Swing
East Coast Swing Ect.
Character of the Music and the Dance
East Coast Swing and all related styles are all about having fun, being happy, and looking cool with a touch of silliness. They are fairly high energy dances that incorporate a stretching action use to "swing" both a partners around the floor. The music style is almost exactly the same for all these dance types: Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing (Single Step, Double Step, Triple Step), Charleston, Jive, Balboa, Bal-Swing, Carolina Shag, Collegiate Shag, and Zydico. All the dances incorporate a swung timing in the music.
Common Instruments
Drums, Horns, Piano, Flute, Tambourine, Synthesizer
Rhytmical Themes
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Music will generally have what is called a swung rhythm. Usually played on the Cymbals of the Drum, it will go TIck---Tick-Tick. However there are some exceptions where they just play a soft down beat and a hard up beat: boom---TICK. More modern music of swing tends to mix in Techno with the Big Band style of music.
Click the Samples Below
Sample Descriptions
TRADITIONAL:
The music makes the swung rhythm very obvious and loud here. Not all songs are as clear as this one however this is a clear example of what to listen for.
CLASSIC:
This original style of music has the same swung beat but it is a lot softer. The sound of the song demonstrates the type of sound you would hear Lindy Hop dancers generally dance to back when the dance was first created. Lots of Lindy Hop dancers tend to prefer this style of sound and musical embellishments.
MODERN:
Modern day instrumental sounds are adjusted here to make the same swung rhythm sound as Big Band music tends to. The rest of the song is embellished with embellishments common to Pop music.
TAMBORINE:
Here the Tamborine takes over the job of what the drums normally do, creating that swung rhythm. These stronger hits and sounds are more common in Jive music.
ELECTRO SWING:
Steam Punk, Electronic music, and swing all mixed into one. This style of swing music has become very popular, mixing classic Big Band songs with Electronic sounds to create Electroswing. This helps to modernize the music and gives it a slightly different character.