 Hi guys, this is Jason here from the Nathaniel School of Music and in this lesson, let's explore the difference between the swing time feel and the straight time feel. Two very important ways to construct music, especially from the rhythmic perspective or the rhythmic foundation. So in the introduction video, I basically played you blues music, right, where I took like a standard thumping bass line and I kind of played it over a 12 bar cycle, but you may have observed a radical change in rhythmic perspectives. I would have played initially in this way and then move towards this sort of environment, right. So this is what we call as the straight feel and this is what we call as the swing feel. So let's just see how we can count all this, feel all this with a ton of examples. First off, the straight feel is derived around the concept of dividing the beat into two equal pieces, what we call as quavers. So if you divide the beat into two parts, you're going to get one and two and three and four and right and two and three and four and one. So what's happening here is the beat, which always will last for X amount of time, let's say one second or half a second or dependent on the tempo of your music, be it 60 bpm, 80 bpm, 90 bpm or whatever, the beat flows along with that bpm. But when you divide the beat, you start going inside the beat, so to speak. So you start getting these subdivisions. So if I divide the beat into two equal units or place the subbeat at the 50% mark, I'm going to get these eighth notes or quavers as we call it. So it'll be one, this would be the pulse, one, two, three, four. And if I start getting inside that pulse, I'll be getting two and three quavers, one and two and three and four and one. So now that I'm dividing the beat into two equal units exactly at the 50% mark, we have more options, we have more points in which to play our music. Having said that, you don't have to divide the beat where the second or the subbeat is exactly at the 50% mark, it could be slightly later. And that sort of rather lazier feel where the subbeat just delays slightly will end up being called a swing. In order to feel swing, a very simple way is to basically feel triplets and then knock off the middle division. So what I mean by that is you divide a beat into three, one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three and a four and a and then you don't do the middle one. So it's sort of triplets, but without the middle one. So how will that be? So you're sort of still feeling the triplets, but then you're not playing the middle division, one and that and of the triplet, you're not playing. So if I demonstrate that on the keyboard, let's take a C chord for now. This is C major played in a swing. Also what we call as eighth note swing because the eighth note or the quaver got swung, it got moved a bit. So if I do all triplets, it'll be rather busy and little bit aggressive. One, two, three, four, but now if I don't play that middle division, it ends up being a swing feel, one, which you can actually count as one and two and three and four and that or however you want as long as you feel it correctly. So the difference between that and the straight is very, very obvious now. The straight feel divided the beat into two equal units. The swing feel divided the beat into three equal units, but did not play the middle one. While in the straight feel, we feel both the one and the end obviously, because there's no other division to feel. So straight feel with a C major chord for instance, three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two dividing by two. Now let's try dividing by three, one triplet, two triplet, three triplet, four triplet, one right. So you need to think triplets. Now what am I doing? Straight 50% division and now swing straight. So I feel it's a very important concept to know while you're writing music, it could break out of what you would normally do or something monotonous which you may end up constantly chugging on your guitar or keyboards and whatnot. It could break out of that. If you keep doing swing, you would come back to straight and so on. What you might have observed with the music I just played was the fact that the tempo ended up remaining the same, isn't it? Same tempo. So the speed of the beat does not vary. What happens is what you do inside the beat. Right guys? So using instruments like the guitar or the bass or other stringed instruments, you can also explore eighth notes and the swing feel as well using a different way using just the mechanics of yourself playing the guitar which is in this instance going down stroke or going up stroke. So it's just natural for the hand, right? You go down, up, down, up. So what I'd like you to do is count eight notes in this fashion. Whenever you go down, you're going to be on the on beat or beat one, two, three or four of the bar. Whenever you go up, you're going to be at those ends. One and two and three and four and let's just practice that with basically a muted feel in your left hand. That means you're not going to do much, just sort of not playing any chords. So you go one and two and three and four and one. Little slower, three and four and one, two and three and four and down, up. So every up stroke is your end and every down stroke is the one, two, three, four. One and two and four, right? One, two, three, four. One and two and practice it like that and then you could also practice your swing feel the same way with a muted guitar wherein you go one, two, three, four. One and two and one which is that third triplet. Okay, so now let's say using a chord like the G major chord for instance, you could perhaps just play it and play both beats first of all, the down stroke and the up stroke which tonally sound very different. And two, right? One and now change it to swing, straight. What's nice is also you don't have to play all the divisions, you can be like, I'm muting it actually at the two, right? Okay, let's develop a rhythm and try to practice straight and swing around that. See, I'm not going down again. Down, up. Okay, so there are a lot of off beats without any down beats and that's what makes it interesting, I guess. It's not like very monotonous or very sort of forceful kind of thing where you play all the divisions. Making a rhythm pattern is all about playing and not playing to play or not to play. That is the question. So you go from there to try this rhythm or this is a very common rhythm on the guitar. So I'm holding the G chord and going get more acquainted. You could also perhaps try singing something if you'd like. You see how I sneaked in the C chord there, which is very close to the G. So you go so that was a straight eighth note guitar rhythm, which you could now evolve or change into a morph into the swing rhythm, which will also sound very, very catchy. Let's first do all and now make it a rhythm pattern. Swing versus, which I did earlier, right? And with a few more things like a percussive approach towards the guitar, you can make it sound very reggae. You can sort of make it a little bit more percussive and so on and so forth. So if I take, let's say this riff. So basically this Michael Jackson song is pretty much on eighth straight, isn't it? So if my head is moving like this, and what do we do for swing? Well, we start first feeling it differently. Maybe you could start by singing it. Also straight music is more for rock songs, like this Michael Jackson song obviously is, which swing feel a bit lazy and you kind of want to sway, I guess. I'm not a dancer, but at least I move a bit differently for sure, whether it's straight or swing. So you go and also what happens with swing is you tend to feel the two and the four of the bar a lot more than the ones in the three, versus swing, but two and three and four and one and two and three and four. So what was once straight could now become. I apologize if I'm spoiling one of your childhood favorite songs, but I really need to show you the difference. So back to straight. Swing. It's a very, very radically different change, isn't it? So let's try one more song. Perhaps let's try something heavier, maybe something metal-ish for this Metallica song, I hope. So if you see this count one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two. So very straight as most rock and metal will be. Right. So if I have to swing this right, you get that very, yeah, you get, you get a completely different vibe, I guess. Right, guys. So believe it or not, there are quite a few pop songs which have swing Beatles have done it, MJ Michael Jackson has done it, a lot of artists actually, even ARM has done it. So you could also do an exploration where you take a song which is swing and try to make it into straight. For example, you could take a Beatles song. This is actually very swing, isn't it? One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and right. And two and tat, tat, tat. So how do we straighten the thing now? Think of it sort of like one hairstyle, you know, you're just messing it up completely. You know, so you go tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat. Straight in it. Okay. Back to swing. Yeah, you could take songs which are swing or maybe, maybe something straight. Right. So a song which is already straight, you could try to swing it, a song which is already swing, you could straighten it. So really try to feel these feels if you will. You know, you have the straight world and you have the swing world and once you have really got to terms with these two time fields, you can really understand music a lot better. For starters, you play a song and decide or listen, this should be one of the first jobs you should do. Stuff we sometimes do would be what is the scale of the song or the key. But you should also figure this out, the pulse, these basic things or is it swing or is it straight? Very, very important if you ask me. Right, guys. Again, this is Jason here from Nathaniel School of Music. If you found the video useful, please subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't already and share the video with all your musician friends and also leave us a comment if you'd like to learn something new. Cheers.