Re: Triplets

Greg William wrote:
I can not get my head around triplets.Any suggestions how I should practice them with a metronome and what I should set it at.


TIA.





Forget the metronome, it can't help you.

Triplets are little sequences of three notes where there would normally be one or two (both varieties are called triplets, although they don't take up the same amount of time).

The first kind (three notes replacing one) is fairly easy to hear. Say to yourself "one, two, evenly, four", where the word "evenly", equally strssed on each syllable, replaces the "three" in the sequence. Three smaller notes of equal length have replaced one quarter-note.

The second kind, where a triplet replaces two notes (say quarter notes, but this is not the only possibility), is a little harder to hear, and to describe.

An example would be best, but only works if you know the song. I'm hoping the Beatles cover of Till There was You is well known enough.

This contains a triplet in the third line of the verse

But I never heard them at all

The phrase "never heard them at" is a full bar of four quarter notes in which a triplet has replaced the last two quarter notes. The first beat of the next bar is on "all".

Each beat of "never" is one beat of the bar, but "heard them at" is three notes taking the space of two.

Count ONE, TWO, three, four, ONE, TWO, Dum-dee-dum, One, two etc. Avoid the temptation of counting One, two, three-and four in the mistaken belief that this is a triplet, when in fact you have just substituted two eighth-notes for the third quarter-note.

If you still don't get it, ask and I'll look for another example.





--
Stephen
Ballina, Australia
.

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