Shuffle and swing

In a shuffle, each beat is split into a long note and a short note instead of two equal ones. How long the first note is decides how much the rhythm “swings”.

Straight, triplets, and shuffle

This picture shows one beat from left to right. X marks where a note falls in each rhythm of the app:

• Straight 8ths split the beat in half.
• Triplets split it into three equal parts.
• A triplet shuffle plays the first and third note of the triplet and leaves out the middle one, so the off-beat comes late.
• A 16th shuffle swings each half of the beat in the same way. It is common in funk and in “half-time shuffle” grooves.

What the swing percentage means

The percentage is how far into the beat (or the half beat, for a 16th shuffle) the off-beat note falls:

• 50% – exactly halfway: straight 8ths, no swing. (Choose 8ths in the app for this.)
• About 67% – two thirds of the beat: the triplet shuffle used in blues and much of rock and jazz. The app's 67% is within 0.4% of an exact triplet (66.7%).
• 75% – three quarters: a dotted-8th-and-16th rhythm, a sharper, more marching feel.
• 55–62% – a light swing, often heard in pop, hip-hop, and laid-back grooves.

Where the off-beat falls

The time from the beat to the off-beat note, in milliseconds:

Scroll the table sideways →

Rounded to the nearest millisecond. At slow tempos the difference between swing settings is easy to hear; at fast tempos it shrinks to a few tens of milliseconds, and many players swing less.

Practicing a shuffle

1. Start with Triplets and count “1-trip-let, 2-trip-let”. Play only on the first and last note of each group.
2. Switch to Shuffle at 67%. You should hear the same notes without the middle one.
3. Lower the in-between volume, or set it to 0%, and keep the swing yourself.
4. To match a recording, try a few swing settings and keep the one that feels right. Save it with the song.