Swing (jazz Performance Style) - Types

Types

Triplets are used in many styles of music including blues, rock and country. The basic shuffle rhythm is created by "leaving out (resting) the middle note of each three-note triplet group." This "triplet" idea allows composers and improvising soloists to include triplets in the melody without clashing with any rhythm patterns.

In most jazz music, especially of the big band era, and later, there is a convention that pairs of written eighth notes are not played equally—as the notation would otherwise be understood—but with the first longer than the second. The first note of each of these pairs is often understood to be twice as long as the second, implying a quarter note-eighth note triplet feel, but in practice the difference is rarely that pronounced. Swing eighth notes are generally played legato (slurred). Accenting the "and" between each beat slightly is also a common swing characteristic.

• Various rhythmic swing approximations:
  • 1:1 = eighth note + eighth note, "straight eighths." (accent the "and") play rhythm from introduction with no shuffle, as straight eighths
  • 3:2 = long eighth + short eighth, "swing" or "shuffle" play example with light swing
  • 2:1 = triplet quarter note + triplet eighth, triple meter; "medium swing" or "medium shuffle" play example
  • 3:1 = dotted eighth note + sixteenth note; "hard swing," or "hard shuffle" play example with hard swing

In true swing feel, the ratio lies somewhere between 1:1 and 3:1, and can vary considerably.

Swing feel is an assumed convention of notation in many styles of jazz. In big band, blues, bebop, and contemporary jazz, swing feel is assumed, unless "shuffle" is explicitly specified in the score. Notes that are not swung are called straight notes.

The subtler end of the range involves treating written pairs of eighth notes as slightly asymmetrical pairs of similar values. On the other end of the spectrum, the "dotted eighth - one sixteenth" rhythm, consists of a long note three times as long as the short. Prevalent "dotted rhythms" such as these in the rhythm section of dance bands in the mid 20th century are more accurately described as a "shuffle"; they are also an important feature of baroque dance and many other styles. Rhythms identified as swung notes most commonly fall somewhere between straight eighths and a quarter-eighth triplet pattern.

Swing ratios tend to get wider at slower tempos and narrower at faster tempos. Miles Davis varied his swing ratios, frequently delaying the first note of each pair of eighth notes by some milliseconds and then synchronized the second eighth note with the drummer's swing eighths being played on the cymbal. Advanced performers often lay back or play behind the beat when performing jazz melodies by delaying the rhythms by milliseconds.

Quarter notes can sound swung when they are played slightly behind the beat, detached, and accented on the two and four, or late on one and three, but closer to the beat on two and four. Phrases swing when they begin between the beats, similar to how straight eighths can swing when they are behind the beat which creates an asymmetrical cross rhythm.