Basic Music Structure, Part 1 - for Lindy Hop and Swing Dance

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The topic of musicality can be obvious to some, and totally baffling to others. This resource is meant for students and educators to help break down this material.
As dancers, we're supposed to look like how the music sounds, and a huge part of that is observing and predicting changes that occur in music through things like musical structure or macro musicality. However, hearing those changes can be really tricky for some.
In this video, we'll talk about hearing the differences between 3 basic structures (AABA, ABAC, and Blues), and we'll talk about some of the differences in terminology between dancers and musicians. We'll also listen for different musical features to help make the changes more obvious.
02:11 AABA Explanation
03:42 ABAC Explanation
05:30 Blues Structure Explanation
07:04 How to Hear Phrase / Chorus Changes
08:03 Practice Listening to the Background
Below are some playlists of these common structures, as well as examples of songs that deviate from them. Hope this resource helps! Enjoy!
AABA Forms:
• AABA Songs
ABAC Forms:
• ABAC Songs
Blues Forms:
• Blues Songs
Songs With Interludes:
- Exactly Like You, Count Basie, 32 Bar - • Video
- What a Shuffle, Chick Webb, 32 Bar - • WHAT A SHUFFLE by Chic...
- Dinah, Count Basie, 32 Bar - • Dinah
- Say Forward, I'll March, Jay McShann, 32 Bar - • SAY FORWARD, I'LL MARC...
- Georgianna, Count Basie, 32 Bar - • Georgianna
Consistently Different Forms:
- Pig Foot Sonata, Lionel Hampton - 30 bar (last A is shortened):
• Video
- D. B. Blues, Lester Young - AABA (A = 6 8counts, B = 4 8counts): • Lester Young - D. B. ...
- Baby, What's the Matter With You, Roy Eldridge - AABA (A = 6 8counts, B = 4 8counts):
• Baby, What's The Matte...
- Ram Session, Earl Bostic - ABA (all phrases are 4 8counts): • Ram Session
- Night and Day, Coleman Hawkins - A1 (8 counts) A2 (8 counts) B (8 counts):
• Video

[@CourtneyBMansell]

You are 1. Hilarious 2. A lovely singer 3. Incredibly helpful in explaining music

[@LauraGlaess]

Oh, wow - thank you so much. I'm trying hard!

[@nuvigroovi]

I like how you talked about a song having surprises. And if we anticipate a music change, we can introduce a new pattern at that point.

[@nicholassteiger6709]

When practicing Balboa I love playing songs with very tight melodic breaks and phrases, to work on complimenting musical structure. “Another Day of Sun” from La La Land is one of my favorites because it has a rhythmic structure in the piano melody at the beginning of the song that establishes a Latin feel, but when the first verse, hits the Drummer drives the song forward with fast swing on brushes. The brushes transition to the ride, and then back to the Latin pattern with full orchestra. Swing dance styles are amazing in the way it let you emphasize small changes and moods so quickly and organically. And those A A B A patterns are just everywhere!

[@LauraGlaess]

My gosh, AABA is EVERYWHERE. And it's so nice to be able to hit things in the music without knowing the song. Pattern recognition! It's the human being superpower!

[@ironfront9573]

As musician who had no natural sense of rhythm, I can verify that listening to as much music as possible in the genre you are interested in is the most useful thing you can do. Especially music you like enough to remember and sing along to do.

[@WorldOfJD]

Your singing is good!

[@PsychedelicChameleon]

Thank You Laura for this video, for singing, and for the bonus kitty footage during the rhythm guitar section!

[@LauraGlaess]

Ha! Wingy!

[@palerider3857]

Nothing bad to say about your singing Laura 😊 Very well explained

[@jaykaith1985]

Very very informative. With the singing and the animation, you made it so easy to understand. Thank you so much Laura!

[@LauraGlaess]

So happy it was helpful! Thank you!

[@arbiejaybriones9633]

Newbie dancer here. This is really helpful to put structure on how i see (or rather, hear) the music! Thanks, Laura!

[@LauraGlaess]

Yay! Thank you!

[@220kt]

You have a lovely voice Laura! 😊

[@LauraGlaess]

Ha! Very stressful. Thank you.

[@robertwatts1943]

Love your singing, Laura!

[@everestuscalliste-gi6549]

Your visuals were very helpful.

[@LauraGlaess]

Awesome! I was hoping they would make sense.

[@meliscengiz8538]

I love your videos! What a beautiful voice btw 🫶

[@hyeryeunjang3913]

Super helpful! Thank you so much :)

[@davideiotti9725]

Thanks, extremely helpful!

[@danielvernon55]

This is fantastic! Thank you for such high quality educational videos! 😊

[@JaninaValko]

great video!! I always find it hard to explain those structures. now I link to this video when I'm stuck :)

[@LauraGlaess]

I love it! I really want videos like these to be resources for instructors like you!

[@theplinkerslodge6361]

Cool info.

[@1castellp]

Is it possible to dance the lindy hop to non swing songs....like "jumpin by pitbull and lil jon"?

[@danaignis1794]

Hi, Laura, maybe it's a dumb question but, if the structure is AABA, then is it more appropiate to do the break in the B or in the last A?

[@Obir]

Hey Laura really helpful breakdown here :) In the future can u speak about breaks in the music with the same manner pls i have problems with realizeing they r comeing if i dont know the song. Where can i suspect generally in the structures that a break will come ect things like that :) thank you the time and effort u put into this videos :)

[@LauraGlaess]

This is a great question! I'll definitely make a note to do a video on breaks. The only tricky thing is that I'm only using music from people I have permission to use music from, so it's a more limited subset of songs. While I figure out that problem, I'll do my best to answer here. 1) Breaks are typically during a part of the song that is more different anyway. Ex: The B section of an AABA, or at the beginning of a new chorus 2) A break typically isn't a whole phrase long, but might be. To get a feel for length, listen for the background to do little pickups a few beats before the break ends. The background typically ushers in the rest of the band when the break is over. 3) Breaks are typically repetitive. For example, in a song like Johnny Hodges's "Wham," after the head (melody) of the song, there is a 2 beat break before EVERY new 12-bar blues chorus. When the break is done, that drums do a pickup (as I was explaining in point #2), and then the rest of the band comes in. So you might miss the first one, but you'll get a pretty clear idea after that. Check it out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nH2cfKZ7Z7iVosU 4) You'll never hit every break. Sometimes, the musicians are trying to be tricky ON PURPOSE because it's fun. But the more music you listen to, the more you know and the more you recognize. Hope that helps! I know it can be super hard to describe something like music over text.

[@Obir]

@@LauraGlaess Ty for the detailed answer, so i can expect break on the 3rd 8 count (B) or the first 8count of a new chorus and i figured that handful of times its happens on the 4th 8count so as a phrase ending things :D. Ohh and yeeah the drum pickups are really good indicators. Ty for the example song as well, its great :) I guess i have to listen even more jazz (its sound like a punishment but it's not) and pray for enlightenment as well :D

[@Trixiethewestie]

When I was choreographing a Ginny routine, we were using Midnight in a Madhouse, and OMG the structure is all over the place. Sometimes a 6 bar chorus, other times, not....and occasionally, there was a 5 bar interlude....What the hell?! I asked George Gee why it was structured this way and he replied, “Because it’s a MADHOUSE!” Lol

[@LauraGlaess]

christina isaksen ha! I like that reason. It IS a mad house. You know those musicians had to be good readers to keep up with that mess!!

[@Trixiethewestie]

Laura Glaess that was probably the first instance where I realized that I should probably stick to easier structured songs for re-playability. Those charts, I’m sure, are not fun to make. I’m a musician, but have no knowledge of the jazz world and their charts, so this was EYE OPENING!

[@evRonin]

Hi Laura, I really like your explanation in this video. This is really helpful for new swing dancers like me to understand the songs, and how it is related to our steps and move. Looking forward to seeing more new videos on your channel. I have shared this amazing content to my friends, but it's a bit hard for them to understand in English. Is there any chance that I could add a subtitle in Mandarin Chinese?

[@LauraGlaess]

Oh, that would be amazing! This is very generous of you. I'm so flattered you want to share it with friends. The way subtitles have worked for me in the past, the translator has made a .srt file with timings of the video that I can upload. Feel free to chat with me about this on facebook!

[@ollieandotis]

That cat looks exactly like one of my cats! They could be twins 🐈

[@castel3564]

Well, the phrase "don't criticize me in my singing, you'll hurt my feeling" really hurts my feelings, as there was not any that I could criticize! And all is left is to criticize myself. Oh, oh poor me, who can't sing like you, pa-da-ba-di--du-da! :(

[@LauraGlaess]

Oh, you're being very nice! I'm just self conscious and I know that the internet is A) full of VERY talented singers, and B) full of people less kind than you. Honestly, this is a defense mechanism of mine. If I undercut myself first, then I feel protected from someone else's harsh judgement. I'm working on being more bold ❤️

[@brandonmead2051]

Math math math math math 🤷‍♀