This week we looked at playing in a swing style - taking a straight groove and applying some basic principles to play it in a more swung, jazzy, blues-ie, funky way.
The first two sheets below cover all that we discussed in class - how you have two options when it comes to changing what you play to make it swing. Option 1 is to 'dot' the first played note, which adds half it's value to itself to make it 'last' longer. Now for us drummers that doesn't mean a great deal but it does mean that the next note that you'll play will be 'pushed' slightly to the right, closer to the next note, which in turn will be dotted an so on. This will give you that 'shuffle' feel that you hear in Jazz and Blues. Option 2 essentially does that same thing but this time you're going to change those straight hi hat beats to triplets with the middle one missing.
Work through the two sheets making sure you're OK with the concept then have a go at the sheet below.
Hi Alex
ReplyDeleteIts swinging in Hare Street drumaphorically speaking and hopefully in down town Ware with Ian.
Great lesson, much clearer now!
Regards
Dominic
Dominator
ReplyDeleteThat's great news! I am pleased that the 'swing thing' is finally working. It is a tricky concept to teach but I really do feel that we're there now. Thanks for your comments, keep them coming.
See you Thursday
A
Sima, yeah you're right! "Tilting it" is exactly what you're going to do. I was always taught to play with 'lilt" (the feel not the drink!). The 123, 223, 323, 423 thing is about how each 'beat' is made up. STRAIGHT would be 1-and, 2-and, 3-and etc where as swung, swing-ie, lilt-ie or tilt-ie is 123, 223 etc
ReplyDeleteHope this helps
A