Revisiting B2B

Nearly a year after graduating from B2B, I decided to revisited some of the modules and lessons. It’s very interesting how much differently I look at the lessons, and also how much easier it is for me to play the songs.

I’m more than slightly amused at Module 10, lessons 4&5. Only someone with @JoshFossgreen 's unique sense of humor would think to have a lesson entitled “Some Kind of Wonderful”, and then follow it with “Dazed and Confused”. :rofl:

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Are you finding that there’s stuff in there you missed the first time around @PamPurrs?
I’m up to module 9 second time around and there are odd bits and pieces I’ve either forgotten or didn’t take in initially.

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I go back to stuff I know I need to work on sometimes. I still have trouble with one of the fast octaves lessons (the one with the walking-up chromatic thing) at full speed, kind of klutz it up to this day when I move back to the E string :slight_smile:

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I’m finding things that weren’t 100% clear to me the first time, that now make a load of sense or raise questions in my mind.
For instance; in Some Kind of Wonderful, @JoshFossgreen refers to it as “Shuffle Feel”. I didn’t really pay that much attention to that term the first time I went through the course, but now that I’ve studied a lot of music theory, I recognize it as “Swing Feel”. I even checked out the score, and sure enough it denotes the tempo as Swing 8ths"
I know how to play “Swing feel”, but I thought “Shuffle Feel” was a bit different. Can @JoshFossgreen or @Gio or anyone give a good, concise, lucid explanation of the difference between Swing and Shuffle? I know they’re both played on triplets, and if there is a difference, its only a very subtle one. Is it an interchangeable term?

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That’s actually a more accurate way of describing what I am finding too @PamPurrs.
It’s well worth looking back through the course. I’m also finding it to be quite a confidence builder as I’m realising I have come some way along my learning path. It’s certainly fueled a need to learn more too.

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My “gut feeling” says the difference is where you put the emphasis - downbeats or upbeats. In shuffle feel there is more focus on the downbeats, while in swing feel there is more focus on the upbeats. Maybe a bit like a (military) march and rock, which share a straight eight feel, but march is heavy on the 1 and 3, while rock is accentuating the 2 and 4 more…

But, I am curious about what the real experts have to say :smile:

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Good question. “Swing 8ths” and “Shuffle 8ths” are synonymous, at least in my world.

But “swing feel” versus “shuffle feel” isn’t quite, because a shuffle is a specific type of groove in 4/4 that generally still have a blues/rock/pop style backbeat, a la Some Kind of Wonderful:

But a “swing feel” refers more commonly to a jazz tune with a walking bass line, like:

That’s my take anyway! Those phrases are more like colloquialisms than technical terms, so take that with a grain of salt.

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