Lesson 2: Swing feel

Playing with a good swing feel is probably the most difficult aspect of playing jazz for the beginner. It requires a good deal of coordination on the part of the player. If you look below at figure 1 the first set of eighth notes shows how eighth notes are written in the jazz medium as if they divide the beat into equal parts. Since writing the actual note values of swing feel is too time consuming and awkward it is left to the musician to interpret eighth notes with a swing feel. Swing has been described as a triplet with the first two notes tied and as a grouping of 4 sixteenth notes with the first three notes tied which you can see to the right of the eighth notes. Actually it is neither the triplet nor the sixteenth grouping rather it falls somewhere between these two interpretations.



A very good way to practice your swing would be to use the written solos in the Lennie Niehaus book I mentioned in the introduction. Pick a solo in the book and use it practice your swing feel. I would recommend just working on a few bars at a time playing very slowly. Your best bet again is to record a phrase then stop and listen to it to see if it sounds correct. Keep repeating this process until you get the hang of it. As per figure 1 the downbeat is long and the upbeat is short, most beginners play the downbeat too short which has a rather corny and uncomfortable feel to it. Listen to good jazz musicians to hear how they interpret their swing feel.

Listening or rather learning how to listen and practicing slowly is the key to success and though it will not happen over night stick with it and you will eventually master it. So work on it a measure or two at a time and then go on to the next measures until you can play through the whole solo with a good swing feel. Play the phrase, record it, listen and correct anything that does not sound like good swing interpretation. I would first try it by tonguing every note and then later you can add the slurs as marked on the written solos, it is good to be able to do both. At this point it would be a good idea to play any quarter notes with the “Dot” articulation I mentioned in lesson 1 as this is part of your swing feel and of course is more difficult to do than just playing the quarter notes long. Once you feel comfortable with that you can mix up the quarter note articulation as long or with the Dot articulation. And remember play smooth and connected, if you leave space between your notes your downbeats will always be too short, use legato tonguing.