PRACTICING TUPLETS PART II: USING METRIC MODULATION TO EQUALLY DIVIDE TUPLETS WITH SYMMETRICAL AMOUNTS OF ATTACKS

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After answering the last Q&A, I started thinking about  techniques that could be used to practice tuplets with a symmetrical amount of attacks. That is to say, tuplets where the combined number of attacks can be divided into equal groups. (Most of the time, these groups will have 2, 3 or 4 attacks each.)


Below is a step by step guide on how to use metric modulation in order to better visualize the exact duration of these types of tuplets...  


A lot of people think about 32nd notes as a metric modulation that looks like this:

However, they fail to use this same type of rationale when thinking about nonuplets, dodecatuplets, and even sextuplets. Let’s take a second to visualize the steps to doing this:


First of all, what is your goal?

For this first example, our goal will be to understand how to equally divide a nonuplet:

Step 1: Identify the amount of equal note groupings you can make out of the tuplet. In the case of a nonuplet, we can make three groups of 3 notes:

Step 2: Identify the rhythmic figure that will serve as an anchor point for your attack groups.  This figure should equal the length of an entire group. In the case of a nonuplet, we will use an eighth note inside of an eighth note triplet. Here is the nonuplet with all three anchor points displayed below:

Step 3: Visualize the symmetrical group anchors as quarter notes and the attacks as their subdivisions after a metric modulation has taken place:

Go through the same steps for dodecatuplets and sextuplets. The answers will be provided below. For the purposes of those answers, we will divide the tuplets in the following ways:

Dodecatuplet - 3 groups of four attacks

Sextuplet - 2 groups of 3 atttacks

If you did it correctly, your results should look like this:

For dodecatuplets:

For sextuplets:


You might be asking yourself:

Wait... Can't you divide the tuplets in other groups? Yes.

Why did you select those specific divisions? They happen to be my favorite ones.

What happens when you select other divisions? Your answers will be different, but still correct. Provided you performed all the steps correctly of course...

One last note:

I feel like I should stress that these are all ways of trying to better understand divisions in tuplets. In no way am I saying that you should perform a metric modulation every single time you see a tuplet. This was written to help you better understand/visualize the duration of each one of the attacks.

That being said, visualizing your anchor points will help you perform your divisions in a more precise fashion. This is due to the fact that anchor points serve as a sort of "calibration/reference point". Having several of these points will help you adjust your tuplet in "real time" as you perform them.

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