If you havn't quite gotten the hang of polyrhythms, here is a great way to start playing polyrhythms relatively easy. First, if your not already familiar with the 5-stroke roll, here is an example of how it is played.

     l l r r L   r r l l R

The capital letters in bold are the accented strokes that end the 5 stroke roll. Now lets get straight to the polyrhythms. If you got through lessons 1 - 3 then this lesson will be much easier, however if not, you might struggle a bit. You will need to learn to play this pattern continously and without breaks. When playing the 5 stroke roll rudiment there is generally a rest between successive 5 stroke rolls. I however want you to play it seemlessly and without the rest. This may take a little practice, however, this technique will make my polyrhythm excercises much easier to play and learn. Once again you will be playing in triplets but now using the 5 stroke roll as the pattern. Now it will look like this:

Alternate using the sticking pattern I have written above and below the staff for the snare each time you loop through it. In other words if you start the excercise using the sticking pattern I have written below the staff, then next time around you must use the sticking pattern I have written above the staff. I started the pattern off with the last part of the 5 stroke roll or the accented note because I think it's easier that way. You don't have to start the pattern as I have. You can pick any one of those 5 triplets and begin there as your starting point instead. If you do, remember to continue through the pattern to the right as I have written it and loop around to the front again. As you can see you will have to play 10 triplets before the pattern repeats. You will have played 3 accented strokes by the time your bass drum hits 5 times, hence 3 over 5 polyrhythm feel. Start off playing this pattern without the accents first. When you are able to continuously loop the pattern without stopping, begin adding the accents. If your having difficulty, slow it down a bit. Now, once you've mastered this excercise with the accents, begin ghosting all the un-accented notes in the pattern. The goal is to fade out all the un-accented notes until you can just hear them in your head. They are simply reference notes. If you leave them there then technically the excercise is not a true polyrhythm. Continue with this excercise by slowly fading out those ghost notes until no one but yourself can hear them. Congratulations, your playing a polyrhythm. This is 3 over 5.

In the following video I am demonstrating the above excercise. In it I am accenting every downbeat with a rimshot and all the rest of the accents are played on the drum stool seat (beside the pad). I do this to show how you can play the accents on different drums to get a unique sound. Experiment yourself with this excercise by playing the accents on different drums and/or cymbals.