Learning Swing Feel by Antonio J. Garcia
Helping students capture this elusive concept is as much about recognizing incorrect swing style as it is studying the jazz masters
Teaching someone how to swing eighth-note lines in jazz is comparable to dictating how much seasoning to include in fine food. We know it's right when we taste it, but even what's "right" is subject not only to cultural traditions, but also our own experiences and beliefs. Easier than describing what's right is declaring what has gone wrong: too much spice.
In some ways, the concept of swing eighth notes is the Holy Grail of jazz — the priceless essence of the young jazz musician's quest. No matter how correct the scales, hip the chord substitutions or current the licks, if a player can't swing, no one wants to listen for very long.
Years ago an article described how someone in quest of the Grail had used a computer to analyze the swing eighth notes of a Bill Evans piano solo. Would technology reveal the mystic equation calculating where — between even eighths and triplet-eighths — true swing eighths fall? Such a definable proportion could then be easily passed from one generation to another. But the study revealed a challenging truth: no two swing eighths in Evans's solo fell the same distance apart. He followed no formula, and none could be passed on to the reader as the prize so long sought.
Avoiding the problem
Swing eighths are the vernacular of the swing and bebop vocabulary; all great jazz musicians use them as the foundation of their expression. But in an improvisational music like jazz, a student can choose to avoid expressive possibilities that present technical challenges. Listen to young players solo, and you'll often find that they prefer to solo in triplet quarters, triplet eighths, quarters, halves — anything but swing eighths. This is the root of why they sound less mature. They can't swing.
To reveal this further, require a young student to perform a solo comprised mostly or all of swing eighths and various rests. Whether players are in junior high or college, the lines usually stop quickly. Any previous content suddenly seems less usable because students are uncomfortable creating a line in eighths — without which they will never sound mature within the swing and bebop idioms.
Getting students — instrumental or vocal — comfortable with performing swing eighths is "job one." But how can they best learn the indefinable?
Absorbing swing eighths
There is no substitute for listening to the jazz masters, and of even more importance, for imitating them. All great jazz musicians have spent a lifetime listening to and learning from their predecessors and peers, and anyone seeking to absorb this art form should expect to do nothing less. How else can one internalize the different swing feels?
My students are also required to listen to, aurally study and then scat-sing along with recorded swinging solos of the jazz masters that they pick (approved to be within technical reach). By doing so, they digest what's most important about jazz phrasing, thematic construction, pacing, dynamics — all the elements so difficult to learn out of a book. Later, if instrumentalists, they play along with the recorded solo on their "axe." No written music is involved at this stage of the process. Listening and imitating is critical, much more so than writing it out, which should come later.
Even with the masters constantly instructing my students how to phrase swing lines, there's still more that I can do.
Two ways to sculpt an elephant
Some visual artists may possess a great eye and skill for sculpting an image of, say, an elephant. But if others are good enough at knocking everything away that isn't an elephant, they'll also be left with a fine result. It is said that Michelangelo approached sculpting not as newly forming an image but as releasing the image already "captive" within the stone.
Similarly, few young jazz musicians, even those who have listened a great deal to the jazz masters, can grow directly to a mature swing-eighth style. I find that the most effective path for most students (along with listening) is to recognize and avoid what is not good swing style. By chipping away at the "stone" — the less-mature styles that definitely aren't suited to their goal — they are quickly left with a far stronger swing style.
"Anti-swing" vs. swing
Professional jazz musicians know how not to swing. The three most common problems students have that hinder swing style in eighth-note lines are as follows:
- The eighths in the line are phrased awkwardly, typically in "short-long, short-long" groupings.
- The downbeats within the eighth line are accented.
- The eighths are either phrased evenly or, more often, as extreme triplets, with a quasi-12/8 feel.
We can turn these three negatives into positive instructions to the young jazz musician pursuing a mature swing feel:
- Play all eighths long unless marked otherwise, even if followed by a rest. By long, we mean that no decay or decrescendo in the sound is present. For wind players, the line should be performed via one unbroken air stream rather than by a series of puffs. For a pianist, each note must be held by a finger until the next note is struck.
- Accent upbeats rather than downbeats, unless otherwise prompted by leaps.
- Place the degree of swing-eighths feel somewhere between 12/8 and an even 4/4 or 8/8.
I require my students to demonstrate command of these three factors on a variety of scales and arpeggios. Many classically trained students who seemingly can play any scale in even eighths cannot initially get through one octave of a major scale while observing this trio of new instructions. It's perfectly natural; a person who has mastered juggling three or four balls will falter with five or six as part of the learning process.
Typically, a student might play all eighths long but accenting downbeats — or play them long and accented on upbeats, but in a "triplet-y" 12/8 feel. Maturing takes practice by the student — and diligence on the part of the observing educator to inform students what they have mastered and what they are not yet achieving.
We all know how hard it is to break an old habit; it's far easier to learn new ones. There's no need to banish the three "anti-swing" factors from one's vocabulary, as they will likely be expressive tools at one moment or another. But it is critical to add these new skills. Since it's often difficult for anyone to be really sure they are effectively changing styles in the practice room, I encourage students to alternate playing one or two measures of "anti-swing" with one or more of the more mature swing styles. The aural comparisons usually steer students in a positive direction.
A clearer path
In summary, there remains no substitute for listening to great jazz musicians, and imitating them (vocally and instrumentally) is essential to effective growth. Insist that students confront their concerns about swing eighth notes rather than avoid them. While it's impossible to define swing eighths, it's far easier to define what aren't swing eighths and then seek the alternative.
Recognize the phrasing elements common in students who aren't swinging well; require opposite elements as positive goals, to be practiced in alternation with the old habits. Be sure students can swing over a metronome on two and four at a moderate tempo, also addressing repeated eighth- and quarter-note pitches, while shaping the rests to imply swing.
Continue to focus on these elements of swing within any improvised student solos over tunes in classes or lessons; cumulatively maintain a high standard of swing. If you require that students devote the same attention to developing swing feel as to learning tunes or chord progressions, you will be impressed by how much progress they can achieve in even a single semester or quarter of study.
Antonio Garcia is an associate professor of music and director of jazz studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, a Bach/Selmer trombone clinician, an avid scat-singer and a widely published author. This article is condensed from a feature that originally appeared in a 2000 edition of Bach Brass Notes.
