The SHUFFLE rhythm is also known as swing rhythm and has a laid back, relaxed feeling compared to a standard straight 8 rhythm.
To understand what the shuffle looks and feels like, first you need to observe what a straight 8, 8th note sequence of a measure in 4/4 time looks like:
When you play your ukulele with a straight 8 rhythm, each down strum falls exactly on the downbeats beats and the up strums on the +’s of each beat, hence the name Straight 8. You count them as “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”
Have a listen to the following audio example playing 4 bars of C major with this straight 8 rhythm.
Have a listen to the following audio example playing 4 bars of C major with this straight 8 rhythm.
To shuffle, or swing, this rhythm, the up stroke notes need to move slightly to the right, so the best way to illustrate this is to divide each quarter note beat into triplets. So now we count each bar as “1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a', as follows:
To shuffle the rhythm, move each of the up strokes onto the ‘a’ of each triplet beat as follows:
Have a listen to the above audio example playing 4 bars of C major with this shuffle rhythm.
Now try playing this two-bar pattern in preparation for the next section. Notice how bar two doesn’t have a down beat on beat 3. The video below will demonstrate how to play the full 12 bar sequence using this 2 bar pattern. It may take a bit of getting used to so stick with it and play along as much as it takes to lock it in.
It may sound quite odd at first, but this shuffled strumming pattern sounds great with additional minor notes added in. I will explain how to find the relative minor of each major chord in the next module.