QUINTUPLET ETUDE #1

This piece has a mixture of meters. Mostly 5/4 then a brief rhythm cluster in 7/4 then ends in 4/4. This piece actually comes from a motif I played on the Warr guitar. The first 2 beats are the arpeggio that are played on the Warr. I took the rhythm of that motif and improvised this etude. The strong quarter notes at the end of most of the measures made it easy to figure out the meter. Following the etude are some alternate notations for a couple of the measures.


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Hear the etude played at 69bpm. Time 1:09

Quintuplet #1 etude

Here are some alternate ways to notate some of the figures in the etude.

quintuplet alternate notation

Example A is measure 4. You can see the 5 quarters in the space normally allocated to 3 notated with a ratio and a full bracket. The second part of the measure shows a eighth note quintuplet figure.
Example B is measure 8. Uses the same ratio bracket style as A. It breaks the last quarter note into 4 individual sixteenths.
The final example is C measure 12. This further expands on ex. B by using the nestled polyrhythm type. The first one is 5:7. The measure normally has 7 quarter notes, but it is now broken into 5. Then we take those 5 quarters and put values of 7s (septuplets) where they might originally have been only the more normal sixteenths (4). This is a very scary way to notate a set of figures. One would be hard pressed to sight read it.
All these alternate notations have the same placement in the measure as the ones in the etude. The length of the notes is note taken into consideration. The alternate notation implys a more legato approach of the notes flowing into the next one. The etudes notation is only concerned with the start of the event and making the original beat clear and obvious.


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