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Okay I am in Grade 4 now. We have started playing triplets and mixing them with "regular" time notes. I'm playing the "other minuet in G", BVW 116. In bar 23-24 it goes from a triplet to a regular and I cannot fricken get it right for the life of me! Is this a normal problem at this level or am I slow? My teacher keeps saying ba-na-na pear apple pear or whatever other help there is and I still am horrible at it. If I put on the metronome it just makes me go insane! Help!!! I am so frustrated.

No, nobody is normal.

You're not normal......none of us are. I mean, what the heck is normal anyways. Regardless of all that noise, you're having a hard time with that because, well, it's HARD AS HECK. All I can say is, it will eventually "click". Go so slow it hurts, and keep doing it, then do it some more. Before too long, it will be less uncomfortable. Eventually it will even feel normalish. It's right up there with polyrythms though when it comes to beginning the process of learning them. Some skills are quick to pick up, but forever to master. Tying in with triplets is slow to pick up, but quick to master, once it clicks.

Maybe this will help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0o3-bYsMT4

He's strumming a triplet on every 3rd beat.

Haha I love you guys. Thanks for the video. It seems I either get the triplet and swing the eighths or mess up the triplet. I can't seem to have it both ways.

I'm not gonna lie, there has been some yelling and piano bashing at my house the last two days.

Everyone has difficulties that seem unsurmountable. At some point it will click.

Have you tried listening to someone else play (at a slower tempo) and tapping the rhythm? On YT there is an option to play the video at 50% tempo.

I've seen two variations on this bar (24):

- dotted quarter note followed by 3 eighth notes (Bastien)

- quarter note followed by 2 eighth notes followed by quarter note (Anna Magdalena Notebook)

And I've heard it played both ways. I think the Bastien (and other) version is easier (more intuitive) to play, but I like how the AMN version sounds, so I play the latter.

Which one are you trying to play? I think it helps to "get it into your ear" and then it will come to your fingers. So listen to a recording that has the version you are trying to learn.

Ah, very interesting Linda because my music reads AMN but my fingers are playing the other way, with a dotted quarter rhythm. I wonder if the first time I heard it there was a dotted quarter and somewhere deep in my brain wants to do that.

It could be. I've also certainly heard performances of this minuet by folks that are stated to be the AMN version, yet they play the Bastien version on that bar. So if you have some confusion, it's understandable.

A very nice performance of this by forum member Mel_lem is a good one to listen to, to get the AMN version into your ear:
https://soundcloud.com/mel_lem22/j-s-bach-minuet-in-g-major

I also did this version in my recital piece in August.

And that bar was one of my trouble spots in learning as well

Bastien is wrong. See the following link:
https://imslp.nl/imglnks/usimg/0/09/IMSLP475024-PMLP06107-Partitur_D-B_Mus.ms._Bach_P_225.pdf

On page 59 of that PDF you have it in Bach's own handwriting!

+1. Listen to it over and over, play it in the car while you're driving. Listen to it a few times before you go to sleep, and try it in the morning.

Interesting to see the proof. But I wonder why do many (most?) people play it the "wrong" way even if they are following music that's notated correctly?

Edit to add this note: there is another difference in that bar between Bastien and AMN, and it is that Bastien repeats the accidental sharp on the D from the previous measure, whereas in AMN it is noted as a D natural. Per Bach's notation, it is not a sharp. I hadn't seen this clarification, so I played it with a sharp because I preferred how it sounded (and I think mel_lem played it this way too). So you might notice this as a difference if listening to these recordings and then following the AMN version exactly. FYI

There must be a history to it because many people also play D sharp in the next measure even though there is no sharp. Because this menuet is so widely used in teaching piano it's possible that errors like that get propagated from teacher to pupil over the generations. Just a theory...

Maybe it's just me, but ba-na-na seems like a terrible word for helping with triplets, since the accent is on the wrong syllable. You'd have to say banana. If it has to be fruit, what about strawberry, apricot, cantaloupe, pineapple--lots of better possibilities!

Hm. I think she might actually use strawberry. Hard to remember. Mostly she says trip-el-et.

The D sharp in measure 23 is acting as the leading tone in the key of E minor. It appears in a section in E minor which starts at measure 17 and continues to the first beat of measure 24 (E in the melody).

The remaining three notes in measure 24 are pickup notes into the rest of the piece which is in G major. The D natural in measure 24 is part of how the composer signals a return to G major.

Philip in China is right—none of us is normal.

However, my teacher gave me choc-o-late to use for triplets. Works for me!

THANK YOU MEL_LEM!! Okay I listened to this about 60 times and I think I finally get it. I can at least sing it properly now.

I have a version on SoundCloud as well, but it's not fast like Mel_lem's! Note the RCM version doesn't have a triplet at the end.

That's an interesting PDF. Why is G the middle line? As for measure 24, it shows D natural in both the RCM book and Alfred's Masterwork Classics (Vol 4). The note in the Alfred's book says, "Most modern editions have D# here. The sharp does not appear in the original manuscript"

I struggled with triplets in the beginning, particularly with making the first 2 notes too fast, and then holding on the 3d a bit longer before playing the second beat. My teacher suggested I say "Go - Ing - To - There". It helped to keep the 3 notes even and playing the second beat on time.