Jazz Lesson: How To FREAKING SWING
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
- Chances are, if you're a beginning jazzer, you don't swing yet. You may think that you do...but you probably don't yet! I was once you. This is how I learned to swing. Hope it helps all you future swingin cats.
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www.aimeenolte.com
Hi Aimee,
While we're on the subject of swinging here's my Oscar Peterson anecdote.
Back in the 70's, when I was in my teens, I managed to sneak backstage at an open air concert in Juan Les Pins. That night it was Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass and Oscar Peterson playing.
Finally the great man finished his set, came backstage and took a seat on a bench surrounded by press photographers. I managed to elbow my way through the pack to request an autograph. Still mopping himself down with a large handkerchief, he gestured at me to sit down.
As he signed the piece of paper he turned to me and asked....."Do you play piano?"
"Yes I do", I replied.
"What do you like to play?" he asked.
"Scott Joplin rags" I replied truthfully.
"Do you play them straight?" he asked.
What do you mean "straight?" I asked.
"You know.... straight... on the beat" he said.
"Oh yes" I replied.
"Well I envy you then" he said.
"Why is that?" I asked, pretty certain Oscar could easily play Scott Joplin rags with his eyes closed.
"Because I can't play ragtime straight" he said.
"Why not?" I asked....
"Cos I gotta swing" he said, with a big laugh and that wonderful smile.
Ever since I have boasted that Oscar Peterson said he envied my piano playing!
Hope you enjoyed that fond memory of mine and Merry Christmas to you and your family Aimee.
esotericist that's an amazing story. Absolutely love it. I have heard that Joplin himself used to swing his rags. Not sure if it's true but they sound fantastic either way! Thanks for sharing!
esotericist
uz
I had a similar experience with Diz at Blues Alley in Georgetown in 1987, but I swung, was just getting into bebop, post bop, and the Afro-Cuban style.
esotericist "Ever since I have boasted that Oscar Peterson said he envied my piano playing!" Priceless. :)
esotericist: I love that story, thanks for sharing it. Cheers!
Don't mean a thunk, if it ain't got that chunk!
This is what it feels like to have a good teacher.
+WT Davidson 😍🙏🏼
It's sincere.
I'm an old performing songwriter, and have gotten a little stale and uninspired lately. Watching only a few of these has already kinda jump started a desire to get back to the shed to work on fluid playing and expression, without thinking getting in the way.
FWIW, what I love is encapsulated in the Jack Teagarden trombone solo in the Louis Armstrong All Stars Pennies From Heaven recording live at Town Hall in NYC, 1947. Not new, not swing, but I think he was plugged in almost unconsciously that night. For me, that's the thing.
if my impertinence could be forgiven, I have always thought of Aimee as my piano teacher. I picture her riding over on the skateboard...😍
Aimee, you rock! I mean Swing!
Aimee... my name is Brandon and I desperately needed to learn how to swing... I literally freaked out and thought “did I have a lesson with Aimee 3 years ago?!” 😂
Love this mirror image, a good angle for seeing how the fingers move rather than which keys they are playing.
Great lesson Aimee, thanks
Colin Edwards thanks, Collin! I will have to try it again sometime.
Aimee. Your enthusiasm and love for teaching seeps through the screen. I absolutely love your style.
RUclips felt I needed to see this again now. So great. Thank you
I feel so lucky to have found your videos Amy. I was never a big jazz guy (I'm turning 72 this year) but you have really made me understand a lot more about why it's so cool and important. you're making me love it. Thank you so much. You are a great teacher and really know how to teach appreciation and infuse others with enthusiasm. I love following you. Please don't stop posting and performing.
What a great lesson. I thought I was swinging, but no. Now I have the tools to get swinging like Basie and Peterson. In less than 20 minutes, you've given me enough material and insight for a month of practice, which is fantastic. So much fun!
So glad I found you! I play classical, pop piano but wanted to start swinging. Lots of work for me because I think I may just be like Brandon.
Wow…you have an amazing ability to connect with your audience! Thanks.
Thomas A. Torr so nice of you to say. Thank you.
I learnt how to feel swing more fluidly by counting halftime, it also makes solos feel uncluttered for me and almost as though there is more space between the corners to through the back end of the notes around as much as I through the front of them... You are my jazz lesson inspiration by the way! I really respect your warmth and obvious mileage... Thanks for your efforts!
No doubt, Count Basie defines swing. I love your outlook and passion for jazz. It's always been my love and it is refreshing to see that in other people too. Thanks for sharing.
This has changed my life completely, thanks so much!!!
Floyd Fernandes I'm glad, Floyd! Thanks for watching!
Well, that's a revelation. What makes your channel so good is your passion and the way you aim for the beautiful. It's so clear from listening to you that music is music, and not mechanics.
allan henderson thank you so much, Allan. That's exactly how I feel.
What comes across to me is that "chunking" or "swinging" means to really feel the rhythm, the pace, the emotional moving of the piece. And this is what makes a good musician. All the greats have it, regardless of music genres. Glenn Gould had it! Listen to him play Bach's Goldberg Variations. The music is coming right from his soul!
Your "chunk" lesson is great for helping people to get this. But you really have to give yourself to it in order for it to work it's magic!
I LOVE how you crystallize the finest points in the fundamentals that so many of us can overlook. I have to agree with SeanLeonDrums that you produce the absolute best channel on RUclips. There is lot's of great stuff on RUclips, but this is the BEST!!!
Paul Lifsches much too nice, Paul. Thanks so much. 🙏🏼
As a guitarist and huge Freddie Green fan, I love hearing you talk about how good he was. Irving Ashby (who played guitar with the Nat Cole Trio after Oscar Moore--another great---had the best line on rhythm guitar in jazz: " Rhythm guitar is like vanilla extract in cake.
You can't taste it when it's there, but you know when it's left out." Another great lesson!
Another great jazz rhythm guitarist was Herb Ellis. He and Ray Brown recorded together a lot (obviously with Oscar Peterson but also later with Monty Alexander). Herb and Freddie Green made a great album together called "Rhythm Willie"
Mark Rhodes ooo I will look that up!! I got to meet Herb Ellis once. Love his playing. Thanks Mark!
YOUR PASSION IS FLYING OF MY TABLET SCREEN, STRONG VIBES, FLYING ALL OVER THE PLACE.
THAT'S THE REALLY AIMEE. OH HOW I MISS HER.
WAW. THANKS.
YOU and just SOMETHIN' ELSE! Not one person in a million can teach like that. Thanks for the music lesson - and for the teaching lesson too.
love your sense of humor, as much as what you're saying and playing, Aimee. And I DO love your passion, and your chooses of artists, tunes, and "chonk". :)
Aimee you are just such a delight! I really enjoy your lessons so much, thank you for doing them. I've just returned to the piano after a one-year break due to illness and I find your videos inspiring.
Kaya Serra that's awesome. Welcome back!
Freddie Green! You're so talking my language. Your vids are very literally the best. Period. Thank you.
Congratulations Aimee, you are a wonderful teacher. I'm a 17 years old aspiring musician from Argentina and you have inspired me to swing harder (or at least try that).
Thank you very much for your videos, cheers.
That interplay between those quarter notes and the cool melody coming in and out of the beat, moving all around. Such a feeling!!
Hi I am amazed that I commented 5 years ago when I was just starting . This time I really paid attention and understood that separation of the left hand from the right. Thank you. Now I really understand that guitar chunk with the swinging melody. I guess the dislikes haven't understood it or may be got too excited and hit the button twice. A really valuable lesson 💖
Hi Aimee, You're a GREAT teacher! Your vids are amazing! Thx!
Aimee Nolte, Thanks for all your videos!! I really love the way you explain everything
A hug from Medellin Colombia
I'm a guitar player. My opinion on getting the swing feel is to practice with a metronome that you perceive on the 2 and 4 of the beat. And then play slightly behind that beat. It's a subtle thing. But it has that swing!
That's what I've discovered, too, only for walking bass.
Spectacular way to learn. Eureka! Thank you for making me see a different dimension of swing, and guiding me to study some great musicians.
erikkohl i'm glad you think so! Thanks so much for watching. :-)
I think what you are already doing is going "k-chunk" instead of "chunk" without thinking about it. Maybe this can be easier to explain for a student how to swing? :) Great channel! Thank you!
+perfk yes yes. You got it. With the k super short and barely said at all
Have a great weekend!/ Per
Yes! That fits better with her definition in other videos of swinging the 8th notes.
Good point. And the" K" is the percussive sound of the pick raking over the dead strings on the upstroke, typically on (though not limited to ) 4 and. The dead notes on the upbeat are as much an integral part of a good swing rhythm guitar part as the downbeats on the chord. Without them, there is no swing feel. It's' just quarter notes.
Per Fenger-Krog k-nice! Great point :D
I was a clarinetist, but it's been a long time. I just LOVE the Basie band!!!!
Very clever teacher God bless you
You entirely changed my playing style. Thank you so so much! Lots of love from Malaysia
AS a guitar player who doesn't play or listen to jazz I had never realized a pianist could accent their notes like this. Good to know. Also, I think I am starting to like jazz a lot.
I think I've found my jazz teacher here. I've never heard someone articulate swing so perfectly in my life
The word Chunk is exactly swing! Holy balls! I play music with a friend who is a pretty new musician and I was trying to explain swing to him but this is so much simpler. If you want to emphasize that off beat you throne in a Ka-chunk!
Hi Aimiee, my tow cents in this discussion: The secret of the word "chunk" is twofold: "ch" marks be beginning of the quater note the end of the word, after we let "uuuuu" ring, the "nk" will eventually fall at the place where you need to place the second note to have this swing feel. The quality of the Freddie green comping was that he let the quater notes ring just enough that the end of it would be beginning of the horn player note.
Thank you, it’s super
Love you and your teaching
Daniel
Love how chilled your character feels and passionate about music you sound :) you seem like an awesome person! Plus an awesome pianist! thank you for sharing! lovely lesson :)
THE MIRROR ALWAYS SPEAKS THE TRUTH. IN THE ARTS SO TOO.
I STAND IN AWE OF IT ALL. GREAT INSIGHTFUL LESSON.
I´m so glad you highlight Freddie Green, a superior musician who was the secret behind Count Basie´s unique sound but always in the background!
This is so sweet I love it!
Oh man! Love this lesson. I'm not a pianist, I'm not a jazz player, but this concept is SO critical, whatever style you play/sing. Thanks, Aimee. And yes, Freddie Green was The Man.
I really like how excited you are about the discovery of said chunk. Now I'm gonna chunk...no. I'm gonna chunnnnnk. Thank you for this insight.
LOVE to see you being so passionate! Thanks for a great lesson! Now I really have something to think about... :)
This is my favourite moment in internet history thus far.
I love this "lesson" Aimee. Luckily someone steered me in your direction. Subscribed!
Somehow this turned into an ASMR experience it must be the soothing voice :) also very educational for beginners thank you aimee!
Nice lesson. Love to play bass. especially walking bass. My dad taught me how to play a boogie bass progression when I was 14.
He actually taught it to me on my first 🎸 (A Sears Silver tone
accoustic.) I have had jazz guitar lessons starting in the 80s. Really like the genre. Again very good lesson.
I have NEVER thought of it like this, but what you said makes sense. I feel what Freddy Green, Ray Brown, et al are doing, but have always struggled to communicate it to the kids! Thanks, Aimee!
Thank you so much, amazing video!
Great Video,Aimee🎶🎶
As we teach, we learn. That’s one reason why I love teaching.
Okay, so now you've got me listening to the Duke. Love your stuff. Turned my daughter onto it last night.
Your passion for chunk gives me life
I love how your passion for this stuff comes through in your videos. Keep on swingin'!
Hello Aimee, Fantastic! job on all of your videos. As a guitarist it's so nice to hear other musicians give Freddie Green the credit he deserves. Keep up all the stellar work. Thanks again, Swing Heil
Andrew Cole heck yes! I will give him credit all day. :-)
Oh, you're just so inspiring person!!! thank you for sharing your passion to jazz with us!!!
Chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk. Way cool! Love how chunk chunk your reflection is looking right at the camera too. Chunk chunk
You beat me to it. Your chunkin' swings waaaay more than mine 🤣
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" Great video. I love that Oscar Peterson album Night Train with C Jam Blues. It's gold. It definitely swings.
You are helping me to learn how to listen to music and enjoy it like I never did before ! Thank you!!
I don't even play piano but the way you talk about music is so enjoyable for me. 'scribed
Enlightening video, both for content and passion. Thank you! (also applies to dancing!)
Your examples of swing cannot be matched !....just excellent..😎
Hi Aimee, music teacher and jazz piano player from Toronto Canada here. Love this video... I have a lot of "watch later" clicking to do, I'd love to hear some of your other tutorials! I use a fake book, don't have all the standards memorized, but love sitting at a grand in the corner of a room by a tree (usually fake) with a coffee and play for people!
Thanks for what you do!
Greg
Brilliant Aimee! Speaking as a rhythm guitarist and bassist in various bands over the years, I'd say you really highlighted the essence of swing. Without the drums, bass and steady guitar the lead players wouldn't have anything to weave around. I'm guessing Basie, Peterson, Simone etc swung intuitively but for the rest of us - thanks for great lesson! Oh and remember, if your back needs a little massage ...
I really love your passion.
Loved this, Aimee! I just discovered your lessons today. I appreciate your enthusiasm and how you break it down. I remember seeing the Count back east in PA in about 1971. I was about 17 at the time, and learning to play jazz bass. They knocked my socks off. He even came over to our table and we got to chat with him a bit. Many years later I moved to CA and started a house concert series. All kinds of music events have happened here over the past 25 years (over 150 concerts). Just my good fortune to have been so close some true musical greats. Darius Brubeck and band, Jared Gold (B3 player from NYC), Ed Cherry (guitarist for Dizzy Gillespie for many years), and the amazing swing and bebop Hammond B3 organ player Barbara Dennerlein. Check out this swing blues (Stormy Weather Blues) from her with guitarist Christoph Widmoser. It starts out a little sleepy but really picks up. On the surface you could say it's blues, but listen closely and you'll hear the swing elements. Playing ahead of and behind the beat, lots of triplets and other goodies.
Aimee, you are so engaging, thorough and gifted..ALL of you videos are as close to perfect as a musician can be....I only wish I could have convinced my parents that we musicians are real,and music is a true profession,. a wonderful gift to be shared by all.:-)))
I play no instrument but your explanations are amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Most soulful swing lesson ever ! Thank you for sharing
haha I love to see you ssssooo into it! Listen now world because this is important.
Love your enthusiasm
You dont know how precious this lesson was for me (and only me of c.)
jeff wackenthal I'm so glad. 🙌🏼
i meant (not only me of c.). :)
Just found you - great videos. I'm a drummer, and from time to time work with younger drummers, and the hardest thing to get them to do (even when they're playing technically jazz patterns) is to stop rocking and swing. It's a quality that's hard to quantify. I was working with a young man at the community college the other day and as he was trying to pick up the rhythm of a song we were listen to, he just had his hi hat going on 2 and 4, and just from that I could tell he was not swinging., "You're rocking - swing, man!" Will definitely be passing on your channel. Thanks for doing these.
+Chip Hammond thanks so much, Chip!
Just saw that you've done some collaboration with Paul Pieper. I've played with Paul on a couple of occasions. He hosts a monthly open jazz jam at the Epicure Café in Fairfax VA.
LMAOROF...you are so good! Your comparison to not swinging is hilarious...and spot on. Jazz girls are a force of nature!!
Not only is this lady a killer musician- she is hilarious in addition.
Hi Aimee. As a long-time jazz guitarist who is trying to learn piano, I appreciate your sentiment for Freddie Green. He was, for maybe 50 years, the glue that held together the great Basie band. Was particularly evident at the breath marks during the saxophone soli, when you could hear one good "chunk" sustain the momentum. Or when Basie was soloing with just the rhythm section.
Matthew Goldberg I agree! So true.
Excellent video Aimee...gonna chunk chunk all day long now... :-) that's a really good tip and a good way to help us understand and feel what swing is about. Thanks for sharing your passion !
Jean-François Coco let me know how it works out for you! And thanks!
Great! Great! And your energy makes it so fun to learn!
I studied jazz vocals and this is...b-a-s-i-c, clear, easy to understand and so good to learn, relearn, rererelearn. Thanks for making this.
Tanks Aimee, congrats from Portugal...
Avelino Oliveira obrigado, Avelino
My music training on the streets of L. A. Offered me the soul of the city. Yet , much like a work of art, it never is truly finished. Today, I'am just an older hippie wishing That I'd have studied theory as a young man, thereby, making jazz a little less mysterious. Thank you aimee, Thank you Indeed.
"A little bit loco?" Some of the best are/were pretty locally loco. Beautifully coherent, Aimee. Thanks
Hi from an Aussie family who found you today...Firstly if all Americans were like you we'd probably have world peace! Secondly 'so American' is when you 'yanks' say farkin 'secont' (Instead of seconD) after having invented your own version of English! We forgive you because 88% of kids here speak the same brand of the language. We've subscribed because you are so amazing and able to give from your heart...And me (the dad) I just think you're very attractive and have pretty fingers (it's OK my wife is next to us enjoying your videos too : )
Thank you pretty lady we have a new teacher - And have found Count Basie again
+Darryl Hetherington made my day right there. Thank you both.
I don't play piano but I learn WAAYYY more here on your channel then on any other channel on youtube. Thanks!
I'm always amazed at the talk of swing being sort of a triplet rhythm versus a dotted-eighth-sixteenth rhythm, but I've always found the accents to be as important, if not more so. Hiromi Uehara has a great swing feel.
Well there's a classic quote if ever I heard one: "Feel the quarter note in your soul" .
Aimee, you need to put *that* on your merchandising :) . Seriously.
Keep up the great work!
I had the privilege to see Basie and Freddie Greene at UCSD in the early 80's. The magic is they have played so long, and with each other - that there was no effort. Enjoying each other, the music, their life, and the time. We can all aspire to this - and time will afford such, if you continue to practice with soul.
Brandon is a good guy. He's like us all, and has a depth which needs to come out.
You are an inspirational player and personality. Oh, and a great teacher too.
Hi Aimee, One whole year I have used your chunk chunk for the Senior Professor's Jazz ensemble in Uppsala, Sweden. Our two guitar players just LOVE it. Merry Christmas!
Woohoo!
Recently discovered your channel. Wow - very well done. You teach the very small but hugely important things like the k-chunk. Wish I discovered that 10 years earlier. Happy to know it now!
Love your vlog! Can't swing without those FAT quarters. Basie is the way. Another thing that works great with my kids, although a tough thing to do at first, is to throw that music ed triplet subdivision out the window and focus on the ride for eights. Thank you for the videos
What an inspiring clip. Thank you.
Yes! That Nina Simone recording is fabulous. You're so right about what happens in the break - you can still feel the time in the silence.
I frequently have students listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride and Joy," or "Cold Shot" for examples of relentless hard swing, as well as anything Basie and the Miles Davis Kind of Blue album.
There are lots of good examples. The key, as you say, is to really listen and then listen some more.
Been watching a few of your videos a night since I discovered them a week ago. Love them all. Thanks for sharing your musical love and gifts.
+Scott Velardo great examples!!! And thanks for watching tons! Woohoo!
I'm so happy to have found your channel! Very inspiring information, great musical insights and ideas :) Your content and presentation can help a lot of people, thank you!
+ToranagaSteam i'm glad you found it too. Thank you so much!
What other songs swing as hard as these?! I'm in absolute awe right now..... Thank you tenfold for this.
+Stephanie Smith you’re so sweet! Add me on fb. We have a running list of hard swingin’ tunes!!
giddy x100000 haha kasbdfljks I'm so excited!
A great lesson Aimee, thanks! - and i'm so loving that those three swinging tracks :)
I LOVE it -- totally the way to absorb the feel .... yep yep & yep ..... chuuunk'chuuunk'chuuunk'chuuunk.... !!