Polyrhythm: simultaneous use of different rhythms – which are not forms of the same metre and do not derive from each other – between the voices of a composition, which produces a rhythmic variety. In a previous article I focused on the rhythmic potential of tongue blocking using the famous Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star as a basic melody, and I was inspired by the 12 variations of that melody (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhxeo6zLAM) that Mozart had elaborated in 1781 (those were not just rhythmic variations). All the variations I proposed were based on a different subdivision of the basic time: the melody is simple and helps to define the main beat in 2/4 (each bar is composed of two beats), while the percussion of the tongue was used to create a rhythm, which in that case was linked to the basic time: it was a different subdivision of the main beat.
POLYRHYTHMIC TONGUE BLOCKING Matteo Pulin Profetto
What would happen if this subdivision no longer followed the basic one? I think we could lay the groundwork for a polyrhythmic harmonica! Using the same melody, I've tried to elaborate a series of 12 variations in which the two rhythms are not derived from each other. There are a few definitions of polyrhythm and they're not always consistent with each other, so maybe not all the variations I propose could be defined as strictly polyrhythmic, but here I want to explore and make the best to emphasising the illusion that tongue blocking gives that two instruments are playing at the same time. A standard 10-hole Richter diatonic harmonica has few chords available, so we have to be careful to avoid harmony problems (i.e. the chord that is inevitably produced by the vibrating reeds) and instead emphasise the rhythm making each slap (i.e. the moment in which the tongue beats on the harmonica, blocking the holes that must not play) the fastest and most decisive possible. Two movements are involved (I’m using here the same nomenclature as Joe Filisko, one who knows something about tongue blocking ...): • clean single note produced by leaving the tongue on the harmonica and letting the air escape into the single hole we need on the right side of the mouth • vamping the note is played by making the tongue lash – quoting David Barrrett: "by breathing a fraction of a second in advance (allowing the four reeds to vibrate), then blocking the
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