Swing Rhythms and Style

There are a few rules and guidelines that shape common practice for swing style and rhythms. Beware of thinking of swing as "long-short", because you could easily articulate long-short but still play straight eighth notes. Swing is actually long-*late*.

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Other instalments of this series:
Part 5: Metric Madess (clave, hemiola, and all kinds of odds and sods)

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This video contains emojis that were designed by OpenMoji – the open-source emoji and icon project. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Special thanks to OpenMoji!

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Rhythms part 4: Swing
0:00 - Introduction
0:39 - Straight vs. Swung Eighth Notes
2:17 - It's not just "long-short"
3:10 - How to Learn Swing Style
4:00 - Guidelines and Common Errors
5:18 - Sixteenth Notes
6:16 - TomPlay!
7:04 - Thanks for watching!

[mrmeskel]

I remember when I was a kid taking private saxophone lessons. My teacher said, "you swing like a high school kid." (Luckily, I was in high school, otherwise it would have been a real slam.) What he meant was that I played like somebody who knew "long-short, " but hadn't listened to enough jazz to play with any of the nuance.

[thevillager]

Your YouTube page is fantastic. Got to grade 8 in Sax and now trying to get back into it after a few years out and your videos are really helping me on the theory side. Keep them coming!

[angelamwatts]

Thanks Brad! It was definitely worth joining your patreon! My ex fiancee was an outstanding swing dancer. I definitely appreciate your videos and am really happy to be one of your trumpet students. I give Brad Harrison five stars as a teacher. 💯👍

[SRHMusic]

Thanks for a good lesson. 4:31 is a really important explanation and example in accenting.

[valerierevill]

Thanks. Was great to have a suggestion on where to use slurs and staccatos.

[MePeterNicholls]

When I first tried to swing I sound like a dancing vicar

[TwistTornado]

Hey, I really enjoyed this video, do you think you could make a video on proper jazz articulation, particularly in eighth note lines in the bebop/hard bop style? I’ve been working on transcriptions of Clifford Brown recordings but I can never seem to get articulations correct

[TinasheBasera-ws]

I enjoy your videos from Zimbabwe 🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼

[Mr_twafa]

As lead trombone in my high school jazz band, I suck at swinging. But count bubba is fun still

[DLees]

This video is actually about "Shuffle". "Swing" is about the accenting. Perfectly straight (evenly spaced) eighth notes can swing, listen to Charlie Parker, or Jimmy Raney. Very common misconception.

[ili]

What differentiates Tomplay from Soundslice?

[kozmobluemusic]

*[laughs in **_everything is 4/4_** ]*

[SaxSpy]

5:11 or publisher will add junk articulations to look more full 😅

[MePeterNicholls]

Also pushing the beat or lazy after beat

[qingwen]

I’m now starting to cut all podcasts where the voice sounds like AI or the content could be from ChatGPT.

[XPimKossibleX]

So this is why I can never get software to swing

[ProfessionalMusicPartners]

It’s all about how glittery your vest is and how big your bow tie…🤡

[lawrencetaylor]

As a struggling pianist who was born with two left ears, I have to laugh at your bad examples.
I would kill to play boring music better than I do now.

[ftalbot]

Yet another map without new zealand 🥲🇳🇿