Triplets

Tri-pe-let    tri-pe-let    tri-pe-let... Okay, that will all make sense at the end of this, I promise! 

So we looked at rhythms previously, how they are made, and what each one does. Triplets tie in very closely to rhythms for a few reasons. The first is that they turn 2 notes in to 3 put are played over the same time. It sounds a little more confusing than what it is, let me show you.

If we take 2 quavers (1/8th notes), put them together, and repeat we get a rhythm that sounds like this:

[Insert pic of quavers repeating and the audio file for it]

We can change the 2 quavers (8th notes) in to 3 notes instead, but still play them over the same period of time. If we were to write this down, it would look very similar to this:

[insert a pic of a quaver rhythm and triplet rhythm overlapping]

See how they take up the same amount of time? This makes a change to the way it plays. It will now sound like this:

[insert sound file of a triplet rhythm]

Another way to think of it is the rhythm between a quaver and a semi-quaver (8th note or a 16th note). Triplets are always counted in 3's and always replace 2 regular notes. An easy way to remember how many notes are in a triplet is by finding the word "trick" in the word or sounding it out. Tri-pe-let   tri-pe-let   tri-pe-let. Saying it out loud also helps you fit the rhythm in when you're trying to work out where to put it!