Quarter note triplet count..

[DanGroove]

I've had others tell me that in the past, but I just don't find that helpful at all. It does nothing to tell me where exactly the note placement occurs.

So are you unable to count eighth note triplets as well? Can't really help with that. For that matter, how can you tell where the upbeat of a regular eighth note falls? I mean I could tell you 1 AND 2 AND but that is equally as useless a 1-tri-plet for triplets. Or a sixteenth note. How is 1 e & a any more specific about where the note falls than 1-tri-plet?

I guess I can say the 1 falls on the down beat, the "tri" falls 2/3 of the way to the next down beat and the "let" let falls one third of the way to the downbeat after that.

 

[DanGroove]

Here ya go:

At 120bpm the first note falls at 0 milliseconds after the first beat. The second note falls at 333.3333333 milliseconds after the first beat. The third note falls at 166.66666666 milliseconds after the second beat. You will need to do the math in your head if you choose to play at any tempo other than 120bpm or map out these values at all tempos and memorize the chart.

Or you could practice with a metronome and learn to feel triplet subdivisions and then use the other suggestions.

 

[Mushroo]

I've had others tell me that in the past, but I just don't find that helpful at all. It does nothing to tell me where exactly the note placement occurs.

It's normal and fine for different people to use different "mnemonics" to memorize things. For example I never clicked with "every good boy does fine" for learning the notes of the staff.

The important thing is that you find a system that works for you. Eighth note triplets are exactly 1/3 beat and quarter note triplets are exactly 2/3 beat. There are many ways to count that.

 

[PillO]

I know what these sound like and can play them (I think ), but what exactly is the numerical count for these over 2 beats?

Please don't respond with 1-triplet, etc either. I'm more interested in wear each note falls numerically over 2 beats in a 4 beat measure.

How I got quarter note triplets.

1. Listen to the beginning of Killin in the Name of by Rage Against the Machine. Best isolated quarter note triplets I can think of.
2. Practice them in 12/8 time. Each quarter note triplet is 2 eight notes.

 

[glocke1]

So are you unable to count eighth note triplets as well? Can't really help with that. For that matter, how can you tell where the upbeat of a regular eighth note falls? I mean I could tell you 1 AND 2 AND but that is equally as useless a 1-tri-plet for triplets. Or a sixteenth note. How is 1 e & a any more specific about where the note falls than 1-tri-plet?

I guess I can say the 1 falls on the down beat, the "tri" falls 2/3 of the way to the next down beat and the "let" let falls one third of the way to the downbeat after that.

I don't know how to explain it other than to say it was more about wondering where the quarter note triplets fell as they relate to the subdivision of the quarter note. It wasn't really a counting thing, it was about the exact placement of the notes over the subdivisions of two quarter notes.

The graphic posted in the second or third post was exactly what I was looking for.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

I know what these sound like and can play them (I think ), but what exactly is the numerical count for these over 2 beats?

Please don't respond with 1-triplet, etc either. I'm more interested in wear each note falls numerically over 2 beats in a 4 beat measure.

One and a two and a three and a four and a (repeat twice for two beats)

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I usually do the 1 e and a system which has been modified by most I've run into as "1 e an da". Triplets are spoken as trip-a-let trip-a-let, so a bar of triplets might be one-ap-let, two-pa-let, three-pa-let, four-pa-let, or if the downbeat count isn't that important one, two, trip-a-let, four. The half note triplets are usually rare and I think what I've heard most of the time is saying the downbeat and saying and-and for the other two half note triplets. So, one-and-and, three, four.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I know what these sound like and can play them (I think ), but what exactly is the numerical count for these over 2 beats?

Please don't respond with 1-triplet, etc either. I'm more interested in wear each note falls numerically over 2 beats in a 4 beat measure.

3 notes evenly spaced in the time it takes to play 2 beats. I heard it counted as 1 E An, or 1-2-3. I use the name of measure beat the letter N and the next note of the measure. 1 N 2 or 2 N 3. So for the whole measure count it would be: 1 N 2 3 4 or 1 2 N 3 4 or 1 2 3 N 4

In sheet music the nomenclature is an arch over the 3 notes with a number 3 over it. Hope this helps.

 

[Jazzdogg]

I think it's easiest to think in 12/8 time. So each quarter note is a dotted quarter note => 3 eighth notes per dotted quarter note. So there are a total of 6 eighth notes over the 2 bars. So each beat of the dotted quarter note triplet is 2 eighth notes. I'm trying to get a common denominator here which is 12. So mathematically it works. Not sure how to squish that down into 4/4 time other than get the feel in 12/8 and then play over 4/4.

I'm with you; my subconscious shifts gears and I start thinkin' in 12/8.

 

[DanAleks]

Tap triplets on the table with your hands, alternating hands.
R L R L R L

Do that for a while.
Now keep playing but move your left hand to your lap.
Your right hand is now playing quarter note triplets.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

When I have to do that I just think 2 beats as 1 ... super easy

 

[Groove Master]

The way I teach that one is to tap triplets eight notes alternating between the right and left hands and then tap in the air the left hand. So you've got your quater notes triplet in the right hand

 

[BassNugget]

Nice cup of tea.
Pass the god-damn butter.

(I wonder if anyone knows what this is about....)

 

[mambo4]

Nice cup of tea.
Pass the god-damn butter.

(I wonder if anyone knows what this is about....)

Nice cup of tea= 2 against 3,
Pass the God dam butter 3 against 4.

 

[JW56789]

This is easy. I forget which, but in my piano student days I had to play a Bach 2-part Invention (Been too long, I don't remember which) but one hand was playing triplets to the other hand playing eighth notes. THAT was a brain-twister till I got my head around it, 3 against 4, right hand against left hand.

 

[Mushroo]

If you have advanced-beginner piano skills, there are some easy Philip Glass piano pieces (like "Glassworks: Opening") that are good training for playing 3 against 2. (Or if you don't play piano, listen along to "Opening" and just tap the rhythm on the table, with your right and left hands.) If you listen to just the topmost note as its own "voice" then it is playing quarter-note triplets, but every couple of measures, it flips from being on the beat to being off the beat.

 

[BassNugget]

Mambo4, JWilson, Mushroom: spot on gentlemen!!! Those mnemonics helped immensely for those difficult situations of mixed time between L and R hands on the piana.

 

[consectaneus]

I'm glad this discussion got started. I was avoiding triplets because I didn't understand them in a musical context. I could do exercises like four triplet in a bar--that is a simple rhythmic figure. What I was puzzled by was going from a triplet into eighth notes in the same phrase.

I just hadn't done enough listening to examples along with the written music to get the idea. Strangely I was working on a piece that contained a bar which begins with the "and" of one, then goes into a triplet followed by four eighth notes tied together. So I sang the rhythm. Hmmm, where have I heard that before?

(Starts singing "what a day for a daydream....") Yes, the Lovin' Spoonful. That last phrase: "and even if time ain't really..."

It's at the end. I don't know how to write just that part. so:

I don't know why I don't do more of this sort of thing. It's so easy to memorize and hear in a popular song example.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Pass the God dam butter 3 against 4.

Captain Pedantic here. Just want to point out that ^^^this mnemonic is (arguably) better described as 4 against 3 ...because in the 40-something years since I first heard that learning aid I have never once heard anyone not express it as "Pass the God dam butter" with the bolded syllables aligning with their implied quarter note pulse.

 

[EarnestTBass]

but what exactly is the numerical count for these over 2 beats?

I was to taught to always always count when playing music, count your butt off. However, I was taught to just 'feel' the triplet. To play triplets, I was taught to just think: tri- po- let. It seemed to work. I never struggled with it. Then I encountered a situation where I was forced to ask myself, how DO you actually count triplets?

I played with a band that insisted on playing quarter note triplets for the turn on "Spooky". If you listen to the version recorded by Atlanta Rhythm Section, the turn is similar to, but it is NOT triplets. It is kind of choppy, It is not smooth like a triplet. When the band erroneously kept insisting at rehearsal on playing triplets I took the opportunity to do the math.

The turn for Spooky is correctly transcribed as follows. This is the last measure of the Intro where the bass first comes in. This same figure is repeated to end choruses and return to the next verse.
(If the author of this transcription sees this, THANK YOU for your work)

A dotted eighth, sixteenth, and two eighths is a common pattern and easy enough. But if you tie the sixteenth to the next eighth, the count changes. The pattern is similar to quarter note triplets, but it is not quarter note triplets.

The math:

a dotted eighth is 3/4 of a beat -or 9/12
each quarter note triplet is 2/3 -or 8/12 of a beat.

The difference between: 1) playing the turn, a little choppy, as it was recorded, and 2) playing quarter notes triplets was 1/12 of a beat. Imagine counting 12 subdivisions of beat. Then, discern the timing between the 8th and the 9th notes.

I immediately spoke up at the first rehearsal and suggested that we were playing it wrong. I suggested that we play, first, without the dotted eighth tied to the sixteenth to get the right feel. The add the tie and keep the same feel otherwise.
[Insert a long story here]
We performed triplets and I learned a valuable lesson about just keeping my mouth shut sometimes. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is speak when you absolutely know that you are right and they are wrong.