What is swung rhythm in music?

Answer 1

Because I can play drums I'll talk about the difference between jazz drumming and rock drumming. Swing is jazz drumming.

First, rock: Basic rock is eighth notes, and as follows (p means strike the instrument, r means rest):

Hi-hat:

p p p p p p p p

Kick drum:

p r r r p r r r

Snare drum:

r r p r r r p r

Good old "Rock Pattern Number One." The most reliable pattern in rock 'n' roll. Count off 1-an-2-an-3-an-4-an and play the cymbal on every note.

Jazz pattern 1 is the same basic thing, but you're not playing straight eighths - two notes per beat - on your cymbal, you're playing triplets - three notes per beat. And where it gets tricky: you rest on the middle note in the triplet. So it looks like:

Ride:

p r p p r p p r p p r p

Kick:

p r r r r r p r r r r r

Snare:

r r r p r r r r r p r r

Because we're talking jazz and jazz has no rules, you can vary this quite a bit - a lot of cats like to move that second hit in the beat around some, play the second note in the beat as a short one-handed roll on occasion, or anything else that works with the song.