The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Part 5:
Embellishing
220
What’s confusing is that instead of notating swing as it’s actually played (with
triplets), most swing music uses straight eighth notation—which you’re then
expected to translate into the triplet-based swing.
So if you’re presented a swing tune and you see a bunch of straight eighths, you
should play them with a triplet feel instead, like this:
In swing, straight eighths are played with a triplet feel.
Some arrangers try to approximate the swing feel within a straight rhythm by
using dotted eighth notes followed by sixteenth notes, like this:
In swing, dotted eights and sixteenths are played with a triplet feel.
Whatever you do, don’t play this precisely as written! Again, you have to trans-
late the notation and play the notes with a triplet feel.
The swing feel is an important one, and you find it all over the place. Swing is
used extensively in jazz music, in traditional blues music, in rock shuffles, and in
all manner of popular music old and new. Learning how to swing takes a bit of
effort; it’s normal to play the stiff dotted-eighth/sixteenth rhythm instead of the
rolling triplets when you’re first starting out. But that effort is worth it—a lot of
great music is based on that swinging feel.
Getting the Word
Before we end this chapter, let’s take a look at one other notation challenge:
how to add words to your music.
Notating lyrics is something that all songwriters have to do, and it isn’t that
hard—if you think logically. Naturally, you want to align specific words with
specific notes in the music. More precisely, you want to align specific 
syllables
with specific notes.
This sometimes requires a bit of creativity on your part. You might need to split
up words into awkward-looking syllables. You also might need to extend sylla-
bles within words where a note is held for an extended period of time. This
requires a lot of hyphens in the lyrics, as you can see in the following example:

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Chapter 17:
Special Notation
221
Notating lyrics; split words in syllables, and extended syllables.
Just remember to position your lyrics underneath the music staff. If you have
multiple verses, write each verse on a separate line; then break each word into
its component syllables and carefully match up each syllable with the proper
musical note.
The Least You Need to Know
◆
Curved marks are used to 
tie 
identical notes together, 
slur 
neighboring
notes together, and indicate complete musical 
phrases
.
◆
A dot above a note means to play it short (staccato); a line above a note
means to play it long (tenuto).
◆
You play grace notes lightly and quickly before the main note.
◆
Turns and trills ornament a main note by the use of rapidly played neigh-
boring notes.
◆
A glissando indicates a smooth glide from one pitch to another.
◆
Swing music is played with a rolling triplet feel; not straight eighth notes.
◆
Lyrics must be broken down into syllables to fit precisely with notes in the
music.
Exercises