Swing Rhythms
A swing rhythm can be created by tying together the first and second notes of a triplet. There are several different ways of writing swing rhythms. To understand them it is worth using one musical example written in various ways. First play example 83 which contains eighth note triplets.
Instead of trying the first two notes of the triplet group, a quarter note can be used. The quarter note grouped with an eighth note by a triplet bracket shows clearly that the first note is worth two thirds of the beat, while the second note is worth only one third. Play the following example and notice that it sounds the same as the previous one. This is just a different way of writing the rhythm.
A third way to write the same rhythm is to notate the whole thing in eighth notes and to write 6 = z at the start of the music. Jazz players usually write swing rhythms in this manner, as it is easier to read. Play example 64.2 and notice that once again it sounds the same.
Here are some examples which contain swing rhythms. Remember, although the eighth notes are written as normal, they are played as swing eighths as indicated by the symbol before the start of each example.
This traditional New Orleans song has been played by many of the Jazz greats and was made famous by Louis Armstrong.
Notice that there are no slurs in this song. This means you will need to tongue all of the notes, even when there are many consecutive eighth notes.
Here is an example which contains both swing, eighth notes and triplets. If you like this style of playing, you would probably enjoy learning to play the saxophone, trumpet or clarinet, which are all commonly used in Jazz and Blues.
