September 5, 2006
Walking While Swinging

Now, the BIG CHALLENGE: Can you swing while you walk? If you are cool, you sure can.

If you missed the discussion on swing, go back and read the Tuesday, August 22nd and Tuesday, Aug 29th tips on swing (just click on those archive links below).

Swing is like a knob that you can change to any number (on my Boss DR 770, that was some number between 50% and 100% -- 100% being lined up again; on Hammerhead or Fruity Loops drum sequencing programs, swing is literally a knob).

Consider that we can also walk lots of different ways, between totally straight (military marching) and way-too-cool-for-your-own-good. Walking is more complicated than just a single knob that we turn, but the swing knob somehow maps into the walking. And I don't mean skipping. Your foot steps should all hit the ground in a uniformly spaced manner, it is what your body is doing in between that is making the swing.

The above diagram shows how the kalimba playing (L-R-L-R) maps into the walking (L-R-L-R). Every time a foot hits the ground, you play a L kalimba note. That is true for L OR R foot steps. So what is going on for the R kalimba notes? No foot hits the ground because your thumbs are moving twice as fast as your feet. However, what is happening is that you are lifting a foot into the air (sometimes R, sometimes L) when you play an R note on the kalimba.

Here is the important point: match your walking to your kalimba playing, and not just the foot steps down, but your entire walk. Really get in the groove with your whole gait. Now, as you shift the swing from straight to something else, it should affect your walking too, but not when your foot comes down, rather, how you lift your foot (the R is the one that is controlling that). Try it. You'll like it. But you might have to do this hundreds of times before it really sinks in. Which is one of the reasons why I walk with my kalimba every day.

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.