Castellano Català

HAVING SWING

Swing is a style of jazz music that originated in the United States in the late 20s.

Swing brought several new features to the music being played at that time, such as polyrhythm (playing different rhythms simultaneously) and greater freedom of instrumental interpretation. Musicians expressed themselves in an extremely melodic and free way. They expressed what came from dep down inside, infecting the other musicians in the band and dancers in the hall with the music they created. This greater freedom had necessarily to be accompanied by greater rigidity in the structure of the pieces. Music needed clearly defined rules that allowed musicians to know how, where and how long they could improvise. It is this greater musical structure that enables dancers to follow the music and so interpret and dance with greater harmony.

This way of playing had an effect on those who heard its rhythmic and melodic tension, it created an inevitable drive to move their feet and heads in time with the music. Swing music had something that invited people to dance. This quality was so powerful that other types of music have also incorporated features from swing music to be able to have this very special energy. We say it "has swing" or "that swings".

So, swing is not only a kind of music but more a way of playing music that makes those hearing it want to dance or, at least, to move their bodies energetically to the rhythm. It is a musical quality, a rhythmic sensation. Take a look, if you want, at this video, from minute 6.20; it quite clearly shows when something swings:

And what are the essential elements that give a piece of music swing?

The truth is that it is not easy to explain. There are even doctoral theses attempting to analyse the phenomenon. Often not even musicologists agree. If, as in our case, we also lack knowledge about music, it is a even harder to understand and try to explain. However, we will try to be as illustrative as possible. We ask experts to forgive us any blunders we may make in this regard (in that case we would appreciate your oppinion, via email or on our Facebook group).

We will not now analyse if what we dancers mean by swing is the same as what musicians think. In any case, the following thoughts are made from a dancers perspective.

Although none of them is essential, we believe that what makes music swing, and makes us dance to it is essentially:

1- Dotted rhythm

Perhaps the most characteristic aspect of swing is the rhythmic change in note duration. The aim is to extend the duration of the first of two equal notes and shorten the second.

An example can help to make it clearer. In a basic rhythm each percussion hit coincides with the pulse (marked in the video by the metronome "click"):

When we then lengthen the duration of the first note and shorten the second one what we get is:

This change is called dotted rhythm because, when we write it musically, to lengthen a note duration a dot is added to the note symbol. The dot indicates a duration increase of half the value of the previous note. Extending one note's duration leads to adjustments in the other notes in that bar. In this case, we shorten the next note to half its length.

The notation below shows how these two rhythms are expressed in notes. The first line shows a regular rhythm, in which each beat has a black note, while in the second you can see this rhythmic change that takes place in swing music with the dotted notes.

This rhytmic change in swing music is not only performed by the drums, but by all the instruments. Michael Furstner, an Australian musician and author of several pedagogical resources for jazz musicians, has excellent material demonstrating these rhythmic changes in the melody on his web site. The songs in the video are from his site.

In the first version of the next video, the melody repeats notes that fit the beat perfectly. In the second version there are dotted notes so some are not played on the beat.

Note that we are talking about quite an insignificant change from the theoretical point of view. There are five notes repeated over and over again, exactly the same as in the previous song; but the effect of this change is really important to the rhythmic feel.

But the song doesn't swing yet. There are other important elements that make a song swing. Let's look at them.

2- Backbeat

Along with syncopation (which we will not discuss now but there is an interesting explanation in the Channel 4 program How Music Works), the backbeat is a musical strategy designed to break the regularity of the rhythm by accentuating a weak pulse.

In four-beat bars (those used in swing music) the first and, to a lesser degree, the third pulse are stronger.

In the basic structure of swing music -which, as you know, is composed of eight beats (two measures of four beats)- the scheme of the accentuated beats usually are:

When we say that a pulse is strong we mean that there are elements of the interpretation of the music that make perceive that beat stronger than the others.

When you want music to invite you to dance and move, we use the backbeat, accentuating the weak beats (the second and fourth beat) rather than the strong ones (first and third).

The backbeat is a very important element inviting us to dance. Listen to this example:

This video shows you where the accents are. This will help you understand how backbeat is created.

As you can see pop music also used the backbeat (accentuation of the weak pulses) to invite us to dance. You can also hear the bass playing dotted notes (the rhythmic change that we have just explained), giving a certain swing feeling to the song.

It is important to note that backbeat (and dotted notes) is not essential nor sufficient in itself to make music swing and this means that pop music, even when the backbeat is clearly stressed, is not a suitable music for lindyhopping.

Many classical jazz songs clearly stress the backbeat. See how, in this case, the drummer accentuates the weak pulse.

The video below shows where the stress of the pulse is to help you understand it. In this case we no longer show the four beats of each bar but the eight beats that we use when we dance.

At certain moments of some songs, the role of the backbeat is so important that it can even hinder perception of the structure of the piece. Listen to this in the following video.

If you want a more detailed exlanation of the backbeat, visit The importance of the backbeat.

3- Qualities of the execution

The way music is played is, however, what most determines whether a music swings or not. But this aspect is, at the same time, the most difficult to describe and transmit. Maybe that's why it's not always easy for a band to swing.

Ricard Gili, a trumpet player from La Locomotora Negra, a great jazz scholar and communicator, explains that the swing rhythm, despite being regular, can not be mechanical nor stilted. It must be vital and flexible, powerful but agile, dynamic but relaxed. And these features are not only provided by the drummer but by all the other musicians as well, the rhythmics (bass, guitar and piano) and melodic instruments.

Listen, if you want, as he explains himself. The examples you use will surely help you understand it better (you can see the subtitles in English):

It is difficult to show these aspects in a practical way. Perhaps the easiest is the degree of flexibility with which a soloist or a singer performs the melody. We can hear this when they sing ahead or behind the beat (sometimes up to three beats) at the beginning of a phrase. This flexibility can, as you may assume, create confusion when recognizing the 1 or understanding the structure of a piece if the dancer is focussed exclusively on the melody instead of the rhythmic section.

Let's listen to two versions of the same song. The first shows a more rigid interpretation. The voice fits to the one fairly strictly.

However, this version is very flexible. Sometimes the melody enters at the second beat or even a little later, but also the rest of the notes in general are played in a more flexible way.

Some studies show that musicians, when playing with swing, although they adjust to the beat, do so in a relaxed, flexible way, anticipating or delaying, randomly, between 20 and 40 milliseconds in each note. Since the mismatch is very small we do not have the sensation of desynchronization with the beat. On the other hand, it does generate a feeling of flexibility, agility and relaxation.

If you wish, you can watch this video. It is an example that tries to show how all these elements contribute to making a piece of music swing and be more danceable (you can see the subtitles in English):

Surely there are other elements that make music swing. We would like to hear your opinion and for you to share your knowledge on this subject with us.