Whats behind the triplets theory on bass

[PETE_COMBS]

I know Victor wooten does a lot of triplets on Donna lee and all kinds of shit.But would I go about finding triplets on tabs as a lesson or by constructing one myself.

[BenLoy]

A triplet is just a rhythm, that's all. It's taking three eighth or sixteenth notes and fitting them into the rhythmic space of two.

 

A common example of triplets would be the "merrily merrily merilly..." section from "Row, Row, Row your boat". "Merrily" is three syllables, but the triplet rhythm makes it fit into one beat.

 

Are you talking about playing triplets with the thumb? If so here's some lessons from Victor himself.

[Bartolini]

Even though you call what Victor play as triplets, they are sextaplets(!), ninetaplets(!?)& twelvetaplats(!!)

 

playing triplets as long as they are mutes is ok.

but how do you apply notes to them? I have cooked up something off what Mark King does. It sounds awsome.

[Brendan Orr]

Originally posted by Bartolini:

[QB]ninetaplets(!?)& twelvetaplats(!!)

QB]

Isn't that nonteplates and dodecaplets, or is that just geometry.

Anyway I prefer to refer them by their value. (Whole, Half, Quarter, Eight, Sixteenth, Thirtysecond, Sixtyforth, etc.) Not sure what value a quintuplet would have though (a fifth note?)

[MartinJ]

[sARCASM]

 

Oh, yeah, pal, you get that Tab goin' on, and you'll have the triplet theory DOWN.

 

[/sARCASM]

 

[PJR]

Take it easy on him fellers......

 

He just wants to learn.

 

 

PJR

[jeremy c]

You could get one of the video by Bill "The Buddha" Dickens.

 

You\'ll like this website, I guarantee it!

 

Now for my usual grumpy self, are we talking about playing music or are we talking about some sort of fancy technique so you can play something to impress people?

 

Although to answer my own question, when Victor Wooten plays "The Sinister Minister", he does both.

[dcr]

Here's a place where relying on tab is getting in the way of what you want to do.

 

Tab isn't useless. It's especially helpful, imho, for representing fingerings for riffs (e.g. there are many different ways to play the riff from the chorus of "Cross-Eyed Mary," & you can use tab to show ways of doing it). But of course the #1 reason people use it is to learn songs fast without knowing theory or music notation, and eventually that cheats you out of really learning from those songs. All you end up knowing is to play this note then that one, & not why, musically, it works. So you're not learning how to figure out what would work musically on the other things you might play. And I think you're finding that out; it's not teaching you what you need. It CANNOT teach you SQUAT about rhythm, since it doesn't notate rhythm. That ain't good if you want to play in the rhythm section!

 

OK, well, triplets. Usually a beat is subdivided in groups of two: you divide a quarter note into two eighth notes, an eighth into two sixteenths, & so on. Well, now instead of breaking a quarter note into two equal parts, break it into three equal parts. Ben Loy's advice is excellent: the "merrily" on "Row Row Row Your Boat" is dividing a quarter note into 3 equal parts. So get your handy metronome (and if you don't have one, GET ONE--preferably an inexpensive one that goes "click click click") and set it to a moderate setting, about where you'd sing "Row Row Row." Now in time to the metronome, sing "merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily" over & over again, one "merrily" per click. (Don't feel silly!) When that becomes second nature, just make some rhythmic noise instead of singing "merrily"--go "duh duh duh" or something like that. Once that is second nature, get your bass out of its case & play any one note over & over again with exactly the same rhythm (you're just replacing "merrily" or "duh duh duh" with a note from your bass). Once that's natural, start playing around with it; say, play 3 quarter notes & a triplet "turnaround" on the 4th, or eighth notes for 3 beats & a triplet on the 4th, etc. This should give you the concept of triplet rhythm. You will then probably start finding places to work them in on the songs you play (probably too much at first, but don't worry). Eventually you'll see how you can divide other values besides the quarter note into triplets; but let that come later, for now.

 

Triplets are very important to learn. They can be very tasty, when used well; as you've seen, they can also be very wicked, when used really really well! But understanding triplet rhythm is also crucial for playing certain common rhythms, such as "shuffle" and "swing" rhythm: simply (crudely) put, a shuffle is played by playing the beat on the 1st & 3rd notes of the triplet, & a pair of eighth notes are played "swing" by making the first one last for the first 2 beats of a triplet & putting the second one on the 3rd beat of the triplet (e.g. the bass lines on "You Can't Hurry Love" and "Don't Mess with Bill" use swing 8s generously). (Do a search for better discussions re: shuffle & swing. Esp. look for a link to an article by Ed Friedland on the shuffle!) The point is that being able to subdivide a beat into 3 equal parts is a skill that's required more often in music than you may realize, so sitting in your room singing "merrily merrily merrily merrily" will actually help make you a much more complete musician!

 

Good luck. Have fun.

[Idnarb]

Maybe im stepping into a BIG flaming whole with this but....

 

why not combine tabs and musical notation? use the tabs to denote which string and finger to use but write them in musical notation to denote rythm. Would it really be so hard to combine the two?

[Brendan Orr]

Inarb, I've seen notated music with tab on it. Downside is it takes up the same amount of space as a piano part.