Originally Posted by: JFRICKA triplet is a type of note, like a half note, quarter note, or eighth note....It's the duration you hold the note.

A triplet is 3 notes played over 4 beats or 1 measure....in 4/4 time.

Not necessarily. This is only true when you have half note triplets. In fact, triplet is not its own duration - its a modifier, kind of like if you dot a note it means to play it one and a half times the duration.

Triplet means that in the space of 2 of whatever note you have a triplet of (8th, 16th, quarter, half, etc...), you have 3 notes of equal length.

Examples (cuz that was confusing) -
[U]eighth note triplet[/U] - in the space of two eighth notes, play 3 eighth notes of equal length
[U]quarter note triplet[/U] - in the space of two quarter notes, play three quarter notes of equal length.

If you still don't understand, post back.