Time to Swing, Time Not to Swing

You might think, from the title of this newsletter, that I’m going to take us back several decades to the time of jazz greats Basie, Goodman, and Monk.

But no, I’m going in quite a different direction, as you’re about to see.

What I’ve been thinking about today is the use of the body beyond hands and arms when playing. Specifically, how to move, and when to move.

The other day I wrote concerning unconscious, ‘vertical’ motions players frequently make when playing accents or playing chords. Movements that introduce an unwanted ‘crunchiness’ to one’s playing.

The motions I’m talking about today are made in the torso, waist and legs, and mimic the swing of a pendulum; very different.

A word about pendulums; there is no better way to envision the flow of time than through the motion of a pendulum.

Pendulums derive their ‘intelligence’ from a fundamental force.

Gravity.

Gravity, as manifested in the movement of pendulums, literally COMPELS us to Feel a beat.

The acceleration of the pendulum’s weight creates an organic sense of increasing force – or tension, in music – the apex of which is clearly felt as it passes center. Release is felt as the tension decreases with deceleration.

When I was a child we used to visit an astronomical observatory with some regularity. There was a great pendulum in the atrium of the main building consisting of a ball of some 2 or 3 hundred pounds connected to a wire perhaps 30 feet in length.

It gives me chills just thinking about the wonderful arc it made over the floor.

But getting back to music and one’s body, imagine yourself ‘swinging’ to a beat through waist and torso. Matter of fact, why not get up and do it. Stand up, hold your arms in playing position, and allow your body – from below your chest – to swing at an ‘adagio’ tempo. As you do this resist any urge to move your arms sympathetically; keep them relaxed but in one position.

After a few bars shorten the swing until you arrive at ‘andante’; then ‘moderato’, ‘allegro’, and finally ‘presto.’

At ‘presto’ the dips and movements from side to side will be very small indeed.

The point of this exercise is to free the bottom two-thirds of you body from your upper body. By the way, as you do this, breathe as you know how to breathe; from the belly. And experiment with the size and number of you breaths per pendulum swing; even taking several short breaths during the ‘adagio’ swings, and long breaths under the ‘presto’ swings.

Great practice; for timing, relaxation, coordination, and getting all the little grey cells tuned up and anxious for the sound of a violin.

Oh, I almost forgot. When NOT to swing. That’ll just have to wait for another day, though if you keep your eyes and ears are open you’ll know without a word from me.

All the best, Clayton Haslop