I'm playing a song called Suteki De Na on the piano, if you've ever heard of it. It's from FFX, and it's a really good song, I guess. Ok, that's enough background.

This song has a left hand full of triplets, and a right hand full of eighths and quarter notes. I've always had a hard time getting the rhythm for triplets. I tried playing the hands seperately, which is rather easy, but combining the two is a whole new story. I get stuck on the very first measure.

Got any tips for me?

Yeah, those 3 on 2 situations are murder. I've butchered more than a few myself.

The tip that I found the most helpful is to try tapping out the rhythms very slowly with your hands on a desk first. Get that left hand tapping on autopilot and then add in the right hand. Then try it on the piano, taking it real slow and easy.

Persevere. It don't come easy.

Hi,

The common denominator of 2 and 3 is 6, so if you imagine the beat being divided into 6 then the left hand will be playing on 1,3 and 5, and the right hand on beats 1 and 4. In this way, the second note on the right hand fits exactly half way between notes 2 and 3 of the left hand figure.

1) Try playing the left hand on its own to get into the swing of the triplets.... 1[/b],2,3,1[/b],2,3, etc.

2) Then, whilst keeping this going, just play the second note of the RH eighth note figure, fitting it in exactly between the 2 and 3 of the LH, such that you hear:

1[/b],2 (and),3
1[/b],2 (and),3
1[/b],2 (and),3

...where the and is your RH butting in with its second note, plumb in between the second and third notes of the left hand triplet. The overall sound is like

dum[/b]-da-da-dum
dum[/b]-da-da-dum
dum[/b]-da-da-dum

... which, (being an Englishman), I like to think sounds like someone continuously saying "Nice cup of tea" .

3) Now add in the first note of each group in the RH, and keep butting in with its second note, just after the LH second note (but before the LH third one) and Robert is your Mum's brother... As Monica says slow practice is good to start with, and by having a mental/aural image of what you are trying to achieve, you will be well on the way your goal.

Best regards,

Michael B.

Let's try to make it easier.

3 vs 2

Do not try to play the notes until you feel the rhythm by tapping as Monica suggests, or by playing a single note on the keyboard (which feels like piano playing) - use single notes C - ONE NOTE in each hand.

The rhythm combined is counted:

1 2& 3 EVENLY

and sounds like quarter, two eighths, quarter

1-2&3-

So let's practice.

RH triplets
LH duplets

Together noted as T, R,right hand, L,left hand

T RL R, T RL R, T RL R

1 2& 3, 1 2& 3, .....

think like quarter, 2 8ths, quarter - notes.

Just the opposite for LH having the triplets and the RH having the eighth notes.

It is so much easier when it mechanically becomes tapping the rhythm for feeling the rhythm first.

Then learn notes my memory and mechanically so that you do note have to think about the names you are playing...they just play while you think rhythm. If you cannot do it, then you have not done the background enough. If it takes 15 minutes great. If it takes 2 weeks, great. If it takes a month, then you might need help with someone else guiding you for how the sound/rhythm is, or else you might not be ready for a piece that contains it.

I learned by counting evenly- choc o late choc o late choc o late pie - for triplets.

And ap ple ap ple ap ple pie for eighth notes with pie being a quarter note.

Counting aloud is a big positive!

Good luck...let us know if this helps.

Teacher hat on, LL

I have been learning how to do complicated cross-rhythms like 5 against 3, and I found that doing what Monica suggested didn't work, even after many weeks. My teacher suggested the following idea, which has worked well for me. In the case of 3 against 2, the least common multiple is 6. So count out the beats in groups of 6. It helped me to write down the numbers 0 through 5 on a sheet of paper and indicate where the left and right hands should strike the keys. So my music paper looks like this:

R.........R.........R.........R

0..1..2..3..4..5..0..1..2..3..4..5

L......L......L......L.....L......L

(In case this doesn't appear correctly on the screen, the R's are supposed to be above 0 and 3 - the numbers divisible by 3, and the L's are supposed to be below 0, 2, and 4 - the numbers divisible by 2. I start with 0 instead of 1 because, that way, the L beats coincide with multiples of 2 and the R beats coincide with multiples of 3). The exercise is to just count the numbers out loud in a steady rhythm and strike the keys as indicated. I would suggest playing white-note scales instead of just beating, so the right hand might play C D E F C D E F while the left hand could play C D E C D E C D E, etc. Go as slowly as needed at the beginning, even if it sounds silly. Once you can do this slowly without getting confused, it will be pretty easy to speed it up. This actually works. After a few months, I can play 5 against 3 easily, 4 against 3 with a little concentration, and 5 against 4 imperfectly. I was always able to play 2 against 3, but this exercise helped that one, as well. You will see with a simple pattern like 2 against 3 that it will just "click" one day - soon - and then this won't be a big problem..until you have to play 11 against 3 in a Chopin nocturne!
Needless to say, it's helpful to practice these patterns with the hands switched, and I find it very useful to practice these rhythms using other note patterns, like arpeggios and mirror-image chromatic scales.

Paul, your music paper looks like a copy of my friend's beat for drums, so I can relate to what you're doing... and 11 against 3? If I know what you're talking about, then the Chopin song I'm playing has 35 on 4

But thanks for all the tips, guys and gals. Monica, your tip helped me get the beat for the triplets perfectly, but when I started combining the two, I started tapping the eighths too fast, or the triplets too fast and the eighths too slow. So it worked, halfway.

So I took it from the desk to my piano, where I sort of brute-forced it... taking it slowly, and going by sixths, my playing has improved dramatically! Sort of. I can't get a feel for the melody, but I trust that when I can get the rhythem down perfectly, melody will come with it. Thanks for all the tips!