--- dangelico603 <jpcombs@...> wrote:
Hey John,
Some classical guitarists can and do improvise.
Jason,
Granted that many classical players improvise -- but
do they "swing"? You can teach the rudiments of
improv. in any teacher/student relationship ... but
try and teach a student to "swing" -- have yoy tried
that with your students (I'm assumping that you teach
jazz guitar ... if not, thiink of your teacher trying
to teach you to swing).
Classically trained musicians are taught straight
1/8s, straight 1/16s -- it rudimentary -- and jazz
guitarists must also cut their teeth on straight 1/8s
otherwise there is no range in their scope of dynamics
...
Yes, theoretically, they say to "swing" a couplet all
you have to do is play a triplet and leave the middle
1/8 note out. Is that "swing" -- I once heard a
classical player trying to swing using that exact
method andhe sounded like just like the exercise that
he must have spent 100s of h ours with -- there was no
syncopation to his swing (I wouldn't call it swing) ..
it was more like morese code on a telegraph wire...
...Now, the value of straight 1/8s is invaluable to
all players, including jazz guitarists. When I pick up
Chet Atkin's chart for "Mr. Sandman" (check his
version out), he plays marvelous strings of continuous
1/8 notes that are genuinely gorgeous in feel and
execution. When I play that chart I have to be
especially careful not to "swing" because it would
ruin the whole effect of that song.
Metheny recorded a number of his early tunes in
straight 1/8s, and they are marvelous. As musicians we
have to master the straight and swing interpretation
-- however, "swing" is more than an interpretation,
it's a "feel" that comes from an attitude about the
bar, the measure, "four to the bar," etc., etc...an
attitude about the very music that moves ...
So, it remains, "to swing, or not to swing," 'that is
the question, whether 'tis nobler in the heart to
swing the 1/8 or delete the middle triplet ...'
John Amato
Music blows the dust off your soul...
Isa.55:11
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