Tripletts?

Correct me if I'm wrong but a triplet is where you play notes in the duration of a smaller amount of notes. for example. you play 3 notes in the time of 2 notes. It's a way instead of adding like 18th notes and perhaps even dotted notes to equal the speed at which the song was meant to play. for example...if you played a riff and there were only 8th notes, there might be notes they need to be sped up like a triple, so instead of changing it to 18th notes (or even 32nd notes) they throw in a triple to speed it up. all in all it's playing 3 notes (or more) in the speed of 2 notes, like...man..I hate to ramble, but I don't want to sound like an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about.
anyway.
say there's a riff and they're all 8th notes (once again I'm telling you this)
and there's say a hammer-on and pull off, they could speed it up by putting a triplet in there and playing it 1 note faster.
I just read this over..and it makes almost no since...but maybe to you it will
GOOD LUCK!
and maybe someone can put it in to simpler terms.
Later

Marshall

Depends. One might do as you've suggested if not changing strings and trying to achieve max speed. However, if changing strings between notes or between triplets, the next picking stroke direction could be decided by the direction to the next string. To continue your example. If moving from G string to B and back to G: (starting on G) DUD (moving to B) DUD (moving back to G) UDU. This keeps the picking motion in the same direction as jumps between strings.

OTOH, some players simply prefer to do DUD on every triplet, as it's easier for them to accent more consistently the first note of each triple.

Gnease,

It sounds a little choppy when I use a downstroke to start every triplett but it's probably just more practice needed.

Thanks for the advice.

I practice them all three ways - strict alternate, DUD, and Greg's method of keeping the same stroke on string switches. It's just a matter of practice to get the accents right, and then you're rarely caught off guard, since you can go any pick direction from any place in the music.

Thanks Tom,

The song I am running across these in is a Led Zep song The Ocean, it's the outro part if anyone's familiar with it.

He's strumming a D chord at the 7th fret and then moveds to the E chord at the ninth and strums tripletts.

I am ashamed to say I haven't played many songs with tripletts in them so I am not very well versed in playing them but I noticed that when I played what I think is eighth notes it sounds pretty close but when I try playing the tripletts with a downstroke on each triplett it doesn't fit as well.

If anyone has a suggestion for playing them in this particualr song I'd love to hear.

Thanks,
Chris

And maybe always starting on a downstroke won't get you there -- I wasn't really recommending it over the alternative, just allowing that some players choose to do it that way. I agree with Noteboat that practicing the various sequences (with varied accenting) is the way to go. Then it requires little or no thought to "chose" the right up/down picking/strumming patterns -- one's muscle-memory will automaticially decide.

BTW, on chords, there is definitily a difference between the sound of up- and down strokes.

Went back and listened to the outro and I think I have the tripletts down. It sounds the best when I use alternate picking for the tripletts.

But I'll take Tom's advice and practice all ways.

Thanks guys.