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I'm looking at isn't she lovely by Stevie Wonder and as I've only been reading music for about a year I've not really come across this type of notation - I'm fine with the first two beats as they're just crotchets, but on the 3rd beat, the notation shows an 8th note rest, followed by the notes B, E, G* (an E chord), followed by another 8th note rest, which make up the whole triplet - but the B note is a dotted 8th note which in a typical straight 4/4 rhythm would mean the dotted 8th note is played as 3/4 of a beat (an 8th note + a 16th note). So how would this dotted eigth note be played in an 8th note triplet? Or swung 4/4 rhythm? It won't let me upload a pic as it's too big but I that makes sense, Cheers!

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  • Upload the picture here: imgur.com/upload or something similar and I'll fix it for you. Just give me the link when you're done.
    – klutt
    Jun 8, 2020 at 10:48
  • I have a feeling this question was downvoted because the OP didn't provide a picture, but please keep in mind that new users can't add pictures to their posts (as the OP noted). The question itself seems fine to me.
    – Max
    Jun 10, 2020 at 1:12

2 Answers 2

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It's almost a shuffle, sort of swing time.

Imagine it written not in 4/4, but in 12/8. So you count 123 223 323 423. That problematic bit is on beat 3, except the E chord comes in after 3, just on the '23' after it

To explain another way - imagine counting 1 - 12 in that bar. 123 and 456 are the first two chords, miss 7, play 89 using that E chord, and E again on 10 11 12.

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Study the classic Morecambe and Wise song 'Boom Oo Yata-Ta-Ta'. That's the rhythm, split between treble and bass. (Ignoring two extra 8ths in the bass.)

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