5:4 Polyrhythm Generator

How fast is 5:4 at a given tempo?

With the 4-note layer selected as the BPM reference, one shared cycle lasts 4 beats. The table gives the cycle length, the spacing of each layer and one counting slot at three practice tempos. Changing the reference changes the playback speed; muting a side does not.

What 5 against 4 feels like

Five against four places a five-note phrase over a steady four-beat pulse. The five is evenly spaced rather than five quick notes squeezed into the end of a bar. Tap the four in your foot, listen to the five alone, then hear the combined pattern before trying to play both sides.

The usual mistake. The five side tends to compress into four notes plus a flam near the end of the cycle. Keep every fifth note the same distance apart: on the twenty-slot grid they land on 1, 5, 9, 13 and 17, so the last one arrives a full four slots before the next downbeat.

Count 5 against 4 out loud

Count 20 equal slots. Both sides land together on slot 1. The 5-side alone lands on slots 5, 9, 13 and 17. The 4-side alone lands on slots 6, 11 and 16. Beat numbers, Konnakol syllables, a spoken phrase and hands all sit on the same 20 slots. Ivory is the 4-side, orange the 5-side and gold is both together.

Left hand plays the 4, right hand plays the 5, B is both hands together. Phrase: “I'm look ing for a home to buy”. Eight syllables, eight hits; the phrase is spoken evenly only where the grid is even.

Speed the same ratio up past twenty pulses a second and 5 against 4 stops being a rhythm and becomes a major third, 386 cents wide. Same ratio, same object.

How to practise 5:4 in 8 steps

Start around 70 BPM. Everything below uses the generator on this page: Hear Base and Hear Counter isolate a side, the Hands view shows the sticking, Tap along scores your timing, and Practice tools open silent gaps or ramp the tempo. Move on when a step feels even for three cycles.

1. Hear both sides. Play it and let the 4 be the beat you nod to. Do not count yet. Listen for: The two sides meet once per cycle, on 1. Everything else is the 5 drifting across the 4.
2. Count it out loud. Switch to the Hands view and say the syllables with the clicks until they feel even. Listen for: Every hit has a word. Silent slots are the spaces between words.
3. Tap the 4. Both sides still play. Tap only the 4-side along with it. Listen for: Your taps sit inside the click, not beside it. Perfect means within 30 ms.
4. Tap the 5. Now tap only the 5-side while the 4 keeps you honest. Listen for: 5 even taps that land back on 1 with the other side.
5. Both hands together. Tap both sides with the guide still playing. Keep it slow until the meeting point is calm. Listen for: One clean composite line, not two people arguing.
6. Take the guide away. Two cycles play, two go silent. Keep both hands going through the silence. Listen for: When the click comes back, you are still on 1.
7. Speed it up. The tempo climbs one BPM per cycle toward 100. Stop when it stops feeling even. Listen for: The relationship stays the same at every tempo; only the space between hits shrinks.
8. Swap sides. Feel the 5 as the beat and play the 4 against it. Same notes, different gravity. Listen for: The cycle is the same length; now the 4 is the one drifting.

Where 5 against 4 turns up

4 places musicians actually meet this ratio, from traditions and notated idioms to studio habits, each with a setup you can hear. Every link loads this generator at the tempo, sounds and view that show the idea best.

• Khanda nadai: five to the beat

  • Voice & Konnakol
  • Hand percussion

  Carnatic music treats five per beat as an everyday gear: khanda nadai, spoken Ta Di Gi Na Tom. Speak five to a beat that is otherwise split in four (Ta Ka Di Mi) and every beat holds a 5:4; this page plays the same ratio stretched across a whole cycle so you can hear its shape.

  HearThe 5-side is even but never settles into the four: after the shared 1, its notes drift steadily later against each beat until they meet again on the next 1.

  PlayClap the 4-side and say Ta Di Gi Na Tom once per beat. When that holds, stretch it: five syllables over the whole four-beat cycle, one syllable per 5-side slot.

  Hear it this way, 60 BPM

• Quintuplet hi-hats over a four-square kick

  • Producers
  • Drums

  Modern drum programming leans on quintuplet rolls: five hi-hat hits where the grid expects four. Over a kick and snare on plain quarters the roll bends against the beat and snaps back on 1, which is exactly 5:4 at a small scale.

  HearKit on the 4-side, click on the 5-side. Every fifth click sits back on a kick; the four in between fall slightly earlier each time.

  PlayProgramme the kick on the 4-side, then draw hats on the 5-side and compare with a straight semiquaver roll. Then try 5:4 across a whole bar for the long, slow version of the same drift.

  Hear it this way, 70 BPM

• Five even strokes across four beats

  • Drums

  A fill vocabulary drill drummers use once 3:2 and 4:3 are safe: five evenly spaced strokes across a bar of four, feet holding the four. It sounds like the bar speeds up and then lands.

  HearOnly slot 1 is shared. The 5-side slots sit at 4/5 of a beat apart, so against the beats each stroke arrives a fifth of a beat earlier than the one before.

  PlayHi-hat foot on the 4-side, hands alternating on the 5-side. Start with the composite as one line, then split the sides between limbs.

  Hear it this way, 66 BPM

• A five-note cell over a four-note ostinato

  • Piano
  • Theory

  Twentieth-century études and player-piano canons build whole pieces from cells like this: a left hand repeating four, a right hand repeating five, the two phasing until they meet. It is the composer's version of the same ratio.

  HearSlow it right down. In notation view the composite shows twenty slots per cycle, with the sides coinciding once, which is why the pattern feels so long before it repeats.

  PlayLeft hand plays a four-note figure on the 4-side, right hand a five-note scale fragment on the 5-side, very slowly, one cycle at a time.

  Hear it this way, 52 BPM