The Paradoxes of Rhythm

Pandit Subhankar Banerjee

One of the paradoxes of rhythm is that it has both the capacity to move your awareness out of your body into realms beyond time and space, and to ground you firmly in the present moment. A steady, monotonous single beat, for example, will arouse and vitalize you. At a rapid pace of about 180 beats per minute, a steady, unvarying pattern stimulates an upward flow of energy within the body. It creates the sensation of inner movement, which if you allow it, will carry you along.

A two-beat rhythm, on the other hand, produces a different sonic experience. The soft, steady lub-dub, lub-dub of a heartbeat rhythm, at around 60 beats a minute, has a calming and centering affect. It reconnects us to the warmth and safety of the first sound we ever heard -- the nurturing pulse of our mother's heartbeat melding with our own. At a rapid tempo of 180 beats per minute, the heartbeat rhythm stimulates a downward flow of energy within the body. Every rhythm has its own quality and touches you in a unique way. These qualities, in fact, exist within each of us, longing to be activated.

It is this process of internalization that allows us to access the inaudible yet perceptible soul, so-to-speak, of a rhythm. Another paradox of rhythm is that the audible pattern is the inverse of the "inaudible matrix." Every rhythm has both an inaudible (unmanifest) and audible (manifest) aspect -- silence and sound. It is the inaudible intervals between audible beats, which allow us to hear the grouping of beats in a coherent cycle or pattern. We sense the interval as the "off-beat" or light element and the audible beat as the heavy element. The drummer establishes the audible beat, whereas the silent pulse quality unfolds by itself in any rhythmic pattern.

Master percussionist, Reinhard Flatischler, in his book The Forgotten Power of Rhythm, established that all people perceive the unmanifest essence of this silent pulse in the same way, regardless of how the drummer shapes the audible pattern itself. As Flatischler puts it, "As the inaudible part of a cycle, this pattern exists in a universal archetypal realm. The audible shaping of the cycle, on the other hand, exists in the realm of uniqueness and individuality. In rhythm, both sides unite and thereby allow the individual to make contact with the world of archetypes."1

In conclusion, one can be creative with the audible aspect of a rhythm, as long as one stays within the framework of the cycle. One can shape a rhythm by varying the tempo, the intervals, the accents, or the drum sound itself. Alternatively, one can play the exact structure of a rhythmic pattern with precisely regular intervals. Both approaches to rhythm have merit and both allow you to internalize the archetypal essence of rhythm. The way you shape a rhythm will shape your response, but the "inaudible matrix" remains timeless and invariable. So do not be concerned about your rhythmic skill, technique, or competence. Allow yourself to be carried by the power of rhythm without fear of falling out of rhythm. Allow the drum to integrate the seemingly paradoxical yet complementary aspects of rhythm into the resonant core of your being. 

1. Flatischler, Reinhard. The Forgotten Power of Rhythm. Mendocino: LifeRhythm, 1992.