"UNPREDICTABLE" PATTERNS
Predictable patterns are part of the musical language and, although some are common with other musical styles, they are usually quite characteristic of each particular style. They make the music sound more familiar to listeners and make it more fun for dancers.
Sometimes musicians play with this predictability. They insinuate a predictable pattern so that we think we know what will come next, but then they change it.
You can see this in the following example, where the first phrase shows us an easily recognizable pattern, but in the second phrase they change it in the third eight. In the first eight of the second phrase you can already hear the musicians warning us with some ornaments that it will not be the same. But they still end up surprising us:
When, as in this example, musicians master the language of swing music and dare to play with predictability, the result can be very entertaining.
As you have seen, we have called these patterns "unpredictable", in quotation marks, taking into account that, often, this game of changing patterns ends up being used repeatedly by musicians and becomes, in a certain sense, quite predictable.
Sometimes the change is done so that, if you do not know the version, it can not be foreseen in any of the ways. In fact, this is the grace. They make you believe that something will happen, the dancers react in the foreseeable way but the music played with us. Watch it in this video, if you want it.
As you may well suppose, this is not an exhaustive list of possible patterns. It's just a sample, quite extensive and complete, but not limited in any way. The more music you listen to, the more probable that, all by yourself, almost unconsciously, you will be able to recognise others.
We now recommend that you listen, as often as necessary, to the patterns we have shown you that you did not find familiar. This will help you identify and anticipate them when you hear them on the dance floor. It is true that, by simplifying their recognition, we have already done almost all the work. But then, of course, we still need to decide what to do while dancing. Even though it is usually very useful to simply allow your body to react to the music based on what you are feeling at that time, some people find it useful to try this out at home alone, exploring different options so that they can acquire a few automatic reactions that allow a broader range of possibilities and thus achieve a more satisfactory result.