Swing

Swing is a jazz rhythmic style where pairs of eighth notes are played unevenly — the first slightly longer than the second — creating a rolling, propulsive feel. The exact ratio varies (typically about 2:1 for the long-short pair), but the feel rather than the math is what matters.

Swing rhythm is fundamental to jazz from the 1930s onward. Big band jazz (Ellington, Basie, Goodman), bebop (Parker, Gillespie), and most subsequent jazz styles use swing eighth notes as the default rhythmic feel. The rhythm gives the music its characteristic forward propulsion — jazz ‘swings’ rather than marching.

In notation, swing is sometimes indicated by an instruction at the start of the piece (‘swing eighths’) or by a dotted-eighth-and-sixteenth pattern that represents the long-short relationship. Performers develop the swing feel through listening and practice; precise notation can’t fully capture the rhythmic nuance.

English, descriptive — the music ‘swings’.

Listen to great jazz recordings to internalize swing feel. The exact ratio varies by tempo and style; faster swing tends toward more even eighth notes, slower swing toward more pronounced long-short.