Dear reader, I hope this story of my childlike attempts will encourage you even if you are not studying the cello as I am.I want to tell you about Pineapple Triplets. First off, musical triplets are fitting in three notes where you would normally count two notes.
The easiest way to do triplets was suggested in Arnold Steinhardt's book, Violin Dreams...
When playing a whole note, play it to the word... Pear.
When playing a half note, play it to the word... Ap ple.
When playing a quarter note, say to yourself... Wa ter mel on.
And what is the word for triplets?... Pine ap ple.
Each syllable so easily directs one to play one of the notes. It's like having a little conductor in the brain, (Hormunculous' cousin?).
I was having trouble reading through some Scriabin (And as I am meeting with his great-grandson, the pianist, Elisha Abas, felt I should be playing a bit of the composer's music).
The music piece has dotted triplets (wouldn't it be neater if it was spelled trippplets?). And dotted triplets are more complicated than triplets; making one of normal length; one, half-length; and one triplet of one and a half-length.
Yesterday, I had asked my teacher to play the Scriabin through and
then forgot what it sounded like this evening. She additionally told me how to approach the dotted triplets, explaining the process of learning to play them accurately: get the regular triplets down first, then adjust them.But when I sat down to practice, I remembered Pear, apple, pineapple, watermelon.
I found I could easily lengthen and shorten the appropriate syllables in Pineapple once I got Pine ap ple into my head, I could adjust as my teacher said. But I didn't even have to play them or think them through as regular triplets first, they just easily came out perfect.
It was so easy and struggle-less. It was like playing the simplest tune.
Now I know why I was trying to convince my wife
to buy a pineapple earlier in the day, when we went shopping, a purchase I have made three or four times in my entire life...My inner self was trying to get me to remember about and use pineapple triplets.
And that pineapple tastes great, ask my son.
photo links:
willtooke
RaeA
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