” ‘Witchcraft’, they said when I introduced Mulle’s method in clinics at the University of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I use ‘the Reference Rhythm Method’ at all levels. Junior high, high school, pre-college education, music teacher programmes and jazz/rock/studio musician programmes. Mulle has started a polyrhythmic revolution. What is music going to sound like in the future when 5 over 4, 7 over 4, 7 over 5 etc. to our young musicians become a rhythmic ingredient just as natural as a quarter note triplet? I’ve had many positive reactions from students who have been strengthened in their rhythmic self-image. Party trick, short cut past the intellect straight into the music, a new rhythmic dimension. The comments are many and sincere. There are already examples of students who have subtly brought the concept into the pop genre. On one occasion, I let the drummer keep a steady 4/4 groove. The bass player played a walking in 5 over 4 and the guitarist improvised over that in 7 over 4. I myself accompanied with the subdivision of 9 over 4. After a while, when all of us were able to relax in our own dimension, there was a great flow that no one of us had ever experienced before in a musical meeting, and this is only the beginning.”
Tommy Lakso lecturer of guitar at the Academy of Music in Piteå, Sweden, and appointed “Jazz Teacher of the Year” 2012 by the “Swedish Jazz Federation”
