In the continuing saga of how to count things. Someone on Reddit— where I have become active— suggested counting 8th note triplets like this:
1 e & 2 e &
Wrong as it seems, I’m fascinated. The main attraction is that the triplet & and the swing 8th note & fall on the same partial— they have the same syllable. In teaching I always have to clarify that, counting triplets as I do, in one of the normal ways:
1 & a 2 & a
It has been a small but actual annoyance.
That e syllable is very abrasive though; it’s too particular to 16ths, and I don’t need an additional thing to have to justify. I would likely count it:
1 da & 2 da &
As we have seen, filling out the traditional syllables with as or das is a good way to work. Of course if we’re using the same syllables in compound meters, we’ll need some syllables for any 16th notes, perhaps:
1-a da-da &-a
Try counting some mixed rhythms that way, it does work.
Adopting things like this, there is always a danger of an out of control can of worms of stupidity situation. And anytime teaching something out of the ordinary I’ll making it clear that this is not standard practice— it’s just maybe a useful way to do it, for a certain purpose.
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