Sextuplets?
 

I have been playing the bass for only 6 months. Just the last day my teacher gave me an exercise for Sextuplets, means 2/3 notes, or combination of 3 notes that equivalent to 2 quarter notes. I spent all the afternoon with the metronome, but have never figured how to play it.

Is it's just too hard, or I'm too dull :(

maybe you started too fast?

this video of any help? at 6:00 you should be able to catch it easily
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rnoj_cQqe94

Post the exercise please. It sounds like you're talking about quarter note triplets (of which there are 6 in a 4/4 bar). The video that backup posted ^^^ is something completely different.

That's not right, three notes that are the equivalent of two quarter notes is a quarter note triplet. A sextuplet is 6 notes that are the equivalent of a quarter note.

Do you read music? There's a way to use the metronome to set the triplet up so you can hear it a little better, but it's easier to talk about (what amounts to) the metric modulation if it gets written out.

To be a little more precise, there are two quarter note triplets in a 4/4 bar, comprising six quarter notes.

Febs, what you wrote is a little confusing, two quarter note triplets is not "compromising six quarter notes" , you gotta talk about the the little bracket with the 3 in it, and hopefully provide an illustration or it just gets to be a muddle....

Ed, I think that you, Bill and I are all saying fundamentally the same thing: six notes played evenly across a bar of 4/4 equals two quarter note triplets. Each of the six notes is written like a quarter note (with the bracket and the 3 as shown in your example), but they are not really quarter notes because you are playing three of them in the space that two quarter notes would otherwise occupy, so each of the three notes is actually something less than a quarter note.

My only qualm with Bill's post is that, read literally, it looks like he is saying that there are six triplets in a 4/4 bar. I know that is not what he meant. "Comprising" was probably not the best choice of words on my part.

I would agree, your teacher is more than likely introducing triplets. A sextuplet or sextolet is six notes played in the time of four, even though there are six notes they are not played as triplets with emphasis on notes one and four but rather as six notes with emphasis on notes one, three, five. I doubt your teacher is introducing this yet. Good luck with your lessons.

With the above quote in mind, while I am definitely in favour of a pupil learning all aspects of bass playing, it seems a bit advanced IMO that someone this new to playing the bass should be worrying about sextuplets.

It can take that long and more, to perfect good groove in 4/4 time. In fact, some bassists who have being playing for years, still have not mastered a simple groove.


I know this does not answer the OP's question.....just sayin'. :)

Thanks for all the enthusiastic helps guise! I will now explain the exercise teach gave:

4/4 time

Quarters x4
Eighths x8
Quarters x4
Sextuplet

Emphasis falls on first and fourth note of the sextuplet.

Also, teach gave me the triplet exercise that I rather find easy:

4/4 time
Quarters x4
Eighths x8
Triplets x12 (means One-third the quarter note)
Sixteenth x16

Now, the problem is the sextuplet. It's just like, half the speed of the triplet. But I just can't get that feel~

the video i posted shows sextuplets doesnt it? :confused:

this really does soudn like youre looking for quarter note triplets. which would also be logical. the are far more situations where quarter note triplets are required

is this what youre searching for? @ 2:40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJVgernoQUE

not at the 6 minute mark. Those are 16ths, and he even says they are. I didn't watch the whole thing, but the only sextuplets I heard were the very first sounds on the video. Groups of 6 and sextuplets are different things.

try that

Even though there are more formal counting techniques out there, I've always found it easiest to come up with a word (or words) with the same number of syllables as there are sections I want to divide the beat into. Speaking is pretty easy, and it doesn't take a lot of/as much thought for you to pace your words. You've been doing it your whole life. For example, counting triplets I say/play:

daf-oh-dil; daf-oh-dil; daf-oh-dil; daf-oh-dil; (four beats, divided by ';'s)

Now counting sextuplets would be:

daf-oh-dil_el-eph-ant; daf-oh-dil_el-eph-ant; daf-oh-dil_el-eph-ant; daf-oh-dil_el-eph-ant; (four beats, divided by ';'s)

Since the dil and the el sound somewhat alike, it becomes easy enough to run them together and you can get pentuplets pretty much for free by running the words together like so:

daf-oh-del-eph-ant; daf-oh-del-eph-ant; daf-oh-del-eph-ant; daf-oh-del-eph-ant; (four pentuplets)

Also, it helps quite a bit to practice with a metronome, and as soon as you can play sextuplets to the beat, slow it down some, then play a measure of 16th's then a measure of sextuplets, then a meausure of..... mix it up and learn the difference. Go back to straight one, then straight the other, then mix it up again. Your inner Ricky Bobby will want to go fast ASAP, but remember being able to play slow AND smooth is the fastest way to get fast.

you're right. i didnt pay attention to the hihat my fault.

learnmusictheory.net/PDFs/pdffiles/01-01-07-TupletsGrouplets.pdf

You could try this link for more on this type of note groupng.

Yes. I should have said "six triplet quarter notes in a 4/4 bar" rather than "six quarter note triplets". My bad.

I've added the word triplet (in bold) to this quote of your post for that reason. Now we're both correct. ;)

Exactly.

Btw, that One-and-AH Two-AND-ah is quite useful~