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1.2.1.2 Tuplets

Tuplets are made from a music expression by multiplying all the durations with a fraction:

\times fraction { music }

The duration of music will be multiplied by the fraction. The fraction's denominator will be printed over or under the notes, optionally with a bracket. The most common tuplet is the triplet in which 3 notes have the duration of 2, so the notes are 2/3 of their written length.

     
     a2 \times 2/3 { b4 b b }
     c4 c \times 2/3 { b4 a g }

[image of music]

The automatic placement of the tuplet bracket above or below the notes may be overridden manually with predefined commands, for details see Direction and placement.

Tuplets may be nested:

     
     \autoBeamOff
     c4 \times 4/5 { f8 e f \times 2/3 { e[ f g] } } f4 |

[image of music]

Modifying nested tuplets which begin at the same musical moment must be done with \tweak.

To modify the duration of notes without printing a tuplet bracket, see Scaling durations.

Predefined commands

\tupletUp, \tupletDown, \tupletNeutral.

Selected Snippets

Entering several tuplets using only one \times command

The property tupletSpannerDuration sets how long each of the tuplets contained within the brackets after \times should last. Many consecutive tuplets can then be placed within a single \times expression, thus saving typing.

In the example, two triplets are shown, while \times was entered only once.

For more information about make-moment, see "Time administration".

     
     \relative c' {
       \time 2/4
       \set tupletSpannerDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1 4)
       \times 2/3 { c8 c c c c c }
     }

[image of music]

Changing the tuplet number

By default, only the numerator of the tuplet number is printed over the tuplet bracket, i.e., the denominator of the argument to the \times command. Alternatively, num:den of the tuplet number may be printed, or the tuplet number may be suppressed altogether.

     
     \relative c'' {
       \times 2/3 { c8 c c } \times 2/3 { c8 c c }
       \override TupletNumber #'text = #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text
       \times 2/3 { c8 c c }
       \override TupletNumber #'stencil = ##f
       \times 2/3 { c8 c c }
     }

[image of music]

Permitting line breaks within beamed tuplets

This artificial example shows how both manual and automatic line breaks may be permitted to within a beamed tuplet. Note that such off-beat tuplets have to be beamed manually.

     
     \layout {
       \context {
         \Voice
         % Permit line breaks within tuplets
         \remove "Forbid_line_break_engraver"
         % Allow beams to be broken at line breaks
         \override Beam #'breakable = ##t
       }
     }
     \relative c'' {
       a8
       \repeat unfold 8 { \times 2/3 { c[ b a] } }
       % Insert a manual line break within a tuplet
       \times 2/3 { c[ b \bar "" \break a] }
       \repeat unfold 2 { \times 2/3 { c[ b a] } }
       c8
     }

[image of music]

See also

Music Glossary: triplet, tuplet, polymetric.

Learning Manual: Tweaking methods.

Notation Reference: Time administration, Scaling durations, The tweak command, Polymetric notation.

Snippets: Rhythms.

Internals Reference: TupletBracket, TupletNumber, TimeScaledMusic.

Known issues and warnings

When the first note on a staff is a grace note followed by a tuplet the grace note must be placed before the \times command to avoid errors. Anywhere else, grace notes may be placed within tuplet brackets.

This page is for LilyPond-2.11.58 (development-branch).

Report errors to http://post.gmane.org/post.php?group=gmane.comp.gnu.lilypond.bugs.

Your suggestions for the documentation are welcome.

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