August 29, 2006
More About Swing

If you are just now tuning in, go back to the Tip for Tuesday, August 22nd, and play around with swing on your kalimba.

Swing is a VERY important concept in music in general, but kalimba music in specific. You can swing anything. And as you can see, there are a variety of ways to swing - consider it to be a knob you can turn - there are many ways to make the notes un-aligned. It is very easy to swing kalimba music because often the music follows a strict L-R-L-R-L-R pattern, so you just systematically shift one hand with respect to the other.

I studied music in grade school for 8 years, and then played semi-professionally for another 15 years, yet nobody taught me about swing. I actually learned about it explicitly from editing a preset pattern on a drum machine. You see, it turns out that I naturally swing most of the time when I play kalimba, and I was looking for drum patterns that fit my kalimba playing. Most drum patterns were written totally straight, and I found that I could edit them - systematically shifting them with the "swing parameter". My drum machine, the old Boss DR 770, counted "playing it straight" as 50% swing. A shuffle was considered as a 67% swing. Overswung was like 80% swing. It turns out that a lot of the songs on my first CD, Two Thumbs Up, were played with a very subtle swing, between 55% and 60% swung. I think this adds a very nice feel to kalimba music.

Swing is something that good musicians do all the time without thinking about it. It is something your body knows how to do - it is the difference between walking and skipping - but our teachers don't think our minds can handle it. I, however, think it is just an Elementary Tip I'd like to pass on to everyone.

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.