Which leaves us with triplets
Normally in 4/4 time, each of the four quarter beats in the bar/measure can be divided into two quavers/eighth notes. You could verbalise that as ‘one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and’. However, there’s plenty of music in which you’ll instead find three quavers/eighth notes for each beat. These three notes are called a triplet and the style, when it’s used across a whole piece, is generally called shuffle.
Blues, rock and jazz music uses triplets extensively. In fact, the more you listen for it, the more you’ll find it. The Status Quo repertoire is almost exclusively based on 4/4 triplets and so is most traditional blues. To check you’ve accurately identified a 4/4 shuffle, try counting along with ‘one-and-a-two-and-a-three-and-a-four-and-a’.
You’ll find 2/4 triplets as well. For example, try counting ‘one-and-a-two-and-a’ to House of the Rising Sun by The Animals.
In fact, any time signature can be adapted to triplets. Here’s three beats in the bar:
At the extreme, even each of the seven beats in the bar of Pink Floyd’s Money is composed of triplets.
Here’s an example with 4/4 triplets:
Instruments on Serrano:
Drums: VD-Solid from ujam
Brass and electric guitar: Kontakt library from Native Instruments
Bass: VB Mellow from ujam
Slide whistle: Bells and Whistles from Sonokinetic
Carnival Organ: Carnival from Sonokinetic
Acoustic guitar: Session Guitarist Strummed Acoustic from Native Instruments
Here’s a blues guitar track with 4/4 triplets:
Fulham Blues is recorded using Session Guitarist Picked Acoustic from Native Instruments.
And here’s another example with 3/4 triplets:
Instruments on Poblano:
Trumpet, organ and bass: Kontakt library from Native Instruments
Drums: Studio Drummer from Native Instruments
Plus a (real) Fender Stratocaster for the guitar solos
And yet another in 3/4 time but with a different style of triplets. The main theme is in normal 3/4 time, but switches to triplets, not to create a shuffle effect but as a contrasting rhythmic feel.
Instruments on Nines:
Synth Brass and Synth Flute: Massive X from Native Instruments
Effects: Sequis and Arkhis from Orchestral Tools through Native Instruments
Electric Piano: Arturia Stage 73-V
Synth Bass: TRK-01
Drums: Studio Drummer from Native Instruments