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4.5: Tuplets

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    Tuplet is a generic term that describes a grouping of notes that would not normally occur within a beat.

    A quarter note naturally divides into two eighth notes or four sixteenth notes. A triplet is a grouping of three eighth notes that occurs within the span of the quarter note. A quintuplet would be a grouping of five sixteenth notes to occur within the span of one quarter note. It is not uncommon to see quintuplets, sextuplets, and septuplets.

    An example with triplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets

    If you write a piece of music that naturally has a triplet division to the beat, you should use 68, 98 or 128 depending on the number of beats in each measure.

    triplets-in-2-4.svg

    triplets-in-6-8.svg

    /
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Two measures that sound the same

    In compound meter, a duplet is a grouping of two eighth notes to occur within the span of a dotted quarter note and a quadruplet is a grouping of four eighth notes to occur with the span of a dotted quarter note.

    An example with duplets and quadruplets in compound meter, 6/8


    This page titled 4.5: Tuplets is shared under a GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Robert Hutchinson via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.