: Small italic '3' above notes These are 2 measures from Frederic Chopin's Prelude in E-minor Time signature is 2/2, if playing those notes it excedes the time

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Someone's left out the bracket! Look at the timing of the top notes compared with the others, and you can see that the 3rd 4th and 5th notes (E,E,A) in treble clef need to fit in the same time as the 3rd and 4th in bass clef. This means that the top notes have to be triplets, played a little faster than the other quavers, to fit properly. Triplets here are worth two quavers, which puts the sums right.

Try to listen to a recording, and you'll hear those three notes sound 'out of time' to the rest of the bar, whilst making the whole bar still in time.