Troubles playing fast triplets..

[gai113]

I'm not quite sure how to play fast repeatable triplets ala stanley clarke style... I play with two fingers... Im not quite sure the best way to finger them... to play fluid and fast..

any thoughts?

I try alternating but because its an odd number 3 its really weird when u repeat it.. you end up using a different finger every time

Does anyone know what i mean

 

[tZer]

There are a few techniques to pick up the speed of triplets that I have found to be effective.

1) middle, index, back of index on the back-stroke
2) three finger - ring, middle, index
3) 'hybrid classical' thumb, middle, index
4) single-finger back and forth
5) thumb (ala Vic Wooten) where you use your thumb as if it were a pick

And you could always do like Steve Harris and simply get your two fingers so damn fast and strong that you can pull it off 'organically' with a natural, two finger approach.

For me, and for the most part, I am able to swing my triplets two finger style - but that's mostly because they don't go for super-long stretches in the tunes I play. So getting good and warmed up and practicing the tune a lot usually cuts it. But for songs where you are facing a very long stretch on non-stop triplets and a quick tempo, these other techniques leverage 'economy of motion' and don't force you to develop biceps on your fingers.

 

[gai113]

on one string im fine.. the problem is when i have 2 notes on the g string and lets say 1 note on the d string..

good advice though

 

[tZer]

on one string im fine.. the problem is when i have 2 notes on the g string and lets say 1 note on the d string..

good advice though

I actually find those to be easier - to fingers on the notes on the G string with whichever finger struck last raking down to the D.

Now going the other direction is a little more challenging when you don't have the benefit of naturally being able to rake. But I think that's just a matter of practicing and getting your fingers up to speed. Personally, I have an easier time with triplets on two neighboring strings.

For triplets that don't have to be crisply articulated, you can use a slur in the left hand to handle 2 of the notes on whichever string, 3rd note plucked.

There are also some left hand techniques you can explore with hammer-ons and pull-offs that make playing triplets pretty damn easy too.

Right hand, pluck a note, left hand hammer a note, right hand pluck...

 

[Mayers]

Practice slow and your stamina to play for long ...

I can play triplet with whatever I want ... Take a metronome and say Ta-da-da ( emphasis on the Ta marking the first note in the triplet ) or Tri-ple-et ... and make your metronome go faster and faster until you have it at your speed.

I also think that if you can sing it you can play it.

 

[john_g]

Practice slow and your stamina to play for long ...

I can play triplet with whatever I want ... Take a metronome and say Ta-da-da ( emphasis on the Ta marking the first note in the triplet ) or Tri-ple-et ... and make your metronome go faster and faster until you have it at your speed.

I also think that if you can sing it you can play it.

Good advice. My old bass instructor made me play them while saying 1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let, etc. It really worked for me just doing that.

 

[Insederec]

The way I've been doing it recently that I've found to be very efficient is to quickly pluck with my middle then index finger for the first two notes of the triplet and for the 3rd note I pull my middle finger back up and bring my index finger around the string. It gets to be pretty quick and it takes no less energy than just alternating index and middle. The fault with my method however is that it's not easily done on more than one string...

 

[Jaco Taco]

Triplets are really easy using 3 fingers. Stanley Clarke uses his first, middle, and ring finger in this order: ring, middle, first (a, m, i, in classical terminology). I use those fingers but mostly I like going middle, first, thumb.