# Quadruplets: looking for that four over three feel



## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I've recently been dabbling in DADGAD tuning and decided to learn Alex DeGrassi's "Sleepytime" - a pretty basic tune, except the last section: Its in 3/4 time but there is a section about eight bars long where you play quadruplets (four quarter notes in three beats) and I just can't seem to get a feel for it. I've never had a problem with three over two or three over four, but for some reason my brain is having difficulty with that four over three feel.

Anyone have any suggestions for how to develop a sense of four over three? Or do I just have to "gut it out" with my metronome ticking away endlessly?


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

OK... Well... I guess if anyone needs me, I'll be in the basement with my metronome.

(Still open to suggestions, though.)


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## I_cant_play (Jun 26, 2006)

hey there,

I'm not exactly sure I understand what the problem is. You're supposed to play 4 notes over 3 beats. There are many ways to do this (eg. Play 2 8th notes over the first beat and one quarter note over each of the other beats) and to figure out exactly how to count it we would have to hear the song. Is there a link where we can listen to it?

Cheers


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

The hammer on/ pull off? 
YouTube - Sleepy Time


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I_cant_play said:


> hey there,
> 
> I'm not exactly sure I understand what the problem is. You're supposed to play 4 notes over 3 beats. There are many ways to do this (eg. Play 2 8th notes over the first beat and one quarter note over each of the other beats) and to figure out exactly how to count it we would have to hear the song. Is there a link where we can listen to it?
> 
> Cheers


I'm looking to play four evenly spaced notes over three beats. Similar to triplets, where you would play three notes where normally there would only be two. There is a great YouTube clip of the song, but he doesn't play the section that I'm trying to learn.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

shoretyus said:


> YouTube - Sleepy Time


Yeah, thats the one: The bit from 2:09 to 2:47 (with the two edits) is the bit that I'm working on. And even when he's playing it, I can't tap 3/4 time along with it (yet) - and that is essentially what I'm trying to accomplish. I know that I could fake it and just switch to 4/4 time, but the melody is still supposed to be in three while the "accompaniment" switches to four.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

*I think I've got it...*

Funny how the brain works...

For some reason, as I was lying in bed tonight, I remembered being at a percussion workshop at the Lunenburg Festival and there was a discussion of 12/8 time and how in some cultures it was common to use three groups of four beats and four groups of three beats and set them against each other. Essentially what I'm trying to do. So I got up and got out my pen and wrote out something like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1
L --- L --- L ---- L ----- L
R ----- R ----- R -------- R

And then started counting and tapping - left hand every three beats, right hand every four. I can't do it very fast yet, but I'm getting the feel of it. I figure, if I can then replace the right hand tapping with my metronome clicking, I should be able to put it all together:

1 ----- 2 ----- 3 ----- 1
L --- L --- L --- L --- L
R ----- R ----- R ----- R


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