I'm chugging along with my reading and whatnot, but I'm confused on a particular thing. In the intro to Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues, the first measure is Quarter Note-[eighth rest-eighth note-eight note]-quarter note -[quarter note-eighth note]. The parts in brackets are marked on the sheet so as to play them in triplets, but how does one play a triplet with only two notes -- the quarter note and eighth note one in particular (it's obvious with the first triplet). Is there a specific emphasis you put on these notes, or is it just to make reading the music easier by chopping it into little sections within each measure?
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Triplets without actually having three notes
- Thread starter Aaron Saunders
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Govithoy said:
Here we go, just imagine the [quarter note-eighth note] as [(eighth note tied to eighth note)-eighth note]. Thats really what it is. Since the quarter note is really two tied eighth notes. Or it can be considered a "swinged" set of eighth notes. Swing meaning 2 eighth notes in the same beat next to eachother being played as [quarter note-eighth note] in a triplet. The first eighth note is twice as long as the second but both of them together still take the same amount of space as two normal eighth notes.
OK, try this out:
1) tap your hand on your knee and count "1, 2, 3, 4". These are the beats of the bar in 4/4 time.
2) now tap and count "1 & a, 2 & a, 3 & a, 4 & a", still accenting the 1, 2, 3, 4. This will give you the 4 beats divided into 8th note triplets.
3) now, while counting exactly the same as above, try 'tapping the air' above your knee on every quarter note beat - on the 1, 2, 3, 4. So you are tapping "- & a, - & a, - & a, - & a". Where "-" is a rest.
4) do the same excercise but singing a note for the first two 'taps' of each triplet - this should give your the feel for beat 4 of that 1st bar.
As Garret says this is probably more of a triplet feel, especially since it's a blues and is probably a shuffle.. a shuffle can be felt by counting/tapping the following triplet rhythm:
1 - a, 2 - a, 3 - a, 4 - a,
hope that helps
H
1) tap your hand on your knee and count "1, 2, 3, 4". These are the beats of the bar in 4/4 time.
2) now tap and count "1 & a, 2 & a, 3 & a, 4 & a", still accenting the 1, 2, 3, 4. This will give you the 4 beats divided into 8th note triplets.
3) now, while counting exactly the same as above, try 'tapping the air' above your knee on every quarter note beat - on the 1, 2, 3, 4. So you are tapping "- & a, - & a, - & a, - & a". Where "-" is a rest.
4) do the same excercise but singing a note for the first two 'taps' of each triplet - this should give your the feel for beat 4 of that 1st bar.
As Garret says this is probably more of a triplet feel, especially since it's a blues and is probably a shuffle.. a shuffle can be felt by counting/tapping the following triplet rhythm:
1 - a, 2 - a, 3 - a, 4 - a,
hope that helps
H
