August 22, 2006
Swing

Swing gets confused with "swing music", but actually it is a simple, but technical, term which describes a systematic shifting of the rhythm. To start, pick two notes on your kalimba, one on the left and one on the right. Play them at the same time to see if you like them together. If not, change one of the notes until you like them together.

Play the left note repeatedly, each note taking exactly the same amount of time (let's say one second). Stop. Now play the right note the same way. Next, we consider how to combine these two streams of notes, left and right.

The above figure shows four different ways of combining these two streams of notes (remember, start at the bottom of each diagram). You could play left and right notes simultaneously.

Or you could start on one side (L in this example), and then start the other side exactly halfway between the first side's notes. We call this "playing it straight". If "simultaneous" was playing quarter notes, now we are playing eighth notes, alternating L-R-L-R-L-R. Now, there is 0.5 seconds between L and R notes, and 0.5 seconds between R and the next L note. If you use KTabS, it will sound like this. If you write out music, this is the default way to play it.

Next, the 2/3 Shuffle shifts the R note forward in time so it is closer to the next L note. Now, there is 2/3 second between the L note and the R note, and 1/3 second to the next L note. This skips. It is lopsided. It sounds like a heart beating. It's ALIVE!

In the last example, we "over swing" - we are almost back to the notes being lined up again.

By the way, there is nothing special about starting on the L with the kalimba. You could make a mirror image and start on the R, shifting the L note. You need to be able to do both.

Come back NEXT week and we'll talk some more about SWING!