Piano Video Lesson: How to Play 3 Against 4 Rhythms

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin, you're watching LivingPianos.com and I've got such a helpful show for you. Have you ever tried to play three against four rhythms? So you have a triplet in one hand and sixteenth notes in the other hand. You figure, how can you possibly play those two rhythms? I know that some teachers just say, well you play the four, you play the three, and you put them together. Well, what if that doesn't work? What can you possibly do? Well by the end of this video you're going to know how to play three against four. I've got a hack for you, but first I'm going to tell you the mathematical relationship so you understand intellectually what is happening with a three against four. Let's flip it for a moment and start with something a little bit simpler, a three against two. Three against two is not all that hard because you've got basically six divisions. So you have for example one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three, four, six, together, right, left, right, together, right, left, right, and indeed that produces a rhythm.

There it's done. Well, so the question is can't you do the same thing with three against four? And technically you can, but I'll explain what the problem is in just a minute. First I'm going to do it for you, and this is actually, I find this really hard to do, which is why I've got another method for you. But you could figure out the mathematical relationship of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, because after all three goes into 12 four times and four goes into three, 12 three times. So mathematically that works. So video over, not so fast. What's the problem with that? Getting it up to speed. Suppose you're playing like, oh Debussy, the snow is dancing.

How could you possibly ever count that fast? You couldn't. It's impossible. And usually a three against four is going to be at a faster tempo than what I just did counting those 12. So here is the method for getting three against four. First I'm going to show you how to rough it out where it's not correct, but it's got elements of what three against four is.

Basically the rough version, which is not correct, but I'll show you how you can make it correct in a minute, is together, left, right, left, right, left. Together, left, right, left, right, left.

Now if you did it on the piano, together, left, right, left. Together, left, right, left, right, left, right, left. Now what happens if I just play the three, you'll hear the three is distorted.

Together, left, right, left, right, left. It's not right, is it? So why am I telling you to do this when it's wrong? Because what you can do is you can at least start with what happens in terms of which hand goes or which notes play first in each hand. Then you can adjust the rhythm to make it correct, and I'll show you exactly how to do that.

So as you notice, it's not right, together, left, right, left, and it's the last note, the third note, which has to come in later.

And then that's together, left, right, left, right, left. So the last one in the right hand has got to come in later and then the problem is if you do that, together, left, right, left, right, left, then the whole thing bogs down. So the last note in the right hand has to come in later and then the left hand comes in right after that, much quicker than you think it does.

So together, left, right, left, right, left.

So at the end of it, now, in order to be able to figure out the rhythm to know if you're doing it correctly, a great method is to tap one hand on the piano, on top of the piano, and play the other one so you can hear it. This is incredibly valuable because in this case, just like in the three against two, the three is easy, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, and you want to hear the two, so you play the two on the piano. One, two, one, two, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, one, two.

What happens so often with the three against two is you'll be tempted to accent the second one of the two. One, two, one, two. But that is not the way rhythm generally works. Generally, the first note is gonna be louder or have more rhythmic emphasis in a group of two notes. One, one, and two, and three, and four, and not one, and two, and, unless it's syncopated rhythm. So you wanna purposely underplay the second note in the three against two. One, one, two, one, two, one, two, three, one, two, three.

And now, getting back to the four against three, again, together, left, right, left, right, left, except together, left, right, left, right, left.

The last triplet is a little bit later, and then the left hand comes in right after. Of course, this could be reversed if you've got the rhythm of the four in the right hand and the three in the left hand. It's exactly opposite. So now, if I go one, two, three, four, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one. You can hear the three. Whereas when you're playing the hands together, are you playing the rhythm accurately or not? It's so hard to tell. In your music, you do the same thing.

That's back to the Debussy. You can hear the evenness when you play the hands together. It can be all but impossible to identify the distortion of the rhythm. But when you play one hand silently in your lap or on top of the piano, you can clearly hear the rhythm. So remember, in the four, the three again, four against three, the third note of the triplet is going to be later than you think it is. And then the last four, of the left of the four, is going to be right after that late triplet.

So one.

You hear that? At the very end.

That is the secret for getting three against four. Remember, start with together left, right, left, right, left. Then remember to make the last triplet later. And right after it comes the last of the four. And use the piano on the triplet and then tap the four or play the four with the other hand that plays the four. So you can hear the evenness of the triplet. That's the challenge of the four against three. Just like it's the duplet in the three against two that you want to play on the piano while playing silently in your lap or on top of the piano, the triplet.

That is the lesson for today. This is a hack that really works. Try it out. Let me know how it works for you. If you've ever struggled with four against three before, see if this works for you. I'm really curious. In the comments, send them here at LivingPianos.com. I appreciate it. It's great to share this with you. Look for more videos coming your way here at LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/how-to-play-3-against-4-rhythms/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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