Konnakol is the art of vocal percussion practiced by Indian classical musicians. Learning a few of the "simple" patterns from that tradition might explode your brain, and if you can master them, they'll transform how you think about rhythm.

I was honored to have Ben Levin participate in this video. I asked him to compose with the rhythm that's taught, while I did the same, then we merged our two songs into one. The results delight me, and it really shows how wildly different two musicians can work with the same idea.

If you like this lesson, there's two other things you should know.

Ben Levin did a follow up to this lesson on his channel, where I appear to teach another mind-bending indian konnakol rhythm: Ben Levin - Part Two.
The main exercise in this video is taught more slowly and in more detail as part of my advanced rhythm course, Real Rhythm Guitar: Level 2. That course trains complex skills like this, along with polymeter, polyrhythm, and more.

Enjoy!