Tuplets, etc.


(entry for 8/2/2024)


Most musicians, especially beginners, when they first encounter the word ‘tuplet,’ say, “What in the world does that mean?”

Well, you know what a triplet is, right? And a quadruplet?

‘Tuplet’ is the generic word that applies to the category of those and all the other ‘. . . uplets’ that there can be!

When it comes to musical triplets and quadruplets and other such things, there is a bit of confusion. A triplet means three notes in the time of two, and a quadruplet means four notes in the time of three. A septuplet, though, contrary to expectations, does not mean seven notes in the time of six!

To make this all make a bit more sense, we need some examples: Here’s a measure in four quarter time containing a triplet:


In this example, the third beat of the four-quarter measure contains three eighth notes instead of the normal two. The catch being that the three notes have to be played in the same length of time that two would usually take. To put it another way, you can’t slow the rhythm down to accommodate the three notes in the triplet; you have to speed the eighth notes up to match the over-all 1 2 3 4 of the measure as a whole.

Here’s a similar situation, in which there are three quarter notes taking up the normal value of two quarter notes. (Since there’s no beam connecting the notes, there is a bracket to show the ‘three-in-two’ value of the triplet. We could use the bracket with the eighth notes, too, if we wished, but it isn’t necessary and sort of clutters things up.)

In general, if there’s only one number in the bracket, as 3, 4, 5, or 6, it’s understood that the tuplet means to play that many notes in the time that it would ordinarily take to play the next lower numeral. Three in the time of two. Four in the time of three. Etc. There are two exceptions: 2 and 7. A two (called a ‘duplet,’ pronounced Dew-plut) means two in the time of three. A seven, called a septuplet, means seven in the time of eight. 

It is quite acceptable to have other meanings, however, and if another meaning is meant, a ratio is needed, instead of a single number. For example, the following quintuplet means five in the time of six, rather than five in the time of four (which a plain 5 would mean).




By the way, a tuplet indication of ‘6’ can mean either six in the time of five or six in the time of four. Both are acceptable. You just have to figure out which is meant from the context.




Bear in mind that the ratio version of a tuplet is a fairly recent development. If you see a ratio tuplet in music prior to about 1930 or so, it means an editor put it in, not the composer him- or her-self.


It is also possible to have tuplets inside of tuplets. This is called ‘nested tuplets,’ and here’s an example.

This example means that you are to play three quarter notes in the time it would ordinarily take to play two quarter notes, but that the second quarter note is split into three eighths, rather than the two eighths it could normally contain.

This whole business of three against two (and two against three) brings up the related subject of duple and triple meter, so this would be a good time to cover that subject. A duple meter is one in which each ‘beat’ of the rhythm is represented by an un-dotted note and contains two sub-beats. Example, in 4 quarter time, each beat can contain two eighth notes.


A triple meter, or 'compound meter,' is one in which each beat is represented by a dotted note, and each beat contains three sub-beats. An example would be 6/8 time, where each beat is a dotted quarter, which in turn contains three eighth notes. 


Six-eight time (unless it’s being played very slowly, as in Largo or Lento) is not counted

1 2 3  4 5 6

as one would expect. It’s counted 

One-and-uh Two-and-uh.

Each beat is a dotted quarter note, and each dotted quarter is sub-divided into three eighth notes. (If you have no idea what dotted and un-dotted notes are, please go to the previous blog post, entitled More Italian. You can click HERE to go there; then scroll down till you see dotted notes and their definitions.)

When beginning music students start learning about time signatures, one of the first things they learn is that the top note in the signature is how many beats there are in the measure, and that the bottom note tells what kind of note gets a beat. This is absolutely untrue, and requires a lot of un-learning later. Why we tell that falsehood to begin with is a mystery. It would be so much better if the time signature for 6/8 was instead a 2 over a dotted quarter, like this:


Then we’d be telling the truth to the poor befuddled student, who, as a result, would be considerably less befuddled! Many musicians, including myself, have tried very hard to get the musical establishment to adopt that second kind of time signature, to no avail. Every music teacher in the world (including me!) tells that same unfortunate lie to the beginning student, and then has to correct the mis-information later.

A better way to explain all this is to say that any time signature in which the top number is a multiple of 3, such as 3/8, 3/16, 6/8, 6/4, 9/8, 12/4 and 12/8, and in which the bottom number is some power of 2 (other than 2 itself), is actually a triple meter and the basic beat is represented by a dotted note that is twice the value of the bottom number. (The exception is 3/4 time, which is duple.) In other words, if the bottom number is a 16, then the basic beat is a dotted eighth. (Because an eighth note is double the value of a sixteenth note). And if the bottom number is a 4 then the basic beat is a dotted half note. Etc.

If the ‘note value’ concept is driving you nuts, you may want to visit or re-visit the blog entry entitled How the Notes Got Their Shapes. (You can go there now by clicking HERE.

One last point about tuplets of any length. If there are quite a few identical ones in a row, it's OK to leave the number (and the bracket, if there is one) off, after the pattern is established. For example, check out the first movement of Beethoven's famous Moonlight Sonata. Almost every measure contains continuous triplets. After the first few of these, Beethoven leaves all the threes off, but the pianist knows what is meant and keeps playing them in the desired way, although the number is gone.


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If you’d like to see other entries in this Music Blog series (in reverse chronological order), please click HERE.


If you’d like to see entries in my Memory Blog series (in reverse order), please click HERE.







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