Understanding how the structure of the music helps you understand how to dance to a song

1. Structural Musicality
in Swing Dancing
Byron Alley
Friday, March 28, 14

2. Swing Musicality
✤ These slides are intended to supplement dance musicality classes
✤ I’ve written them for Lindy Hoppers, WCS dancers and blues dancers
✤ Therefore some song examples may not fit your favourite style
✤ But the principles are remarkably similar across the swing family of
dance styles
Friday, March 28, 14

3. Swing Musicality
✤ What’s musicality?
✤ Fitting your moves to the music
✤ Not just what you do, but how you do it
✤ Originally, all swing dancing was to live music
✤ How can you be musical if you don’t know the song?
✤ Modern idea: macro-musicality vs. micro-musicality
Friday, March 28, 14

4. Micro-musicality
✤ Means interpreting the music note for note
✤ Usually requires knowing that version of the song
✤ Works better for recordings than live music
✤ Therefore a modern concept in swing dancing
✤ But already existed in choreography
✤ Eg. ballet
Friday, March 28, 14

5. Macro-musicality
✤ Structural musicality
✤ Uses the structures and patterns of the music itself
✤ Works even if you don’t know the song
✤ How?
✤ Dancing to mood, feel or texture of a section
✤ Using recurring musical ideas - eg. riffs, underlying rhythms
✤ Fitting changes in your dancing to changes in structure
Friday, March 28, 14

6. The SongsWe DanceTo
✤ Swing music is usually a variation on one of these forms:
✤ 12-bar blues
✤ 32-bar form (aka American Songbook or AABA)
✤ Verse-Chorus
✤ Let’s look at those...
Friday, March 28, 14

7. Beats and Bars
✤ Dancers talk about 8-counts and beats
✤ What we call a “beat” is a quarter-note in 4/4 music
✤ 4/4 means 4 “beats” per bar
✤ But the phrasing makes the bars go together in 8-counts
Friday, March 28, 14

8. 12-Bar Blues
✤ 12-bar blues evolved so musicians could jam together
✤ 12 bars = 6 eight-counts (12 x 4 = 6 x 8)
✤ Usual structure involves call and response:
✤ 2 eights of call, eg: “Give me one reason to stay here/And I'll turn
right back around”
✤ 2 eights of repeat, which may have identical lyrics to the call
✤ 2 eights of response, resolving the call: “Because I don't want leave
you lonely / But you got to make me change my mind”
Friday, March 28, 14

9. 12-Bar Blues Songs
✤ The 12-bar blues structure is used by many music styles
✤ Blues: Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker)
✤ Jazz: C Jam Blues (Ellington)
✤ Modern blues/rock: Give Me One Reason (Chapman)
✤ Many songs use variations on this structure:
✤ 8-bar and 16-bar blues exist
✤ Blues in the Night: ABC structure where each is 12 bars
Friday, March 28, 14

10. 32 Bar AABA
✤ Aka: 32-bar form, AABA, American Songbook, ballad form
✤ The most common form for jazz standards
✤ Still found in pop music (usually modified)
✤ Each letter in AABA is 4x8 (or 8 bars)
✤ A: Main melody; 2nd A may be identical, similar, or a response
✤ B: Aka middle eight or bridge, usually contrasting sound from A
Friday, March 28, 14

11. AABA Songs
✤ Corner Pocket / Until I Met You
✤ Jumpin’ at the Woodside
✤ Somewhere Over the Rainbow
✤ Fly Me to the Moon (popularized by Frank Sinatra)
✤ Blue Moon (popularized by the Marcels)
✤ Modified:
✤ I Want to Hold Your Hand (Beatles)
Friday, March 28, 14

12. Verse-Chorus Form
✤ Popular since early rock ‘n roll
✤ Like AABA shortened to just AB
✤ Verse and Chorus usually each 4x8 (8 bars)
✤ Verse acts as a lead in to the chorus
✤ Chorus is often repetitive - containing a hook (catchy musical idea)
✤ Sometimes a bridge section is inserted for variety => ABC
Friday, March 28, 14

13. Verse-Chorus Songs
✤ Most pop songs since the late 1950’s, from rock to rap
✤ “Proud Mary” (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
✤ “Candle In The Wind” (Elton John)
✤ “Sweet Home Alabama” (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
✤ "Jenny From the Block" (Jennifer Lopez)
✤ “Oops" (Britney Spears)
✤ “Somebody That I Used To Know” (Gotye)
Friday, March 28, 14

14. How Can I Hear the Structure?
✤ Don’t need to figure out which song structure it is
✤ Need to get good at feeling where changes happen
✤ How do you know?
✤ Chord changes (song sounds different)
✤ Pop songs sometimes change key (higher or lower) eg. Bad
Romance
✤ Sense of build-up (eg. verse to chorus) or wrap-up (end of chorus)
Friday, March 28, 14

15. How Do I Dance to Structure?
✤ Identify breaks - moments where most or all instruments stop
✤ Great for dramatic movements, especially with a sharp stop
✤ Identify hits - rhythmic focal points
✤ As with breaks, or just good styling opportunities
✤ Follow changes of tone & texture
✤ Harder/softer, smaller/bigger, linear/round, smooth/rhythmic
✤ Match recurring rhythmic ideas
Friday, March 28, 14

16. Matching Rhythmic Structure
✤ Most songs have recurring rhythmic ideas
✤ In the form of the baseline, lyrical meter, or riffs
✤ Jazz: “Jumpin At the Woodside,” “In the Mood”
✤ Blues: JLH’s “Boom Boom,” Keb Mo’s “Am I Wrong”
✤ Pop: “Seven Nation Army”
✤ Reflect the rhythm in your footwork, body movement and/or leading
✤ Partners both matching the same rhythms puts you on the same page
Friday, March 28, 14