(Sheet) Music question

[Chaotic42]

I'm trying to play the Harlem Nocturne, but I'm having some trouble getting the right sound. Above the passage I'm having trouble with it says:

Swing (xx=yx) where x is an 8th note and y is a quarter note. There is a bar with a 3 in it above the "yx" part. 3 means triplet, but I'm not sure what's going on with this. Later it says "Straight 8ths" above a passage.

Any ideas?

Pic

 

[crumpet19]

Prmarily it refers to the style. It's just trying to point out that its in a swing style.
Straight 8ths would be kind of a rock style. Each note is gets the same count and the same accent.
Try and sound this out:
(dat dat dat dat, dat dat dat dat, dat dat dat dta, dat dat dat dat)
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Swing music gets different accent.
(dooh dat dat, dooh dat dat, dooh dat dat, dooh)
1-uh 2 3 1-uh 2 3
The 'dooh' is a brief instant longer than the 'dat' and hence the music is 'swung.'

Hope this helps. Its difficult for me to see what youre trying to say without actually seeing the music. I was a trumpet player in a jazz band for 6 years while in school.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: crumpet19


Hope this helps. Its difficult for me to see what youre trying to say without actually seeing the music. I was a trumpet player in a jazz band for 6 years while in school.

I think I see what you're saying. I'll scan it when I get home. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Chaotic42]

Well, I can't scan it.

When I try to install the drivers for my scanner, it BSODs and reboots. It also cleared out my IE cookies too.

Thank youuuuuu Microsoft.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

What it means is that whenever you see two eighth notes together, you change the lengths slightly. Instead of playing them for equal lengths, you play the first one for twice as long as the second. This effectively makes it a quarter note and an eighth note, inside a triplet bracket.

Attempted pictoral representation:
|1__2__|
|x__x__|

|1_2_3_|
|x___x_|

| being a bar line,
x being a note
and 12 and 3 being effective beats.
Both bars should be the same length in time.

That's a really bad explanation in retrospect...

 

[crumpet19]

Originally posted by: Woodchuck2000
What it means is that whenever you see two eighth notes together, you change the lengths slightly. Instead of playing them for equal lengths, you play the first one for twice as long as the second. This effectively makes it a quarter note and an eighth note, inside a triplet bracket.

Attempted pictoral representation:
|1__2__|
|x__x__|

|1_2_3_|
|x___x_|

| being a bar line,
x being a note
and 12 and 3 being effective beats.
Both bars should be the same length in time.

That's a really bad explanation in retrospect...

this is what I was trying to say. However, you did a much better job.
:beer:

 

[lchyi]

If you have a recording, that's the best way to go off of that. Swing is best interpreted as a triplet without the middle triplet. So you basically play two notes in triplet time. Geez, hard to explain and comprehend in writing, isn't music great?

 

[Chaotic42]

Pic

 

[edmicman]

its syncopation, cat!

 

[Jzero]

See Woodchuck's post. Interpret a pair of 8ths as a quarter + 8th triplet set.