The triplet is defined as playing 3 notes
of equal value in place of two notes of equal value.
Eighth note triplets
(3 in one beat)
Eighth notes (2 in
one beat)
Swing eighth notes are created by
playing the first and third note of a triplet. So you end up with
a long short pattern. Instead of the two evenly spaced straight
eighth notes.
So tie the first 2 eighth notes together
and you get a quarter note with an eighth note.
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Below it the first
measure of the blues lesson
and what it would look like if written as swing eighth notes:
To avoid having the 3's all over the music
it is quite often written as straight eighth notes and will have
something at the beginning like, triplet feel, shuffle or swing:
Sometimes you will
see the symbol to the right at the beginning of the music to let the
musician know to play swing eighth notes.
We could also write the
riff in 12/8 time.
For a quick video lesson on the above material:
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