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30 June 2018

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ABRSM Misprint?

If you are learning Blues in the Attic from the ABRSM Grade 3 2019/2020 Syllabus then read this.





Do you see what I see? The triplet quavers at the end of the bar would mean that the RH part of this bar has only three and a half beats (the piece is in 4/4 time). When I first noticed this, I decided to phone the ABRSM to let them know it was a misprint, or so I thought. Within a few hours they got back to me stating that the part was in fact, correct. The digit "3" under the group of quavers was actually a fingering, not a triplet marking. Well the notation here is at least ambiguous, so much so, that I'm sure many would read it as a triplet, indeed the number one result in a YouTube search for this piece, at the time of posting this, (a channel I would not recommend by the way, for students looking for good example performances), plays this three quaver group as a triplet.

However, we now have it on good authority that they are just three normal quavers and so in fact there is no misprint. As a guide for the future, I decided to look through other pieces from the syllabus and found that all other triplet markings are in fact in a different type face, that is italicised. So if you ever want to know if a digit is a fingering or some kind of tuplet, fingerings are always in normal type face, tuplets are always in an italic type face.

Please share this article with anyone either teaching or studying this piece as I am sure it will be a common area for ambiguity.

To hear how this piece should be performed and a fuller tutorial please watch the video below.


2 comments:

  1. That's terrible. Very confusing. As far as I understand it finger numbers should be written above the stave in this instance.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's what thought at first. If you know anyone taking/teaching this Grade, please share.

    ReplyDelete

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