Thread: Polyrhythm with dotted triplet

Hello everyone,

I am learning Chopin's Revolutionary Etude (Étude op. 10, no. 12) and I am not sure how to play the following rhythm correctly.

The troubling bars are as follows. My specific question is: The shortened last note of the triplet, should it be played together with the last 16th note (Denoted in grey), or should it be played just after the last 16th note (Denoted in turquoise blue)?

Could someone please explain why?



Thank you very much!

Rhythmically, you should play the E flat octave after the lower G. The triplet means six 16th notes per quarter.

You should ask your piano teacher. If he is not discouraged by the fact that you are revealing this piece is too much for your current skills and switches you to a more affordable work, he may instruct you on how to keep going with the Op.10 Nº 12.

Thanks for your reply.

I am not having much trouble with the Etude itself; I just wanted to confirm the rhythm in these two bars instead of practising something which may be amiss.

In this passage you should not try to be so accurate about the 16th note in the triplet but try to connect it musically to the following note. The most common problem here is that the accent on the following note drowns the short 16th before it. You should try to accent both the 16th and the note with accent written on it! That way you create a musical 'unit' of 2 notes which makes much more sense that just two isolated notes. It also sounds better!
Seperate hands practice until those rolling chords just flow on their own is also very helpful in such cases.
FC