The Swung 8th Note in Jazz Guitar

Video Transcript

Hello! My name is Dustin, and I am going to talk about the swung 8th note. The swung or triplet feel 8th note is one of the key factors that gives jazz the feeling of swing, the feeling of bounce. You know it when you hear it, but you might not know specifically where that feel of swing comes from. In a straight or non-swung 8th note pattern the rhythm sounds like this, I will give you quarter notes of the left hand, and I will give you 8th notes on this open B string… those are usually counted one, and two, and three, and four, and. In the same context, the triplet 8th note figure sounds like this … those are usually counted tri-p-let, tri-p-let, tri-p-let, tri-p-let. You take out the second note in the figure, or the second syllable, you are left with the first syllable “tri,” and the last syllable “let,” that sounds like this… that is basically the figure for a swung 8th note pattern. Notice how the two different straight 8th note and the swung 8th note… try practicing you scales using both patterns, first straight… then swung… in no time you will be playing swung phrases with ease.

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