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Knowhow

Musicality for Swing Dancers: AABA 32-bar song form

13.04.2012 by Chris

[catalyst_hook_box name=”adboxtop”]

“Learn about the AABA jazz form” is the seventh tip in my article “33 Actions & Tips To Become A Better Swing Dancer“.

The interest in this tip is huge, reason enough to examine the AABA form in a separate article.

After the introduction, we will take a look at the theory.

Then we will listen to an example, where the AABA form is used.

And finally, you will learn a basic idea, how to implement AABA into the dance by using a simple routine.

Musicality for Swing Dancers AABA 32-bar form | Shuffle ProjectsIntroduction

The AABA form was style-defining for the popular music of the United States. It is the basic form of most of the so-called Tin Pan Alley songs.

Tin Pan Alley was the nickname of the 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan New York. Between ca. 1895 and 1930, a majority of music publishers were settled in this district and responsible for the flourish of the American popular song during that time.

Many songwriters and composers worked for these publishers. The songs were published as sheet music, the base for an essential part of the Jazz standard repertoire.

Theory of AABA or thirty-two-bar form

Many of the so-called jazz standards (and thousands of more tunes) are written in the AABA form.

The AABA form usually consists of 32 bars.

These 32 bars are divided in four 8 bar sections: Two A sections or verses, a B section or “Bridge” (also: middle eight) and another A section or verse:

A – 8 bars
A – 8 bars
B – 8 bars
A – 8 bars

The first two A sections (A1 and A2) are verses with similar chords and a similar melody, while the lyrics may change.

The following bridge builds a contrast to the A sections using different chords, a different melody and different lyrics, before it is transitioning to another A.

This last A section (A3) repeats the first two A's with similar chords and a similar melody. The lyrics may be different or one verse may be repeated.

Important to know for us dancers: musicians always count on 4 while we are counting on 8. With that said: 8 bars = 4 eights.

Example: “Take The ‘A' Train”

Artist: Duke Ellington & His Orchestra, 1941
Composer: Billy Strayhorn

Song structure:

0:00-0:06  Intro (4 bars)

0:06-0:52  A A B A

0:52-1:38  A A B A

1:38-1:43  Transition (4 bars) with key change

1:43-2:29  A A B A

2:29-2:52  last A repeated another two times and fading out

Musicality for Swing Dancers: How to Use the AABA Form

Here is a basic idea, how you can implement the newly acquired knowledge into your dance.

Let's create a short routine:

Section A1 – first four eights:

  • Swingout
  • Swingout
  • Swingout with inside turn
  • Mini dip

Section A2 – second four eights:

  • Swingout
  • Swingout
  • Swingout with outside turn
  • Lindy Circle

Section B (bridge) – third four eights:

  • Side-by-side Charleston
  • Side-by-side Charleston
  • Side-by-side Charleston
  • Kick-the-dog / Skip-up

Section A3 – fourth four eights:

  • Swingout
  • Texas Tommy
  • Swingout
  • Lindy Circle

I guess, you get the idea: We rebuild the AABA form with different Lindy moves.

A sections are danced with swingouts and variations of them: A1 and A2 are similar, but not exactly the same. The bridge is done with side-by-side charleston to contrast the A's, and A3 is the exact copy of A2 to show the relation to each other.

When we do something like this, then we talk about “macro musicality“.

If you feel comfortable with building four eights sections, then you can start to create more complicated variations. With the time, you don't only dance the main melody, you become a soloist, who improvises freely without loosing the structure, like the musicians in any of these songs!

How do You implement the AABA form into your dance?

I would love to read your stories in the comment section below.

  • How did you learn to implement the AABA form?
  • How would you teach it?
  • Any other ideas to the topic?

Sources:

  • The AABA Song Form
  • Exploring the AABA form in Songwriting
  • Tin Pan Alley

Filed Under: Dance, Music Tagged With: 32-bar form, AABA, Knowhow, Musicality, Swing Dance

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists

22.10.2011 by Chris

I have the feeling that many iTunes users still don't know how powerful Smart Playlists (for my German speaking readers: Intelligente Wiedergabelisten) are.

When Apple introduced them many years ago, I was immediately hooked and it changed the way how I organize and sort music forever.

To really benefit from the flexibility of Smart Playlists, you need a good system of pre-organizing your music with tags, BPM and ratings.

If you missed these posts, please check out part 1: Tagging and part 2: BPM & Rating of the series “How to Organize Music in iTunes” before you read further.

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists | Shuffle Projects

Now, let's dive into the topic:

Smart Playlists for Swing DJs

I use Smart Playlists in many different ways, but in this post I would like to focus on Swing DJ playlists.

An Example

I would like to have a playlist with all the Balboa tunes in the library, they should have BPM included and a rating between 4 and 5 stars. Christmas songs should be excluded.

As you know from my post about tagging, my genre tags for Balboa are “Sw Bal” and for Christmas “Xmas”.

How to create a Smart Playlist in iTunes

So, I step you through the process of creating a Smart Playlist.

  1. in iTunes, click in the menu bar “File” and then “New Smart Playlist…” (in German: “Ablage”, “Neue intelligente Wiedergabeliste …”)
  2. a window “Smart Playlist” opens and “Match the following rule:” is checked
  3. change “Artist” to “Genre“, keep “contains“, write in the empty field “Sw Bal” and press “+” on the right
  4. in the new (second) row choose “Genre“, then “does not contain“, write “Xmas“, press “+” on the right
  5. in the new (third) row choose “BPM“, then “is greater than“, write “1“, press “+” on the right
  6. in the new (fourth) row choose “Rating“, then “is in the range“, click four stars on the left and five stars on the right
  7. check “Match only checked items” (optional)
  8. make sure that “all” is chosen for “Match all of the following rules:” and also that “Live updating” is checked
  9. press “OK“. In the right side bar, you find now a playlist called “untitled playlist“
  10. click on this new playlist to edit the title and write something like “Swing DJ Bal”

After step 8, it looks like that:

If you want to edit the playlist, just go back to “File” and click “Edit Smart Playlist“.

Why is this so powerful?

When you checked “Live updating“, then every new tune you add to the library will be automatically added to this playlist, in case it matches all the defined rules. Your playlist is always up to date!

From my everyday life as Swing DJ

  • I've created many different smart playlists. For my Swing DJ sets I usually use two: one for Lindy Hop and one for Balboa. These playlists consist only of 4- and 5-star rated songs, BPM are mandatory for me.
  • Some are sorted by tempo, for example 110-120 bpm, 120-130 bpm and so on.
  • One playlist includes all swing songs without bpm and rating. That's my source to find new suitable songs for dancers.
  • There are also smart playlists with 3-star rated songs to listen through. It might be that my music taste has changed and I would rate some of these songs higher now.
  • In Herräng there was this masquerade night where I needed Hawaiian swing (check out Staff DJ in Herräng). First of all, I created a smart playlist, as explained earlier in this post, and set additionally “Genre” contains “Haw”. Then I browsed through my library and wrote in all Hawaiian swing songs the “Haw” tag in the genre field (so it looked like “Sw Bal Haw”, for example). I didn't have to care if I had got all of the songs, they were all automatically in the right place.
  • Of course, I also have regular playlists in use. For example for dance or musicality classes, or for my Song of the Week :).

Well, we have reached the ending of the series.

I hope, this post has been helpful and inspiring!

Let me know what do you think about it.

What else are you interested in? Please share your thoughts!

Do you have any questions about Smart Playlists? I'll answer them in the comments below!

Here are the links to part 1 and part 2:
How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging
How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs.

Filed Under: Swing DJ'ing Tagged With: iTunes, Knowhow, Music, Organize Music, Resources, Smart Playlists, Swing DJ

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

14.10.2011 by Chris

Thank you so much for all the comments and emails you have sent me after publishing part 1: Tagging in iTunes.

I'll post some of the ideas I've got from my readers in a wrap-up post after this small series is finished.

So, let's start with part two.

We need two more parameters to have an idea about the music in our library: the tempo of the song and a personal rating system.

Detecting BPM (Beats Per Minute)

As you know, the tempo is defined in BPM or beats per minute.

Detecting BPM is manual work and it takes a lot of time. By my own experience, all automatic BPM detectors are not useful for jazz/swing music (tell me, if I'm wrong), because they usually only count every second beat. Then you get a number like 96 although the song has 192 bpm.

Helpful Tools to Manually Detect Beats Per Minute

Online Tool

  • Tap for Beats Per Minute BPM This tool runs in your browser. Just tap any key and get the BPM. Disadvantage: There is no function to write the detected BPM in iTunes.

Tools for iTunes
If you use iTunes as your basic library, then here are some tools for you.

  • ltjBPM for Mac (link App Store EU). The one I currently use. Very small application window. Standalone tool to detect BPM by tapping a shortcut. Lets you export measured BPM directly in iTunes. Many more functions like skipping to next song, rating, etc. all controlled by shortcuts. Costs: $ 2.99 / CHF 3
  • Turnover for Mac (link App Store EU) Another BPM tapper. Many functions, also controlled by shortcuts. Actually, developped by a runner for runners. Costs: $ 4.99 / CHF 5. (Note: I haven't tested the software so far. I you have any experiences, please share them with us).

Rating System

Beside the tagging system, I also have created my own rating system which I would like to share with you today. The rating basically refers to the danceabilty. In other words, when the song gets a bad rating it doesn't mean it's a bad song, rather it's not suitable for swing dancers.

Let's have a look.

***** 5 Stars
Great song for dancing, safe winner, no pre-listening required (by myself as DJ)

****4 Stars
Great song for dancing, pre-listening required/preferred

*** 3 Stars
Average song for dancing, I usually don't play these songs at (main) events. But sometimes, I come back to the 3-star songs, because I need new inspiration or because my music taste has changed in the meantime and I would rate some of them higher now.

** 2 Stars
No-go. I never play this song for a dance crowd (I prefer to give some stars instead of none, so I know that I already have rated the song)

* 1 Star
Duplicate song, I already have rated this song (the higher rated song has usually the better sound quality)

A while ago, I found out that if you copy your iTunes library to a new computer, you loose the star rating. So I started to additionally use the grouping field to write in the rating as figures (1-5). I do this from time to time with bulk modification.

That's it! Now it's up to you again:
Let me know, what tools for BPM detecting and which rating system are you using?

Or do you have any questions about this post? I'll answer them in the comments below!

Here are the links to part 1 and part 3:

  • How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging
  • How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists


If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs.

Filed Under: Swing DJ'ing Tagged With: BPM, iTunes, Knowhow, Music, Organize Music, Resources, Swing DJ

How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging

05.10.2011 by Chris

Note: This is a post especially for the subscribers of my Swing DJ Resources Email List.

Some of these posts won't be public in future. So, if you would like to receive ALL the posts, then sign up now in the side bar on the right side or at the end of this post.

How To Organize Music in iTunes: Tagging | Shuffle Projects

Nowadays, tags are very common to organize or sort all kind of information. In marked contrast to many different software products, which allow us to set all kind of tags, iTunes still doesn't provide a tagging system to organize music and media.

This is part 1 of a short series about how you could sort your music in iTunes.

Use of “Genre” Input Field

Let's make a principle decision: We only use the “Genre” input field for tagging.

We don't want to use the comment section to sort our music, this field is reserved for additional informations about the song, such as recording date, line-up, etc.

I know that many DJs use the comment section to define the song: mood, tempo, energy, etc. It's up to you!

Use of Genre Abbreviations

A typical genre label in my music library looks like this:

Jazz Sw Bal NO or Jazz Sw Haw Xmas or Jazz Sw Sl West

How A Swing DJ Organize Music in iTunes | Shuffle Projects

As you can see, every label starts with Jazz Sw or Jazz Sw Bal and I use abbreviations to define the genre. While DJ'ing we want to see the genre tab but the visible field should not be too large.

So what do the abbreviations mean?

  • Jazz is the basic genre of the music we are playing.
  • Sw Swing is the basic style for the music and for dancing, this automatically includes Lindy Hop.
  • Bal stands for Balboa or Bal-Swing. As you know, not every song which is great for Lindy Hop is a good Balboa track
  • NO stands for New Orleans style
  • Haw stands for Hawaiian style
  • Xmas stands for Christmas songs

Here are some more ideas:

  • Bl Blues
  • Boog Boogie
  • Char Charleston – I don't use “CH”, because this stands for Swiss music in my library 🙂
  • Ea Early
  • Gy Gypsy
  • Sl Slow
  • R&B Rhythm & Blues (the early style)
  • West Western
  • …

Note: I doesn't mean you have to DJ with iTunes, but many DJ software are drawing on iTunes!

Now I want to hear from you, how do you label your music in iTunes?

Also, do you have any questions about this system? I'm more than happy to answer them in the comments below!


If you like this post, then check out Swing DJ Resources for more articles for Swing DJs

Read more:

  • How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating
  • How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists

Filed Under: Swing DJ'ing Tagged With: iTunes, Knowhow, Music, Organize Music, Resources, Swing DJ, Tagging

Launch Of DJ Chrisbe’s Swing DJ Resources Email List

13.08.2011 by Chris

Update 4 September 2012:
Today, Shuffle Projects launched “Swing DJ Resources”. The website is the successor of this email list. Check out the website and subscribe there for free resources & updates!

In 2006 I started swing DJ'ing and in the last years since then I've acquired a lot of know-how.

As you might know, high quality swing music in classes and especially at swing events is a personal matter of me. How we dance is directly linked to the music. Good swing music support the dancers in making progress.

Now the question is what do I understand by high quality
swing music? I also could ask what makes a swing song a
good song for dancers?

I would like to go one step further and share my knowledge
and my ideas about swing DJ'ing with everyone who is interested.
Therefore I have created a new email list.

So, if you are interested in swing DJ'ing or just in regular music tips
then sign up here, it's free!

The newsletter will be in (Sw)English and I'll send updates once or twice a month.

I'm looking forward to many followers and to interesting interactions
with you.

Filed Under: Education, Swing DJ'ing Tagged With: DJ Chrisbe, Knowhow, Resources, Swing DJ, Swing DJ Resources

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Welcome, I'm Christian Bossert. Since 1999, I‘ve been passionate about Swing dances as well as their culture and history. I‘m a Swing dance instructor and international Swing DJ Chrisbe, based in Zurich Switzerland. Read More…

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