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Three in a single beat: triplets
There is more! You can divide a single beat in three equal notes. This is called a triplet.
There are different kinds of triplets.
You can divide two beats in three equal notes. This is called a “quarter triplet”. A quarter triplet is made of three quarter notes with a little “3” and a (squared) bow.
If you divide one beat in three equal notes. It is called an eighth triplet. Is is made of three eighth notes, again with a little 3 and a (squared) bow. Sometimes the bow is not squared, but just a curved line.
You can divide half a beat (an eighth note) in three: the sixteenth triplet … you get the idea.
Time signatures
At the start of this tutorial we looked at bars with four beats. The symbols used for that kind of bars were:
or 
These symbols are called the “time signature”. Lets have a closer look.
The digit “4” at the top means that there are four beats in a bar.
The digit “4” at the bottom means that every beat has a duration of one quarter note ( ¼ ).
So a full bar has in total four quarter notes. Note that this is about duration only. Not about exact notes. There can be four quarter notes, Eight eighth notes, or two quarter notes and four eighth notes, etc. Just as long as the total length of all notes equals that of four quarter notes it’s okay.
The most comon other time signatures are:
Every bar has two beats. Total duration is 2 quarter notes.
Every bar has three beats. Total duration is 3 quater notes. This time signature is ofte calles a "Watlz".
Every bar has six beats. Total duration is 6 eight notes. The bars ar "felt" in two, with an accent on 1 and 4:1 2 3 4 5 6. A good example is "House of the rising sun" by the Animals.
Every bar has twelve beats. Total duration is 12 eight notes. The bars are "felt" in four (four times three). This time signature is very comon in blues.
That's it for this tutorial! I hope you have a better understanding of reading rhythms. In practice you will encounter many variations of rhythm notatiopn, but in the end it all comes down to the basics as described in this course.
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