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Fact File: Swing

Musically, swing can be either:
  • (written with small "s") the rhythmic feeling evoked by swinging music, esp. Jazz or
  • (written with capital "S") the most popular jazz style ever that prevailed during the 1930s and early 1940s, Swing (genre).
A rhythmic device, swing or shuffle is an augmentation of the initial note in a pair and diminution of the second. Notes which are not swung are straight (no shuffle).

Mostly common this is done with eight notes and ranges anywhere from treating the initial eighth as a triplet quarter note to a dotted eighth (hard shuffle). However, it is usually considered ideally as in between both feelings.

When the initial and final eighth note form a ratio of:
  • 1:1 = eighth note + eighth note, straight eights or no shuffle
  • 2:1 = triplet quarter note + triplet eighth, triple meter.
  • 2.5:1 = long eight + short eighth, Swing
  • 3:1 = dotted eighth note + sixteenth note, hard swing or hard shuffle
Since a swung note is actually not a note of the named length, some musicians consider this term a misnomer.

Swing is commonly used in blues, country, jazz, Swing (genre), and often in many other styles.

See also:-
blue notes | syncopation | call and response | polyrhythms | improvisation

Related Topics - Jazz History:-
Jazz Roots | Early 20th Century Jazz | Jazz in 1920s to 1950s | Development of Bebop | Latin Jazz | Jazz Fusion | Recent Developments in Jazz
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