The Ultimate Quarter Note Triplet Exercise

How many times have you been in a rehearsal and heard the conductor say that some quarter note triplets aren't even? If you're like most musicians, you've heard that a lot over the years.

Quarter note triplet, followed by a half note in 4/4 — Do you try playing this?

A tresillo followed by a half note — But play this instead?

Why is that? Quarter note triplets aren't fast and they are fairly common, so why do we have so much difficulty with them?

First, some music theory...

The answer lies with our system of notation. In simple meters (4/4, 2/2, 3/4, etc.), it breaks beats into divisions of two. Triplets, naturally, work against that.

But most musicians can play 8th note triplets just fine, you say. And you're right. Eighth note triplets are easy. They take one beat and break it into three parts.

So, there's something more at work here. Look at how many beats the quarter note triplet takes up in the first image in this article. Now, ask yourself where exactly beat two of that measure would be.

That's hard to answer, isn't it? Where exactly does beat two end up? It's somewhere after the second note, kind of. That's not a satisfying answer, is it?

What if the first two beats of that measure were broken up into 8th note triplets? How might that look?

Quarter note triplets on A, eighth note triplets underneath on F, showing how they align

Aha! Now, where does beat two fall? That was much easier to answer, wasn't it? Thinking about the beats where quarter note triplets occur as 8th note triplets makes it possible for us to understand precisely how they fit in the meter. Which leads us to...

The Exercise

With your metronome set to a moderate tempo (76-88 BPM), start by singing or playing this rhythm until you have it even:

Eighth note triplets with accents on the beat

That didn't take long, did it? Now, let's shift those accents around a little bit. Again with your metronome, play or sing this rhythm until you have it even:

Eighth note triplets with accents every two notes

Now that you have that, put them together into a continuous loop and practice until you have it even:

A measure of 4/4 with eighth note triplets with accents on the beat on beats 1 and 2, and eighth note triplets with accents every two notes on beats 3 and 4.

Are you feeling comfortable with that? Great! Now, do this until you have it even:

A measure of 4/4 with eighth note triplets with accents on the beat on beats 1 and 2 and quarter note triplets on beats 3 and 4.

That's it! You've made it.

Something to remember

Did that last rhythm sound familiar? It's the chorus from "America" in West Side Story.

You can hum this to yourself if you find your quarter note triplets getting uneven again.