Carnegie Hall

Rhythm is the key to swing, and there are several main ingredients that yield the distinctive swing feel. First is the steady beat with accents on beats 2 and 4, giving the music a lively, danceable bounce. Second, instead of playing straight eighth notes that sound even or equal, musicians lengthen the first note of the pair and accent the second, shorter note, creating a bright rhythmic lilt. Finally, jazz musicians add another distinctive swing rhythm called the ride pattern, which the drummer plays on the ride cymbal, accentuating the swing feel. The interactions between these rhythmic ingredients create music that is full of energy and excitement.

• Play “When the Saints Go Marching In” (play-along). As you listen, clap on beats 1 and 3 and then march around the room, emphasizing beats 1 and 3.
• Next, listen to “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Washburne) and begin clapping on beats 2 and 4 and moving around the room, emphasizing beats 2 and 4 and feeling the swing qualities of the arrangement.
  • How does your body feel when you focus on beats 1 and 3? On beats 2 and 4? What is the difference?
  • What else do you notice?
• Practice clapping or snapping on beats 1 and 3 for four measures, followed by clapping or snapping on beats 2 and 4 for four measures: 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, 4-2-3-4 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, 4-2-3-4
• Bring the strong and weak beats together using the stomp-clap: Stomp on beats 1 and 3 and clap on beats 2 and 4, feeling the accents on the off beats.
• Lastly, sing the melody in the “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Recorder Star) Sheet Music (PDF)  while performing the stomp-clap.
• Discuss that this is an example of syncopation, or emphasizing what could be felt as the “off beat” or “back beat.”

New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz.

In the early 1900s, people from many parts of the world (Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean) lived in New Orleans and played music together. The earliest style of jazz, New Orleans jazz, features three horns improvising melodies at the same time while the rhythm section keeps time. The trumpet plays the main melody, the clarinet plays a countermelody with faster notes, and the trombone plays low sliding notes.

Learn more about New Orleans–style jazz through listening links, videos, and interactive stories in the Timeline of African American Music.

• Begin by demonstrating the difference between straight eighths and swing eighths. Straight eighths are even; in swing, the first eighth in the pair is elongated and the second eighth is shortened, slightly accented, and a bit louder.
• Listen to Straight vs. Swing Eighth Notes.

• Have the students echo the rhythms by counting and clapping or playing them on classroom instruments.
• Divide the class into groups and have one group count and clap a steady beat (1, 2, 3, 4) while the other group claps swing eighths.
• Listen to Ride Pattern.

• Learn the ride pattern. Have the students echo the rhythm by counting and clapping or playing on classroom instruments.
• Play “I Got Rhythm” (Fitzgerald). For more information about Ella Fitzgerald, see Jazz Artists at Carnegie Hall (PDF). As you listen, have half of the students clap or snap on beats 2 and 4 while the other half says or taps out the ride pattern (spang, spang-a-lang, spang-a-lang).
• Repeat the activity with “I Got Rhythm” (Washburne), and have the students switch parts.
  • As you perform your rhythms, can you identify the different instruments that you hear throughout this recording?

• Since rhythm is the key to swing, it’s no surprise that the musicians in the jazz ensemble’s rhythm section—piano, bass, drums, and sometimes guitar—have the very important job of creating the overall feeling of the music. The instruments in the rhythm section balance and coordinate their sound to create the swing feeling that drives the rest of the musicians in the band and forms the foundation for melody, harmony, and improvisation.
• Explore how the rhythm section forms the foundation for the band by creating a rhythm section with your students.
• Listen for the rhythm section within the band in “Duke’s Place” (Washburne).
• Divide the class into six groups and assign each group a rhythm to count, clap, or play a classroom instrument.
• Go to Create Your Own Rhythm Section (PDF) to review the notated examples for each instrument heard in the rhythm section.
• Watch the video The Rhythm Section Demonstration.
• The class rhythm section can be used to accompany activities in upcoming lessons as students improvise, perform solos, and explore call and response.

Florence Price’s “Juba”

The third movement of Florence Price’s First Symphony, entitled “Juba,” is named for the juba dance, which originated in West Africa and was brought to the US by enslaved people. Banned from playing musical instruments, as it was feared that enslaved people would use drums to coordinate revolts or uprisings, they used their bodies to create music instead. Through rhythmic handclapping and slapping of the thighs, along with the juba dance, enslaved people continued to make music and build community.

• The rhythmic patterns and body percussion that enslaved people used to accompany their singing and dancing became known as “patting juba” or the hambone.
• Learn the patting juba rhythm that inspired Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1.
  • Beat 1: Slap your outer thigh with the palm of your hand.
  • Beat 2: Slap your chest with the palm of your hand.
  • Beat 3: Slap the top of your thigh with the back of your hand on the way back down from your chest.
  • Beat 4 (optional): Slap your outer thigh with the palm of your hand.
• Watch the video tutorial Pattin’ Juba to guide students through learning and practicing this rhythmic body percussion.
• Listen to “Juba” from Symphony No. 1.
  • Do you hear the juba pattern?
  • Why do you think Price wanted to include “Juba” in her First Symphony?
  • As you listen, practice performing the juba rhythm using body percussion.