structural musicality in swing dancing

Structural Musicality in Swing Dancing

Byron Alley

Friday, March 28, 14

Swing Musicality

✤ These slides are intended to supplement dance musicality classes

✤ I’ve written them for Lindy Hoppers, WCS dancers and blues dancers

✤ Therefore some song examples may not fit your favourite style

✤ But the principles are remarkably similar across the swing family of dance styles


Swing Musicality

✤ What’s musicality?

✤ Fitting your moves to the music

✤ Not just what you do, but how you do it

✤ Originally, all swing dancing was to live music

✤ How can you be musical if you don’t know the song?

✤ Modern idea: macro-musicality vs. micro-musicality


Micro-musicality

✤ Means interpreting the music note for note

✤ Usually requires knowing that version of the song

✤ Works better for recordings than live music

✤ Therefore a modern concept in swing dancing

✤ But already existed in choreography

✤ Eg. ballet


Macro-musicality

✤ Structural musicality

✤ Uses the structures and patterns of the music itself

✤ Works even if you don’t know the song

✤ How?

✤ Dancing to mood, feel or texture of a section

✤ Using recurring musical ideas - eg. riffs, underlying rhythms

✤ Fitting changes in your dancing to changes in structure


The Songs We Dance To

✤ Swing music is usually a variation on one of these forms:

✤ 12-bar blues

✤ 32-bar form (aka American Songbook or AABA)

✤ Verse-Chorus

✤ Let’s look at those...


Beats and Bars

✤ Dancers talk about 8-counts and beats

✤ What we call a “beat” is a quarter-note in 4/4 music

✤ 4/4 means 4 “beats” per bar

✤ But the phrasing makes the bars go together in 8-counts


12-Bar Blues

✤ 12-bar blues evolved so musicians could jam together

✤ 12 bars = 6 eight-counts (12 x 4 = 6 x 8)

✤ Usual structure involves call and response:

✤ 2 eights of call, eg: “Give me one reason to stay here/And I'll turn right back around”

✤ 2 eights of repeat, which may have identical lyrics to the call

✤ 2 eights of response, resolving the call: “Because I don't want leave you lonely / But you got to make me change my mind”


12-Bar Blues Songs

✤ The 12-bar blues structure is used by many music styles

✤ Blues: Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker)

✤ Jazz: C Jam Blues (Ellington)

✤ Modern blues/rock: Give Me One Reason (Chapman)

✤ Many songs use variations on this structure:

✤ 8-bar and 16-bar blues exist

✤ Blues in the Night: ABC structure where each is 12 bars


32 Bar AABA

✤ Aka: 32-bar form, AABA, American Songbook, ballad form

✤ The most common form for jazz standards

✤ Still found in pop music (usually modified)

✤ Each letter in AABA is 4x8 (or 8 bars)

✤ A: Main melody; 2nd A may be identical, similar, or a response

✤ B: Aka middle eight or bridge, usually contrasting sound from A


AABA Songs

✤ Corner Pocket / Until I Met You

✤ Jumpin’ at the Woodside

✤ Somewhere Over the Rainbow

✤ Fly Me to the Moon (popularized by Frank Sinatra)

✤ Blue Moon (popularized by the Marcels)

✤ Modified:

✤ I Want to Hold Your Hand (Beatles)


Verse-Chorus Form

✤ Popular since early rock ‘n roll

✤ Like AABA shortened to just AB

✤ Verse and Chorus usually each 4x8 (8 bars)

✤ Verse acts as a lead in to the chorus

✤ Chorus is often repetitive - containing a hook (catchy musical idea)

✤ Sometimes a bridge section is inserted for variety => ABC


Verse-Chorus Songs

✤ Most pop songs since the late 1950’s, from rock to rap

✤ “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

✤ “Candle In The Wind” (Elton John)

✤ “Sweet Home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

✤ "Jenny From the Block" (Jennifer Lopez)

✤ “Oops" (Britney Spears)

✤ “Somebody That I Used To Know” (Gotye)


How Can I Hear the Structure?

✤ Don’t need to figure out which song structure it is

✤ Need to get good at feeling where changes happen

✤ How do you know?

✤ Chord changes (song sounds different)

✤ Pop songs sometimes change key (higher or lower) eg. Bad Romance

✤ Sense of build-up (eg. verse to chorus) or wrap-up (end of chorus)


How Do I Dance to Structure?

✤ Identify breaks - moments where most or all instruments stop

✤ Great for dramatic movements, especially with a sharp stop

✤ Identify hits - rhythmic focal points

✤ As with breaks, or just good styling opportunities

✤ Follow changes of tone & texture

✤ Harder/softer, smaller/bigger, linear/round, smooth/rhythmic

✤ Match recurring rhythmic ideas


Matching Rhythmic Structure

✤ Most songs have recurring rhythmic ideas

✤ In the form of the baseline, lyrical meter, or riffs

✤ Jazz: “Jumpin At the Woodside,” “In the Mood”

✤ Blues: JLH’s “Boom Boom,” Keb Mo’s “Am I Wrong”

✤ Pop: “Seven Nation Army”

✤ Reflect the rhythm in your footwork, body movement and/or leading

✤ Partners both matching the same rhythms puts you on the same page


structural musicality in swing dancing

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