BAND NOTES...
A Guide to Authentic Swing Performance Joe Parisi, MMEA Band Vice-president
Some of the most exciting aspects from my experiences as a band director have been the opportunities to work with a wide variety of ages and ability levels. When all the elements align, the fulfillment from an exciting performance is second to none regardless of age or experience. Every ensemble may have a genre or style that plays to their strengths, while other styles prove to be challenging. It is only through meticulous work and attention to detail that we are able to overcome our apprehensions and weaknesses to realize an authentic performance of any genre.
In a recent trip to China I had another chance to add to my experience. This particular trip gave me the opportunity to work with a fairly new jazz ensemble at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music. When I arrived, I realized that although the level of playing was good, the group’s exposure and familiarity to jazz and swing was quite limited. This was not much of a surprise to me since I have experienced this very thing when working with high school jazz bands in our own country. Many times I found that American bands would perform non-swing tunes well while struggling to execute an authentic feel on a traditional swing tune. Through my experiences, I have found that by addressing two key issues, one can immediately improve the overall quality and interpretation of an ensemble’s feel:
1. 2.
Make all members of the ensemble (not just the rhythm section) responsible for es- tablishing a uniform interpretation of time and groove with a shuffle rhythm.
Proper articulations/inflections through phonetics – ensemble agreement on prop- er articulation through the use of jazz syl- lables, phonetics, and scat singing.
Figure 3
groove is based on a feeling of being uniform in the underlying rhythmic pulse. In swing music the essential foundational groove is the shuffle rhythm. Some standard notations of a shuffle rhythm are:
Figure 1
Some resources will also suggest that using an underlying 12/8 time signature will help establish a good underlying swing feel. This is also implied in the first shuffle example above (Figure 1).
Figure 2
Uniform interpretation of time and groove
One of the most important aspects of making a piece swing authentically is to define the groove with which it should be interpreted. In a musical context, defining
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Figure 4 So, we must first agree that at the heart of all swing music is the fundamental shuffle rhythm. Although it is commonly notated like several of the figures above,
MISSOURI SCHOOL MUSIC
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