In music notation, a duplet is indicated by a number '2' drawn above or below two notes joined by a beam, usually with a bracket spanning the notes. It indicates that the notes indicated are to be evenly subdivided into halves of a beat rather than thirds.

It is similar in this way to a triplet, but is used when the time signature is a multiple of three -- for instance, 3/2 or 3/4 time. If two connected eighth notes are labeled as a duplet, then each one receives one-and-one-half beats instead of one beat.

A series of duplets on the staff looks something like this (complete with time signature):


    /\                                                   
---| /------------------------|------------ 2 ---|----
   |/               *         |  |\              |    
---/-------------*-|-------*--|--|-|\-----|\-----|----
  /|     3      *| |      |   |  | | |    | \    |    
-/-|/\---------|-|-|----*-|---|--|-|-|----|--|---|----
|  |  |  2     | | |   |  |   | *  | |    |  |   |    
|--|--|--------|-|/----|--|---|---*--|---*---|---|----
 \ |  |        |/      | /    |     *        |   |   
--\|_/-----------------|/-----|-------------*----|----
   |                    2                                
  \|                                                       

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