Hope someone out there can help me. I am studying Jazz piano and am having difficulties getting a swing feel to my music. Are there any good tips as to how to produce a good swing feel?

Thanks

You've got to feel it.

Tip number 1 - listen to lots of swing music to get a feel for the style, even better go and see some live

Tip number 2 - the triplet thing with the 1st of a pair of quavers twice the length of the 2nd is only a small part of the swing feel, more important is that the off-beat quaver is accented. If you play even quavers with the off-beat accented you'll start to get a swing feel. The quavers should be fairly legato if they become detached it will start to sound a bit toy-town and square - this may be more a horn thing than piano though.

Tip number 3 - the stressed beats in the bar are 2 and 4. Practice with a metronome set to click on 2 and 4. This might be difficult at first but persevere with it - it's worth it. Start with simple stuff at first scales maybe and then work up to more complicated pieces when you're getting the feel of it. At some point you should be able to lock in with the metronome and start to feel a groove.

It's one of those 'keep persevering and eventually you'll get it' things - at least it was for me. I could hear it and feel it, but could I do it? Luckily it came good the day before my Grade 1 jazz flute exam. Keep trying it with a few scales and you'll get there, I'm sure.

Say the words 'Doo bah doo' to get you started and sing your melody using that. Works well. Did it on the AB jazz course)

Thanks for this. My problem is that I have read similar things to this before and cannot translate this into something I can do.

What is the off beat quaver? Is the accent simply playing it slightly louder, or slightly longer, both or something completely different.

You mention playing the quavers legato but I have also seen notation with statcatos so now I am really confused.

In tip 3 you refer to stressing beats 2 and 4. How does this work? If I am playing a run in quavers how to a stress beats 2 and 4 do I stress both quavers that make the whole note for the 2nd beat or just one? If one which one?

In the end I knowi t will come down to practice, but at the moment can't get anything that sounds right to practice.

Apologies for the rambling reply but I hope you can see my difficulties

If you think of a pair of quavers, the first is on the beat e.g. 1, and the 2nd is off-beat the "and" when you count a bar 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. By accent I guess I mean slightly louder, although I think there's more to it that that - it isn't longer, the off-beat quaver is shorter and stronger. Say the word Be-Bop, with a longer first syllable and stress the "Bop" - that's kind of the feel. Or as others have said use Doo-bah, or Doo-dat



I think this might be more of a way of trying to notate something that doesn't really fit into our conventional way of notating things. Sometimes you say the first quaver of a pair with a tenuto mark and the second with a staccato - that's sort of a way of showing that the first quaver is long, and the second is short and accented. You really, really need to go back to tip number 1 and listen. If you can't hear and feel this when you're listening you're not going to be able to play it.



Again, go back to tip number 1 and listen. Listen closely to the drums and you should hear a hi-hat click on beats 2 and 4. Try clapping, clicking your fingers, tapping your feet or whatever works for you on beats 2 and 4, you should be able to feel the swing. The stress is more subtle than the off-beat accents, but it is there.

Try listen to some classic big band recordings Duke Ellington, Count Basie - or something like Sinatra. Learning to swing isn't something you can do by studying the theory.

Don't try too hard or you may become like me and have trouble NOT playing swing beat!

Seriously, if I've been playing something in a swing beat, I have great difficulty getting back to a normal rhythm. I realised this a few years when I I suddenly found myself playing some Mozart as though it was Blues!

May sound funny, but it really irritates me. There's a piece in the Rae book called Hard Rock Blues that I find extremely difficult to play without a swing beat. I have no idea why this is!


Steve