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Tuplets

Subjects covered:

• Triplets
• Other tuplets

Triplets [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

Despite the various rhythmic values explained and the possibility to lengthen them with a dot or a tie, some rhythmic values are still impossible to write. For instance, how could you write notes during one third of a quarter note? Impossible, because all rhythmic values are based on multiples of two.

The irregular groups, also called tuplets, are groups of notes not being a multiple of a standard rhythmic value. Let us start with the simplest, the triplet.

The triplet is a group of 3 identical rhythmic values that must be played within the duration of 2 rhythmic values. Let us take an example with eighth notes. An eighth note has a duration of half a beat. Three eighth notes have a duration of one and a half beat. An eighth note triplet is a group of 3 eighth notes accelerated to fit within the duration of 2 standard eighth notes, that is to say, one beat. Here is how it is represented:

The three eighth notes are grouped by a curve (or a hook) with figure "3". It means 3 instead of 2. The three notes are played more quickly than their normal duration. The total duration of the three notes is equivalent to one quarter note. You can put four such groups in a 4/4 measure.

Here is an example with a quarter note triplet:

The three quarter notes must be played within the normal duration of 2 quarter notes. The group thus uses 2 beats of the measure. Open the Ex020 file and listen to it. It contains examples of quarter note triplets and eighth notes triplets:

Triplets let you divide durations into three equal parts such as the eighth note triplet which divides the quarter note into three parts. Notice that you can place different rhythmic values in a triplet, as in the following examples:

In the first two cases, the quarter note replaces two eighth notes. So there is still 3 eighth notes instead of 2. In the third case, the half note represents two quarter notes and it is a quarter note triplet (3 quarter notes instead of 2).

The sixteenth note triplet is constructed on the same principle. It is a group of 6 notes replacing a normal duration of 4 notes (it can also exist with only 3 sixteenth notes instead of 2). It is often used with sixteenth notes. Here an example:

Other tuplets [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]

The basic idea of the triplet is to place 3 notes covering the normal duration of 2 notes. The duration of each note is thus reduced to 2/3 of its normal value.

This principle can be extended by using other numbers than 3 and 2. Let us take an example with 5 notes played within the duration of 4 notes. It is written as follows:

The five sixteenth notes are reduced to the duration of 4, i.e. the equivalent of a quarter note. The quarter note is thus divided into 5 equal parts. This would not have been possible with standard rhythmic values. The durations are multiplied by 4/5.

You can create groups with 7:4 (7 notes instead of 4), 15:12 (15 notes instead of 12),… Calculation becomes complicated and the performer has a hard time, but it is always possible to play it! In this case, the ratio used is explicitly written, such as 7:4. Open and listen to the Ex021 file as an example of the sound effect it creates. Listen to the upper regular sounds to locate the beats:

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