Just when you thought things were getting easy…
Some of you might have a breakdown looking at this lesson’s exercise, so let me break down the exercise for you instead…
The Triplet
The triplet is a group of three notes to be performed in the time of two ordinary notes of the same kind. In our exercise, we’re using eighth-note triplets. That means that we are going to play three notes in the duration of two eighth notes. Some confusing. It’s not really. It’s all about subdividing the beat.
Instead of counting it as 1 and 2 and, we’ll count it as tri-pl-et. Since it’s an even number of notes, we’ll use a little trick to fit the extra note in. We’ll give it a bit of a swing. The notes that bookmark the middle note will actually be of a slightly shorter duration than the one in the middle, creating the swing effect (similar to a swing on your swing set).
They are notes that go by quickly, so you’ll want to maintain a down, up, down, up strumming motion.