Tuplets - GNU LilyPond
Description: GNU LilyPond

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#### 6.2.3 Tuplets

Tuplets are made out of a music expression by multiplying all durations with a fraction

    \times fraction musicexpr

The duration of musicexpr will be multiplied by the fraction. The fraction's denominator will be printed over the notes, optionally with a bracket. The most common tuplet is the triplet in which 3 notes have the length of 2, so the notes are 2/3 of their written length

>          g'4 \times 2/3 {c'4 c' c'} d'4 d'4

Tuplets may be nested, for example,

    \override TupletNumber #'text = #tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text
    \times 4/6 {
      a4 a
      \times 3/5 { a a a a a }
    }

##### Predefined commands

`\tupletUp`, `\tupletDown`, `\tupletNeutral`.

##### Commonly tweaked properties

The property `tupletSpannerDuration` specifies how long each bracket should last. With this, you can make lots of tuplets while typing `\times` only once, thus saving lots of typing. In the next example, there are two triplets shown, while `\times` was only used once

>          \set tupletSpannerDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1 4)
>          \times 2/3 { c8 c c c c c }

For more information about `make-moment`, see Time administration.

The format of the number is determined by the property `text` in `TupletNumber`. The default prints only the denominator, but if it is set to the function `tuplet-number::calc-fraction-text`, num:den will be printed instead.

To avoid printing tuplet numbers, use

>          \times 2/3 { c8 c c } \times 2/3 { c8 c c }
>          \override TupletNumber #'transparent = ##t
>          \times 2/3 { c8 c c } \times 2/3 { c8 c c }

Tuplet brackets can be made to run to prefatory matter or the next note

##### See also

Program reference: TupletBracket, TupletNumber, and TimeScaledMusic.

Examples: `input/regression/tuplet-nest.ly`.

Next: Scaling durations, Previous: Augmentation dots, Up: Rhythms

This page is for LilyPond-2.10.33 (stable-branch).

Other languages: French.