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Step 1
The first step is to understand that swing rhythm typically involves eighth notes, and in particular, pairs of them. First, make sure you understand how to count "straight eighths." In 4/4 time, a quarter note gets the beat so we would evenly count "1, 2, 3, 4," if a measure just had four quarter notes.
If it had 8 straight eighth notes, we would evenly count "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and." Straight eighth notes are commonly heard in pop, rock, and classical music. In fact, many students of such music are chastised by their teachers for not keeping their eighths even. -
Step 2
In swing-inspired music, the general model for the playing pairs of eighth notes is that in each pair, the first note is held for roughly twice as long as the second note. Unfortunately, this step must use vague words as it does because this is just a general guideline. Each piece interprets the guideline slightly differently.
What is consistent, however, is that each eighth note pair in swing style could be thought of and counted as "long-short," and each pair takes up the duration of one quarter note, no matter how you divide the time among each eighth note in a pair. Note that each eighth pair is almost always played with consistent timing throughout the whole piece. -
Step 3
The general guideline for swing rhythm is notated at left. In a swing piece, you will likely see this at the top of your music where the tempo is notated. What this indication means is that each pair of eighths should be thought of as a triplet, with the first note taking up two thirds of the triplet, and the second note taking up one third. To count triplets we could evenly say "trip-a-let, trip-a-let, etc."
The swing guideline is that the first eighth in a pair takes up the duration of the "trip-a" or first two-thirds, and the second eighth is played in the "let" or the final one-third part. The symbolism at left reminds you that although the music is written with straight eighths, they are not to be played as such. -
Step 4
It is important to understand that in practice, swing music may not be counted and played so rigidly. While it always the case that a pair of eighths takes up the duration of one quarter, in some cases the first eighth may be held closer to three times the length of the second, or even just slightly longer than the second. Some of it can be subject to interpretation, and some of it is based on what sounds right for the particular piece. You might also see a tempo description in words such as "lazily." The main goal is to create a shuffle effect, as opposed to an even one.
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Step 5
In swing-style music we almost always accent the first note of each eighth pair, or at least give it some emphasis over the second note. Not only is the first note of a pair longer than the second, it is a bit louder. However, in situations where an off-beat eighth note is tied to the first eighth in the next pair, as shown at left, we would typically accent the tied eighth. This is known as syncopation in which we call attention to a somewhat "out of place" or unexpected note like the tied C in the example.
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Step 6
That's all you need to know to count and play a swing rhythm. Like anything else, it takes some practice to get the hang of. Usually it is helpful at first to count the triplet rhythm (trip-a-let, trip-a-let, etc.) throughout the entire piece, even under the quarter notes which are played evenly, one per triplet. It's important to hear the underlying swing rhythm throughout. Keep practicing, and keep listening to lots of jazz and other swing-inspired music to get into the groove! ☺♫
Comments
macusersguide said
on 7/11/2009 Really cool article. The graphics are very helpful in grasping the concept.