Counting

[JamesSchiffman219]

Griff: I’m working my way slowly through the beginning blues soloing course, which I very much appreciate especially because of your attention to counting.

My question relates to the section in the attached picture. The last two notes in the measure are eighth notes, yet you count them as if the were triplets, or as if the first one had a little dot next to it. That confused me. Are we supposed to treat all eighth notes as if they are part of a triplet or should we sometimes count like standard eighth notes — one and two and, etc.?

 

[MarkDyson]

I'll hazard a reply: this lesson is in swing feel, so every full beat is a triplet (four-and-a). Sometimes (as you've seen) the tab states triplet feel explicitly, but even if not it's still there for every full beat.

Hope that helps.

 

[PapaRaptor]

Griff: I’m working my way slowly through the beginning blues soloing course, which I very much appreciate especially because of your attention to counting.

My question relates to the section in the attached picture. The last two notes in the measure are eighth notes, yet you count them as if the were triplets, or as if the first one had a little dot next to it. That confused me. Are we supposed to treat all eighth notes as if they are part of a triplet or should we sometimes count like standard eighth notes — one and two and, etc.?

If you look at the left of the notation, just above the treble clef, you will see an indication of metric modulation, which explains that the music is to be played in a triplet feel (or swing feel), as if the first 8th note is a quarter and the second note is played as an 8th note. The rest of the notation is marked, with the first beat (in both bars) being a quarter rest, then a noted set of triplets, then a quarter note, then the two eighth notes.

 

[Paleo]

With the metric modulation each 8th note pair is counted as a triplet with the first note getting 2 counts and the second note getting 1 count.

Rather than 1 count each as in straight feel.