Tuplets

[TinyTubist97]

I'm new to reading tuplets other than triplets and I know the basic idea that whatever number is under the grouping is how many notes there are, but is there a better way to go about playing the harder groupings like 5-tuplets? So far I just count triplets as tri-pl-et, 5-tuplets as tri-pl-et-e-and, and 6-tuplets as 2 pairs of triplets in cut time. Is there a better way to do this? And forgive me if I'm not writing the types of tuplets correctly!

[arpthark]

There's no "right" or "wrong" way to conceptualize tuplets, IMO. The only "trick" I use is saying quintuplets as "opportunity." So, "one-and two-and opportunity four," etc etc.

Practice saying them out loud and then playing them with a metronome, making sure that your divisions are even and in time. They will get easier as your internal pulse develops.

[Trevor Bjorklund]

You may like this or you may hate it but I started using what amounts to Indian rhythmic solfege many years ago and can basically sightread just about anything. Here is the basic run-down:

You have two main kinds of groupings - "2," and "3" (also a special one for "4,")
For a "2" grouping, use "ta-ka"
For a "3" grouping (triplet), use "ta-ki-ta."

So duplets (let's take 3 beats divided into 2 eighth notes each): Ta-ka Ta-ka Ta-ka etc.;
Triplets (same 3 with 3 triplets each): Ta-ki-ta Ta-ki-ta Ta-ki-ta, etc.
And you can mix an match them for other subdivisions.

For example, "5" (a quintuplet) is usually either
"3 plus 2": "Ta-ki-ta-Ta-ka" --- OR --- "2 plus 3": Ta-ka-Ta-ki-ta

Now you can also use a version of this for 16th notes or "4": "Ta-ki-di-mi"

So now, when you need to deal with "7" or some non-standard collection of "8" or "9," you can use "Ta-ki-di-mi" as a stand in for four in a row. A septuplet made of "4 plus 3" would be Ta-ki-di-mi-Ta-ki-ta. "3 plus 4" = Ta-ki-ta-Ta-ki-di-mi. Et cetera!

This system is infinitely flexible and has been essential to me as a contemporary music player. If you stick to the basic repertoire, you are unlikely to ever encounter anything really complex but if you learn this rhythmic solfege, you will always be able to take it on. Get a metronome and practice subdividing beats in a variety of ways and you will hardwire the feeling of the different subdivisions into your body and be a rhythmic monster in no time.

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But if you don't want to learn this way, you can just use the standard "1-e-+-a" for 16ths, "1-+-a" for triplets, and some kind of word for quintuplets "Dallapiccola" etc. Get out of the habit of using the word "tri-pu-let," however, for anything other than triplets. No reason to intentionally mix very different rhythmic values when trying to learn quintuplets, or whatever.