Transcript

This is how to understand the eighth note triplet rhythm. The eighth note is dividing a quarter note into 2 parts. So, if we have even eighth notes dividing a quarter note, it sounds like this. If the beat is; the beat is the quarter note. 1, 2, 3, 4. Even eighth notes are going to sound like this: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. If we divide the quarter note into triplets, we get: 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3 or tri-pl-et tri-pl-et tri-pl-et tri-pl-et. So if we're still dividing the quarter note into 2 parts but we're feeling 3, the way we divide it up is that the 1st eighth note gets the 1st 2 parts of the triplet and the last eighth note gets the last part of the triplet. So instead of feeling the music like 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, instead we hear tri-pl-et tri-pl-et tri-pl-et triple. So, we get like this: 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3. So once you have that you can start applying that into bass lines, or anything else you want to play with it. And that's understanding the eighth note triplet rhythm.