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Topic: Timing and triplets (Read 4076 times) previous topic - next topic

Timing and triplets

I've downloaded Noteworthy Composer 1.30b and was trying it
out for a song my daughter wrote (with the help of her piano teacher
and my wife) and I've run into a problem with the timing of
the song. I'm not a musician, so please excuse any incorrect
terms. The song is in 6/8 time and the first two measures in the
treble and base clef have 2 triplets and match up fine. But
in the next measure the triplets continue in the base clef, but
the treble clef has a quarter note, eighth note, then a dotted
quarter note. Noteworthy Composer doesn't consider the Treble and
base clef to have equal timing. It seems like it is assigning
3 beats to the quarter note in the measure instead of two which
is what all the musicians in the family have told me. They tell
me that two triplets in a measure give the the 6 beats and the
quarter note (2 beats), eighth note(1 beat),dotted quarter note
(3 beats) for the 6 beats. It doesn't play the song correctly
as written, but I can change the notes to make it sound right
and line up the measures, but am told that isn't the way the
song goes. I've shown them the program and they like it but
will not consider it if it can't handle the above problem. Any
help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Joe Crossett

Re: Timing and triplets

Reply #1 –
In 6/8 time, a dotted quarter is tyically considered "the beat", and two beats are present per measure. In this configuration, it is very unusual to see an actual notated triplet, as three adjacent 8th notes are played as triplets (since the beat is a dotted quarter). In NWC, the important thing to know about measure alignment is that the sum of the durations in a measure must be equal in all staff parts (for that measure). As long as you follow this rule, all parts should line up. If you are having trouble, feel free to send us a sample in an email attachment, and we will review it.

- support@noteworthysoftware.com

Re: Timing and triplets

Reply #2 –
It seems to me that you have got the number of notes in the measure slightly wrong. If the bar is in 6/8 time and there are only two sets of triplets in the first two measures you are short by 1 beat in the first two bars. Remember that a triplet is three notes played in the time of two. The first two bars would measure (no pun intended) up since there are the same number of triplets in both the treble and bass clefs. In the next measure however - in the bass clef has two triplets (two beats) while the treble clef has notes which add up to three beats. I suspect that, rather than triplets, you should only be using standard eith notes.

Hope this helps

Richard