Triplets. Quintuplets. But what about septuplets? Seven evenly spaced notes into the space normally occupied by four. They may be rare in most music, but when they show up, we'd better be ready.
SightRead.org now supports three flavors of septuplets:
- Quarter septuplets — 7 quarter notes in the space of 4 beats (spanning a full measure of 4/4)
- Eighth septuplets — 7 eighth notes in the space of 4 (spanning 2 beats of 4/4)
- Sixteenth septuplets — 7 sixteenth notes in the space of 4 (spanning 1 beat)
All three use a 7:4 ratio, meaning seven notes are played in the time of four notes of the same value.
How to enable them
Open ⚙️ Settings, choose Custom... from the Level dropdown, and look under Simple Meters → Tuples. You'll see the three septuplet options alongside the existing triplets and quintuplets.
What they look like
Here's an exercise mixing nothing but quarter notes with septuplets:
The "7" above the beam group tells you seven notes fit where four normally would.
Happy sight reading! 👀