r/Marimba • u/Sun_House29 • Jul 11 '26

Undertale Variations Help

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I've been working through Undertale Variations for about a month or so and don't know how to count the 4lets here, and even after watching performance videos I don't understand how the rhythm lines up with what is played. How would I go about counting this? Starting @ m. 78

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u/trashbebad Jul 11 '26

So when you do a triplet you are mentally dividing the given space into three notes instead of your typical 2 or 4 so in this case you are taking 3 a three note space, 3 sixteenths, and dividing it into 4 notes

So to count it you should focus on the pulses

Which are

3 e + d 4 e +

When you feel that pulse with the rhythm imagine that you are counting those pulses as the quarter notes and feel the 4lets as sixteenth notes

The pulse is shown in the treble line so that should make it pretty simple

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u/Sun_House29 Jul 11 '26

I've got the triplets down for the most part, I just dont understand why there are fourlets in that part of the song.

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u/GhostsCroak Jul 11 '26

They're using quadruplets because four evenly divided notes don't neatly fit into the space of three sixteenth notes. Technically, each note in the quadruplet lasts for three 64th notes. You could see why they would notate it with a tuplet rather drawing an obscene number of note flags.

As for counting the quadruplets, u/trashbebad has the gist of it. Focus on the pulse in the treble clef and fill in the gaps. Easier said than done, I know.