Triplets and Quintuplets

<< Click to Display Table of Contents >>

Navigation:  Editing the Music Notation > Selecting, Editing and Deleting Notes > Editing the Rhythms of Notes >

Triplets and Quintuplets

Previous pageReturn to chapter overviewNext page

Musician automatically recognizes triplets and quintuplets as it transcribes a MIDI file to notation. Musician also recognizes irregular triplets, such as with missing members. If Musician incorrectly detects a triplet or quintuplet, you can convert regular notes to the tuplet, or convert the tuplet notes to regular notes.

 

prcarrow To change the duration of a note in a triplet or quintuplet:

Follow the same procedure as for that for changing the duration of a non-tuplet note, as summarized here.

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Select the note by clicking it.
3.Type SHIFT+N to display the note duration palette.
4.Click a duration and/or dotted note value in the Note Palette.

    -- OR --

    Type an equivalent keyboard command, such as "16" to change the note to a sixteenth duration in the tuplet.

    -- OR --

    While holding down the "D" key, hit the RightArrowKey or LeftArrowKey key to increase or decrease the duration.

prcarrow To convert non-tuplet notes to triplets or quintuplets:

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Select the notes and rests that should be converted to a triplet or quintuplet group, as illustrated:

    TupletBeforeConvertingBinaryTriplet

3.Type SHIFT+N to display the note duration palette.
4.Click the triplet        TripletButton or quintuplet QuintupletButton button in the note duration palette.

-- OR --

Type "33" for triplet, or "55" for quintuplet.

Using the above example, if you convert the selected notes to a triplet, the result will be:

TupletAfterConvertingBinaryTriplet

If the underlying performance of the notes is closer to an even triplet, Musician will convert the non-triplet members to this:

TupletAfterConvertingEvenBinaryTriplet

You can also convert the rhythm the other way, from a triplet or quintuplet to non-tuplet rhythm, as described next.

prcarrow To convert a triplet or quintuplet to non-tuplet note durations:

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Select at least one note or rest, but not necessarily all members, of the tuplet.
3.Type SHIFT+N to display the note duration palette.
4.Click the no-tuplet NoTupletButton button.

    -- OR --

    Type "00" for no tuplet.

    Musician will convert all of the members of the tuplet to the simplest rhythm of non-tuplet durations that most closely matches the tuplet rhythm.

prcarrow To combine adjacent tuplets of the same size into one larger tuplet:

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Drag the mouse over some, but not necessarily all, of the notes or rests in both tuplets, to select them. For example:

    CombineTupletBefore

Note that the two sets of tuplets to be joined must span across a natural beat or sub-beat in the meter of the measure, rather than straddle a beat or sub-beat.

3.Choose the Join Pair of Triplets or Quintuplets command in the Triplets and Quintuplets submenu Note menu.

    -- OR --

    Type "jt" for join tuplet.

    In this example, the result will be:

    CombineTupletAfter

4.To beam the notes together, type SHIFT+B to display the Beam Palette, and choose the Beam Left and Right option.

-- OR --

Type "==".

The result will be:

CombineTupletAfterThenBeam

prcarrow To split a tuplet into two smaller, equal sized tuplets:

1.Enter Select Mode.
2.Select at least one member of the tuplet, but not necessarily all members of the tuplet. For example:

    SplitTupletBefore

3.Choose the Divide Triplet or Quintuplet In Two command in the note menu.

    -- OR --

    Type "dt" for divide tuplet.

    In this example, the result will be:

    SplitTupletAfter

    A beam is left between the two tuplets. You can easily remove it, as described in Beams.