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I am working on Chopin Nocturne in f minor, opus 55 no 1. I am having my lessons by Zoom and then my teacher emails me his notes. This piece has a lot of triplets. He said to practice them staccato and in rhythms. I am not sure how to practice triplets in rhythms. I have often done them in 16th notes but they don’t seem to fit triplets. Does anyone have any idea how to do this? Thanks.

I have played this Nocturne. If your teacher is suggesting you practice the triplets in rhythm, maybe he wants you to get them more even and feel the pulse. There are triplets throughout the piece in both hands. Is he referring to the coda which has the RH playing triplets throughout? (starting in Bar 79) Ask him if he means practicing RH alone, as the rhythm practice would be alternatively 16th - dotted 8th, and dotted 8th - 16th. Hard to coordinate with LH and do not see why you would practice it this way hands together. Practicing staccato usually is a way to make sure you are hitting all the notes confidently.

Bottom line - Ask for further clarification. Enjoy the piece!

+1.

I was going to write something speculative. But until you know what your teacher wants you to practice (and improve!), that's pointless.

For the triplets just do
1. 16th, 16th, 8th or
2. 8th, 16th, 16th

Any occurrence of triplets in the piece can be practiced these ways. There is no problem coordinating with the non triplet playing hand as one poster suggested.

Thank you all. Sorry I was not clearer. Yes he does mean the right hand alone from the Coda to the end.
Judy

You could also use it on the passages where the RH and LH play triplets together or any of the triplet passages in either hand if you wish.

Thanks Pianoloverus,
I had used the staccatos in other parts but not the rhythms. For some reason I am finding doing the rhythms in triplets much harder than 16th note runs but that may just be that I am much more familiar with doing them for 16th notes.

I've done triplets in rhythm, you just are swinging them long-short or short-long. You end up emphasizing different parts of the triplet which is really helpful.

Morodiene
That is what I was first trying to do. What I was not sure about is do you do the long -short
and short-long through out all the triplets in a few measures of just in each triplet?
Thank you.
Judy

It's not long-short or short-long it's long-short-short or short-short-long.

Pianoloverus
Yes if you are doing it by each triplet. I was wondering if Morodiene meant to do it going across triplets.
Thanks

That's possible but much harder and IMO much less useful and a much rarer way to practice triplets in rhythms. People would never practice 16th note passages in a short-long-short rhythm.They'd practice them in rhythms that used all four notes in each group of 16ths like l-s-s-l or l-s-l-s.

Guess my instruction was the outlier re practicing four note rhythms: but I was taught also to practice them in rhythm patterns that extended through the next rhythm group . If there was l-s-s-l, the next group was start with s-s l-s with the pattern continuing across the 16 note unit

Josh Wright's instruction is to take the string of notes, 16ths or triplets, as sequences starting in pairs: l-s and s-l; then in threes: l-s-s, s-l-s and s-s-l; then in fours: l-s-s-s, s-l-s-s, s-s-l-s and s-s-s-l; then in fives.

He reserved higher groups, sevens to fifteens in odd numbers only, for really difficult passages.

Thank you everyone. I have many different ways to try practicing them now and I will ask my teachers when I have my next lesson on Monday if he wanted them done a specific way.
Judy

It’s best to practice using different types of rhythms and move the starting points so you are crossing over into the next group of 3, as Dogperson mentioned. I do not agree with the above poster that you should only practice the triplets in groups of 3. Both Josh Wright and Graham Fitch have videos on this.

Thanks, I will watch the videos.

For what kinds of passages? I find it hard to believe he recommends this type of practice for a series of triplets like those in the nocturne in question, especially for an intermediate or advanced intermediate player. Do you have a link to the video you mention?

For continuous notes, 8ths, 16ths, triplets, anything where the notes are of the same value.

It's hard to believe how much you find hard to believe! The idea behind rhythms is to manage each pair of notes at tempo pausing on every second note, then taking three notes at a time, at tempo, and pausing on every third note, etc.

Josh counts 1-2, 1-2. He then starts on the second note and repeats the 1-2, 1-2. In threes he starts on the first note, then the second note, then the third note. Every note in every group of 2, 3, 4, etc, will take the 1 or the pause in one of the cycles. The value of the notes in question is immaterial as long as they're of the same value.

I find it hard to believe that you couldn't find the video yourself! In a fit of ingenuity I googled "Josh Wright rhythms" and found it immediately.

Here is one of them.

I think what Josh Wright calls rhythms many people, including me, would call chunking and consider to be different from what's often called practicing in rhythms. His approach is just practicing small sections of different lengths at full speed. His approach is also similar to practicing, say, a single measure at full speed one or many times and then the next measure and putting them together. Or practicing the first x notes of a fioritura passage at speed, then the first x+y notes, etc. I think most or at least many would not call this practicing in rhythms.

Certainly what he recommends except for his 2 unit and 3 unit rhythm seem extremely inappropriate for the OP who seems to be an intermediate or late intermediate pianist.

He's also talking about "playing in rhythms" for the sole purpose of getting a passage up to speed. If you search for PW threads on practicing in rhythms(one of which I started a long time ago) you'll see that people have a wide variety of thoughts about why and when they are useful that go far beyond what JW disucsses.