Jazz Eighth Notes for Beginning Ensembles
Rhythm is perhaps the most primal of all the elements of music. Historically, the influence from the African diaspora has been widely doc- umented, and its impact on jazz cannot be un- derstated. Rhythm is commonly what most of us first respond to when we are listening. Think about that. Do we usually gravitate towards the melodic or harmonic content first? I think most listeners initially react to the rhythmic feeling (sometimes referred to in the vernacular as “the beat”) of the music. Unless music is delivered with what we commonly refer to as a “great feel” it is easy to lose interest quickly. A brilliant melody delivered with a poor rhythmic feel usually falls flat. I’ve heard many musi- cians play improvised solos whose melodic content deviates wildly from the harmony, but sound amazing due to their rhythmic impact.
We often refer to music that has infectious rhythmic content as “grooving” or “tippin.’” Jazz has a preponderance of syncopated rhythms, polyrhythms, and of course, the swing eighth note. Often in beginning or intermedi- ate settings I hear ensembles that are lacking in these areas, and it is my hope to assist you with some concepts that will get your jazz bands really swinging.
The Paradox of Swing
Let’s first address the most common rhythmic currency of jazz, the swing eighth note. This is the most important element in building rhyth- mic fluency, as all other rhythmic content is built from the swing eighth. For the sake of this article, I am not specifically addressing the rhythm section’s role and its importance. Its main metric unit is the quarter note, and all great rhythm sections make the lowly quar- ter note shine and groove. That’s for another article.
I would like to first address what I call “the paradox of swing.” Let’s take a look at this line: (Please note: audio links to all the exam- ples are provided below each example.)
25 Example 1
This line, when you might ask a student to play it with a swing style might be rendered as such:
Examples 2 & 3
Dr. Andrew Rathbun
www.andrewrathbun.com/example2 http://www.andrewrathbun.com/example3
In fact, these two ideals of swing are com- monly (and in my opinion incorrectly) notated at the top of hundreds of jazz ensemble charts:
Example 4
In my estimation, these create what many term a “ricky-ticky,” uneven feel, far away from a true swing feel. So the paradox of swing is the following: to swing harder, play your eight notes straighter! As both a player and teacher, I have found that you can swing harder if you play straighter eighth notes.
I would like the line to sound more like this:
http://www.andrewrathbun.com/example4
So where does the swing feel originate from? Again, I like to simply add upbeat accents to the line in order to make it swing. Take or look (or better yet listen) to the following scale, played as legato eighths, then adding accents to create the swing feel:
Example 5
Jazz
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