Playing bata or even just hearing the music fully requires an ability to hear multiple rhythms and meters simultaneously. This is polyrhythm. It comes naturally if you have grown up around polyrhythmic music, but most Americans have not, so it can require some study and getting used to.

Good web pages on African drumming and polyrhythm are at Ladzekpo's site on Ewe drumming

Some basic definitions and examples of polyrhythm for drumset, in standard musical notation.

Many basic books on Latin or African music have discussions of what polyrhythm is, with good examples. For example, John Miller Chernoff's book African Rhythm and African Sensibility is great. So are David Locke's books like Drum Gahu.

The simplest example of polyrhythm is 2 against 3, where one hand or one drum is playing two evenly spaced notes in the same time it takes for the other to play three evenly spaced notes. An example from popular American music is the song that goes "Chimchimini chimchimini chimchim, cheree" from the musical Mary Poppins. The chimchimini part is 2 vs. 3, where chim, chim, ni count out 1, 2, 3 and chim, mi count out 1, 2. In musical counting terms it's 1, 2 and 3, where 123 count out 123 and "1" and "and" count out a pulse of 1, 2. In X and O notation, you could write X-XOX- where each character is an equal amount of time and Xs count out 1-2-3- and the first X and the O count out 1--2--. Maybe we need a sound sample here to make this more clear...[ add samples here ]

In the context of bata drumming, polyrhythm means most of the toques may be written in 12/8 meter but have some drum parts that emphasize a 2, 4, or 8 feel while others simultaneously emphasize a 3, 6, or 12 feel. Sometimes a single drum part can emphasize both feels at the same time, or can switch from one to the other in the middle of its phrase. For example, the okonkolo might play two evenly spaced notes in the same amount of time that the itotele plays three evenly spaced notes, as in the toque for Chango in the oru seco. Also, the third and fourth roads of Elegua, in the toque Latopa, have 3 and 4 feels at the same time, and so do seco toques for Osun, Orisha Oko, Yemaya, and many, many others.

Rhythms for Hand Drums & Percussion

Rhythm Instruments

The Rhythmic Universe

Rhythmic Styles