Developing Swinging Grooves

In this pack, Stephane Chamberland presents a unique and fun approach to improving your swing feel in various subdivisions, and using funk, jazz and Latin concepts. The lessons proceed in incremental steps as follows:

Swinging the Eighth Notes

Learn how to read even eighth-note figures and change them into swing patterns based on triplets (minus the middle note). This concept is common when reading a jazz chart. You can use the classic book Syncopation to practice this concept even more!

Swinging the Sixteenth Notes

Apply a similar concept to the sixteenth-note figures. You’ll be thinking in sixteenth-note triplets. This concept is common when playing funk music and it’s a great tool to give our grooves a little twist and a dancing feel.

Jazz Ride Eighth Notes to Eighth-Note Swing

Now, Steph applies the concept to jazz. Learn how to change the feel of any even eighth-note groove to swing based on triplets. Let’s jazz it up!

Groove Sixteenth Notes to Sixteenth-Note Swing

Learn how to go from sixteenth notes to sixteenth-note triplets in a groove. This is a great tool for playing funk music and is really fun to discover.

Swinging the Cascara

Let’s bring it to the next level by applying the same idea to Cuban music. You can take any Latin groove and swing it. This will create a bridge between Latin and jazz and it will enrich your jazz vocabulary. Let’s start with the cascara pattern.

Mambo to Swing

The last lesson of this pack will teach you how to play a mambo in a swing feel using triplets. This one was inspired by Elvin Jones.

Here are the lessons that appear in this pack:

• Swinging the Eighth Notes
• Swinging the Sixteenth Notes
• Jazz Ride Eighth Notes to Eighth-Note Swing
• Groove Sixteenth Notes to Sixteenth-Note Swing
• Swinging the Cascara
• Mambo to Swing