Topmusicanswers
What does swing or shuffle indicate?
(A) Playing with swing or shuffle feel means to play with swung eighths1 (or to employ "triplet feel" eigths) - which means that the first eighth of a beat gets a longer duration than the second. Also off-beats are generally emphasized, or syncopated.
What tempo is swing music?
The swing ratio can be as high as 3.5:1 at comparatively slow tempi around 120 bpm. When the tempo is fast the swing ratio reaches 1:1, that is, the eighth notes are performed evenly. The duration of the short note in the long-short pattern is approximately constant (≅ 100 ms) for medium to fast tempi.
How is swing music written?
Swing Rhythm
While the sheet music is written in the same way as a straight rhythm, the way you play it is very different. A swung rhythm has a triplet feel, but skips the middle triplet.
