The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 27

[Major-Minor]

The Major's Bass Boot Camp - Session 27

Getting Started with Sight-Reading - G Minor / Triplets

In this session, we will get to grips with triplets, in the quaver and crotchet variety.

Every beat (pulse) can be divided into either 2 or 3 sub divisions or multiples of these numbers (5s, 7s and others are possible, of course, but they are rare in the world of pop/rock/jazz, and in any case, these numbers are combinations of 2s and 3s anyway - for instance, 7 is a combination of two 2s and a 3).

Up to now in these Reading Sessions we have only looked at "simple time" - rhythmic structures that are divisible by 2. So we have taken the crotchet and divided it into 2 quavers or 4 semiquavers.

We will look at "compound time", where each and every beat is divided into 3, in a later session.

But what if you want to just occasionally divide the beat into 3 during a piece which is predominantly in simple time ? Well this is where the TRIPLET comes in. A bracket is placed over the 3 sub-divisions and the number 3 is placed in that bracket. (You may also come across the word TUPLET - this is the generic term for any grouping of notes that are "squashed" into a beat that otherwise would be in simple time. So for instance, you might find a 5 semiquaver tuplet - 5 semis squashed into the time of 4 semis. This is known as a quintuplet).

Hopefully the following play-along examples will make all this clear.

All are in G minor which has 2 flats (Bb and Eb) just like it's Relative Major of Bb.
As usual, everything is playable in the first 2 positions.


MBBC27a
[attachment=52905:MBBC27a.pdf]
[attachment=52910:MBBC27a.mp3]


MBBC27b
[attachment=52906:MBBC27b.pdf]
[attachment=52912:MBBC27b.mp3]
Look at bar 17, beat one:
Here we have a quaver triplet where the first 2 quavers have been joined together to create a crotchet within a triplet.
And in bar 18, the 3rd quaver of the triplet is TIED over to a minim.
The trick with playing all these variations (on the triplet ) is to "think" each and every triplet quaver in your head even when they are not articulated.
Sometimes you will be playing these 3s directly against 2s going on elsewhere in the band. But then occasionally you will have the whole band band playing triplets like in bars 21 and 22.


MBBC27c
[attachment=52907:MBBC27c.pdf]
[attachment=52913:MBBC27c.mp3]
So here we have the crotchet triplet - 3 crotchets squashed into the time of 2.


MBBC27d
[attachment=52908:MBBC27d.pdf]
[attachment=52914:MBBC27d.mp3]


MBBC27e
[attachment=52909:MBBC27e.pdf]
[attachment=52915:MBBC27e.mp3]
In this final exercise, we find both quaver and crotchet triplets.

The Major

[51m0n]

Thanks yet again M-M, more fuel fo rthe fire, in your ever expanding teaching resource!

Brilliant stuff

[Rich]

Link added to sticky index

Major, have you ever thought about putting this stuff in a book?

[Major-Minor]

[quote name='Rich' post='876390' date='Jun 24 2010, 01:40 PM']Link added to sticky index

Major, have you ever thought about putting this stuff in a book?[/quote]
The music publishing world is in serious decline at present, mainly due to the internet I guess, so I think it unlikely that a publisher would be interested.
The fact that I'm putting this stuff on this site for free doesn't help ! I can't imagine why anybody would pay good money when they can download for free.

But i'd be open to offers if there is an interested publisher out there ..... !

The Major

[Sean]

It's all very much appreciated and has improved my reading loads. I was handed some sheet music with a relatively simple bass part the other day and was playing through in no time. That would not have been anywhere near as quick a process as maybe a year ago. The triplet lesson is fantastic.