanation of a simple 3 note progression that repeats every beat and accents will be made every 4 frets. You would never believe it until you tried, but playing every note quietly and accenting every 4 notes while looping a 3 note progression adds a real trippy effect and much more expression to something so simple. I will late alter this slightly to show how this can be manipulated. Although this stuff is very effective, the ultimate goal here is to be able to easily do this kind of count and break away from the habit of sticking to what is obvious (in this case it would be an accent every 3 notes).

First, create a simple 3 note progression. For this example, I will use G - B - D

G - B - D - G - B - D - G - B - D - G - B - D - G - B - D - G

Above is an example of playing accents every 4 notes over a repeating 3 note progression. This adds a whole different character to something so simple because more is going on. Some people may think there are more than 3 total notes.

Since the track builder can't express what I am trying to say, try this on your bass. Simply play all of the unbolded notes above quietly and accent the bolds.

In the next page I will alter this slightly so your juices can flow more about what possibilities there are.