sing co-paycheon i'm adam maness and i'm adam manis And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast.

Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Coming at you in the sing-songy voice here on a Friday and a snowy St. Louis. Yeah, we saw the singing from yesterday. That was fun. That was fun. And so it's still on our minds. Oh, my goodness. Okay, well, we have a question from a listener. Yeah. And this is from Darren.

This is two questions from a Darren.

Not the same Darren.

Not the same.

How do we know it's not the same one?

That would be a... question from a listener. And this is from Darren. This is two questions from a Darren.

Not the same, Darren. How do we know it's not the same one? That would be a horrible way of disguising it. Different last names that I'm not going to say on the air. No, we do not get about personal. It's against the you'll hear it privacy policy. So Darren asks, hey, I'd love to ask a question for the you'll hear it podcast. I don't know why I had to read that sentence.

I had a piano teacher once who told me that to swing in your solos, apart from rhythm, you should also focus on accenting the off beats, the end of your one and two and three counting. I try to listen for this in other piano soloing now, especially Peter's stuff on the lessons, but I definitely hear accents on some offbeats. It's more obvious when you slow it down, but there's more going on. It's not just accenting the offbeats. More like a pattern of accents. By comparison, when I transcribe some of the licks, they tend to come off sounding robotic. Can you talk about how accents of some notes create more swinging sound and like rhythmic phrasing or however

you call it. We call it syncopation. We call it syncopation. And it's an important part of swing. Yes. It's a super important part of swing. And it is not the offbeats. It's not. I mean, that's a part of the kind of describing it. But if you stop just there, you'll get, and I guess he's calling the off-beats is what I would actually call the upbeats, right?

Yeah. That's a part of the kind of describing it. But if you stop just there, you'll get,

and I guess he's calling the off-beats is what I would actually call the upbeats, right? Yeah. When I think of off-beats, I think of two and four in four-four-four. The upbeats are the end two, and two, and three, and four, and one, and two. Yeah, and that doesn't sound swinging or syncopated. no because it's not yeah not because it's you because it's only the office it's only

so it's like. Yeah, not because it's you because it's only the offbeat. It's only the other. So it's like one, two, three, four. If you only play the offbeats, one, two, it starts sounding like it's the downbeats, you know, even if there's something else going on. It's corny. Yeah, yeah. It's not swinging. Right. course Jazz Piano Jumpstart, which is going to be available in the next few weeks. It's for very beginning jazz pianists. We talk about swing and we talk about syncopation. And one of the things we mentioned is the balance that syncopation is. It's a balance of downbeats and upbeats. Yeah. And so the first example we use is the Charleston rhythm. Charleston, Charleston. Sorry, I'm still singing from yesterday. Right. So if we're here, one, two, three, four, dun, uh, dun, uh, done, uh, done, uh, done, uh, so that's a very, so that's a syncopation of a phrase.

Charleston 2.0.

Yeah, exactly, but that down beat and then the upbeat

on the end of two, that is syncopation.

Inversely, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.

Same rhythm but flipped to where the first beat that I sing is on the upbeat and the second beat is on the downbeat. Yep. That is syncopation in a nutshell. It is not just all up beats or all down beats. It's mixing them up. Yeah. And I think what happens is a lot of times classical musicians look at this because of like how the music is presented like in a jazzy way or whatever and

focus in on the upbeats like there being so many more of them and that kind of thing but it's

really like the way i like to think about it is um as rhythmic drama and and tension and release

the same way we talk about like what you just did with that basic char Charleston rhythm being the most basic example of syncopation, the way a five-core dominant seven to a one core. The five has, and this is overly simplified, but it is an example of it at its basic level, lowest common denominator. The five chord is tense, and then it resolves naturally down to the one chord. Exactly. And so with this, we've got bunt, bang, boom. The actual resolution, the rhythmic tension is on the next one. I knew where you're going with it, and I so agree with you. That's right. Because, I mean, it's always pattern-based. And the fun is when the pattern gets complicated and then it gets simple or whatever. Right. Just like with harmony.

So you did that tag on the Charleston rhythm, which is a common thing, a common rhythmic phrase, which is done, three, four, dun, uh, d, uh, d, d'un, uh, d'un, d'n, d'n, uh, you know, you put this extra downbeat in there and all of a sudden it becomes a whole different thing. It's just a little bit more complicated manifestation of the syncopation, but it still has the tension and release. And normally we're talking about the upbeats, unless you really get into more complicated patterns, the upbeat being the more tense part of it. So like you're starting that Charleston rhythm on something that's like a one chord. because if you just play the first one, it one two I'm gonna speed it up a little bit one because we gotta go to luncheon minute one two three four bunt bump bomb so I'm only playing the first one so there's no tension that's just straight down the middle but when you go bump to can so now it's like you're kind of boom you in there, but it's going to resolve it the next measure.

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