Educating about swing rhythms and schemes?

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CafeSavoy
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Re: Educating about swing rhythms and schemes?

#16 Post by CafeSavoy » Mon Dec 29, 2008 2:52 pm

mr. e wrote: Do you have any:
- recommendations for international teachers that are experts on that, whom we could ask to do a class when they are around
In addition to those recommended, you might also ask Solomon Douglas who is a musician, DJ, and dancer. I don't know how much he is in Europe, but you could try him. I've been to one of the Steven's musicality class with the Solomon Douglas Band and he made great contributions to the class.
Last edited by CafeSavoy on Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Educating about swing rhythms and schemes?

#17 Post by CafeSavoy » Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:46 pm

mr. e wrote:When it comes to material, I'm trying to get hold of the "in the mood" line from a sheet.
Image

http://users.fulladsl.be/spb6846/binari ... ond_p1.gif

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Eyeball
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#18 Post by Eyeball » Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:02 pm

If I read that right, they left out the cowbell at the end.

Other wise - super useful! What web site is that from?
Will big bands ever come back?

Haydn
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#19 Post by Haydn » Mon Dec 29, 2008 4:17 pm

Toon Town Dave wrote:I've tried to intellectualize what a swing rhythm is ... The best explanation was there is no way to encode it, rhythm players just know how to play it.
That reminds me of a song ...

I Wonder Who Made Rhythm?

Noble Sissle And His Orchestra, New York, 1936


"The Lord made the man
He made the woman too
Now if you'll read your bible
You'll know it's true
He made us all
The big and the small
But I wonder who made rhythm?

The Lord made the birds
He taught them how to sing
But now what good are birdies
If they can't swing?
He made the trees
The birds and the bees
But I wonder who made rhythm?

Moses was a leader
You'll admit it's true
But I wonder whether
He could swing like our leaders do?

Scientists say
That we're all made of clay
And if their deductions
Are all OK
They can explain
The wind and the rain
But they don't know who made rhythm"

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CafeSavoy
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#20 Post by CafeSavoy » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:14 pm

Eyeball wrote:If I read that right, they left out the cowbell at the end.

Other wise - super useful! What web site is that from?
It was from a Harvard class on the Swing Era taught by Robert Levin, but I don't think it is still on line.

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Re: Educating about swing rhythms and schemes?

#21 Post by mr. e » Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:38 pm

Thanks for that link (and the image above). I googled for hours but I always only came up with sheets of "In the mood for love" or sites where you could buy them completely.

When you look closely at e.g. bars 1-3, the accent marks (>) are all off-beat, i.e. on the "and" (or since we are in swing, on the swung "a"), in particular on a-3 and a-4.
In bars 5-8 we have the chords played on 1, 4, a-8, 1, 4, a-8, a-1

As for the saxes, a frequent pattern here is 5 eighth notes (the last two of which are sometimes tied together) followed by an emphasized quarter and an emphasized eight slurred into the next bar. Just about every other bar has this rhythmic pattern.
Taking the accent marks in bars 9-18 as an example (most of the repeated part), we have the saxes emphasizing 2, a-4, 5, a-7, a-8, a-1.
(that is btw called "syncopation galore" in the other image you posted)

I knew it would be interesting to dig into such sheets. :-) Also nice to know that In The Mood largely follows the 12 bar blues scheme.

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Re: Educating about swing rhythms and schemes?

#22 Post by remysun » Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:26 am

mr. e wrote: Thanks for that link (and the image above). I googled for hours but I always only came up with sheets of "In the mood for love" or sites where you could buy them completely.
Shouldn't you include Joe Garland in your search? Libraries also have sheet music.

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#23 Post by lipi » Tue Dec 30, 2008 12:26 pm

when i googlify this (logged into or out of my google account--it does not matter:

"in the mood" sheet music

the very first hit is this:

Sheet Music Plus - In The Mood (Eb Alto Saxophone) - by Joe Garland
In The Mood (Eb Alto Saxophone) at Sheet Music Plus - By Joe Garland. E Flat Alto Saxophone/piano single for Eb alto saxophone and piano. Ab Major. 6 pages.
wwws.sheetmusicplus.com/sheetmusic/detail/HL.2109960.html

which is what we're talking about.

if i do a google image search with the same terms, the last hit on the first page is also the right "in the mood".

when i do the same search at google.de, i get a different list of results, but the first hit is *still* the right song.

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#24 Post by Eyeball » Tue Dec 30, 2008 1:31 pm

http://users.fulladsl.be/spb6846/binari ... ond_p1.gif

Still on line!

But the root of the URL is coming up as-

The Mellvids Big Band

http://users.fulladsl.be/spb6846/
Will big bands ever come back?

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#25 Post by mr. e » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:14 am

Hi lipi,
The top results all looked like pages where I could BUY the whole sheets, but I'm not interested in actually playing them, but just seeing a small excerpt... and also the first result, as it comes up here, requires a plugin that is not available on my operating system...
http://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/se/ID_N ... oduct.aspx

Google results are always somewhat "local". The first image results in my case says "words and music by Geody Lee". Also the page says
http://www.musicnotes.com/unsupported.a ... =MN0061710
We're sorry, but we are unable to show you this digital sheet music. That would require our Viewer plugin, which is not yet available for your current web browser and/or operating system.
I guess that sometimes I also just failed to recognize that I had the right sheet this time ... I'm not a musics expert, I had some piano lessons like 15 years ago. So thank you for helping me locate a copy!

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#26 Post by Campus Five » Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:27 pm

I have done several "musicality" classes at different events. Unlike the normal "musicality" class, where people are taught steps and tricks to hit different breaks, I generally walk people through three main styles (20's 2-beat, late 30's-40's 4-beat swing, and post 1950 groovy-swing) and talk about how the beat is different, and how they evolved, and then make people get up and dance to the different beats to see how their bodies unconsciously react to the changes. It works much better when I teach it will my band, because I can isolate some of the variables. It's pretty hard to focus on the most important differences between the styles when the recording technology and the uniqueness of different songs and bands would distract from the difference in beat.

Anyway, I often cover several of the questions that you mentioned in your first post in my classes.
"I don''t dig that two beat jive the New Orleans cats play.
My boys and I have four heavy beats to the bar and no cheating!
--Count Basie
www.campusfive.com
www.myspace.com/campusfive
www.swingguitar.blogspot.com

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#27 Post by CafeSavoy » Mon Jan 19, 2009 1:10 pm

Campus Five wrote:I have done several "musicality" classes at different events. Unlike the normal "musicality" class, where people are taught steps and tricks to hit different breaks, I generally walk people through three main styles (20's 2-beat, late 30's-40's 4-beat swing, and post 1950 groovy-swing) and talk about how the beat is different, and how they evolved, and then make people get up and dance to the different beats to see how their bodies unconsciously react to the changes.
Those samples you had posted on another thread were really insightful.

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#28 Post by Haydn » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:15 am

CafeSavoy wrote:
Campus Five wrote:I have done several "musicality" classes at different events. Unlike the normal "musicality" class, where people are taught steps and tricks to hit different breaks, I generally walk people through three main styles (20's 2-beat, late 30's-40's 4-beat swing, and post 1950 groovy-swing) and talk about how the beat is different, and how they evolved, and then make people get up and dance to the different beats to see how their bodies unconsciously react to the changes.
Those samples you had posted on another thread were really insightful.
Which thread :?:

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#29 Post by CafeSavoy » Tue Jan 20, 2009 11:39 am

Haydn wrote:
CafeSavoy wrote:
Campus Five wrote:I have done several "musicality" classes at different events. Unlike the normal "musicality" class, where people are taught steps and tricks to hit different breaks, I generally walk people through three main styles (20's 2-beat, late 30's-40's 4-beat swing, and post 1950 groovy-swing) and talk about how the beat is different, and how they evolved, and then make people get up and dance to the different beats to see how their bodies unconsciously react to the changes.
Those samples you had posted on another thread were really insightful.
Which thread :?:
it might have been on yehoodi.

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#30 Post by JesseMiner » Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:17 pm

CafeSavoy wrote:
Haydn wrote:
CafeSavoy wrote: Those samples you had posted on another thread were really insightful.
Which thread :?:
it might have been on yehoodi.
Do you mean this post?

We also featured and talked about these clips during Jonathan's interview in episode #017 of my Hey Mister Jesse podcast.

Jesse

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