A metronome click marks the beat, but most of the notes you play fall between beats. How evenly you place those in-between notes, your subdivisions, is what separates time that merely survives from time that grooves. Swing takes the same idea one step further by deliberately making the in-between notes uneven. This guide covers both, with counting systems, real numbers and drills you can practice today.
What is a subdivision?
A subdivision is an equal division of the beat. Split a quarter-note beat in two and you get eighth notes; in three, eighth-note triplets; in four, sixteenth notes. The diagram below shows two beats, each divided into one, two, three and four equal parts. Each extra division packs the notes closer together, and each has its own characteristic feel.
Thinking in subdivisions has a practical payoff. If you feel sixteenths internally, you have four reference points per beat instead of one, so it becomes much harder to drift. Strong drummers, bassists and pianists often describe their time feel as an internal grid of subdivisions running continuously underneath everything they play.
Counting syllables for each subdivision
Counting out loud trains you to place notes accurately. The syllables below are widely taught in American schools; any consistent system works, as long as every syllable gets equal time.
| Subdivision | Notes per beat | Counting syllables | Spacing at 60 BPM | Spacing at 120 BPM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quarter notes | 1 | 1, 2, 3, 4 | 1000 ms | 500 ms |
| Eighth notes | 2 | 1 & 2 & | 500 ms | 250 ms |
| Eighth-note triplets | 3 | 1 trip let, or 1 la li | 333 ms | 167 ms |
| Sixteenth notes | 4 | 1 e & a | 250 ms | 125 ms |
| Quintuplets | 5 | 1 2 3 4 5, or hip-po-pot-a-mus | 200 ms | 100 ms |
| Sextuplets | 6 | 1 la li & la li | 167 ms | 83 ms |
The right-hand columns show how quickly the grid tightens. At 120 BPM, sixteenths are only 125 milliseconds apart, so a note that is 30 ms early has already traveled a quarter of the way toward the next sixteenth. That is easily audible on a recording.
When to use each subdivision on the metronome
- Eighths: turn these on whenever the tempo drops below roughly 70 BPM, or whenever a passage is mostly eighth notes and you want to check evenness. At 60 BPM a quarter-note click leaves a full second of silence; eighths cut that in half.
- Triplets: for shuffles, swing practice and any music where the beat divides into three. They are also the best tool for learning to feel 12/8 in four.
- Sixteenths: for funk, many pop and R&B grooves, fast scale work, and anything where your fingers or sticks move four notes per beat.
- Quintuplets: for classical runs written in groups of five, drum fills, and as an advanced exercise in feeling a grid that does not line up with twos or threes.
- Sextuplets: for fast ornamental runs and drum fills, and as a "double-time triplet" when eighth-note triplets do not give you enough detail.
Quintuplets and sextuplets
Quintuplets feel strange at first because five does not fit any grid you already know. The trick is to stop calculating and use a five-syllable word or phrase, spoken evenly, with the first syllable landing on the click. Practice at 50–60 BPM, where each note gets 200–240 ms, and play only the first note of each group until the phrase feels natural. Then fill in the rest.
Sextuplets can be felt two ways: as two groups of three (1 la li & la li) or as three groups of two (1 ta trip ta let ta). The notes are identical; only the accents differ. Practicing both groupings over the same click is an excellent coordination exercise for drummers and pianists, and it prepares you for passages that switch between the two.
A subdivision ladder drill
- Set the metronome to 60 BPM with a plain quarter-note click.
- Play or clap 2 bars of quarters, 2 bars of eighths, 2 bars of triplets and 2 bars of sixteenths, then come back down: sixteenths, triplets, eighths, quarters.
- Do not stop between levels. The change from triplets to sixteenths and back is the hardest part, so listen for whether the first note of each new level lands exactly on the click.
- Once that is solid, add quintuplets and sextuplets to the top of the ladder.
- Raise the tempo 4 BPM at a time up to about 80 BPM. At that tempo, sextuplets are only 125 ms apart.
What is swing?
Swing is the practice of playing pairs of eighth notes (or sixteenths) unevenly: the first note of each pair is lengthened, and the second is shortened and placed later. Written music usually still shows ordinary even eighths with an instruction such as "swing," and the player is expected to interpret them.
Swing is usually described as a percentage: the share of the beat taken up by the first note of the pair.
| Swing setting | Long : short ratio | Long + short at 120 BPM | Common description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50% | 1 : 1 | 250 ms + 250 ms | Straight eighths |
| 55–58% | about 1.2–1.4 : 1 | 275–290 ms + 225–210 ms | Light, laid-back swing |
| 60% | 1.5 : 1 | 300 ms + 200 ms | Medium swing |
| 67% | 2 : 1 | 333 ms + 167 ms | Triplet swing |
| 75% | 3 : 1 | 375 ms + 125 ms | Dotted eighth and sixteenth; hard shuffle |
The diagram below compares where the second eighth note falls in straight time, triplet swing and hard swing. Notice that the downbeats never move; only the off-beat slides later.
The 67% setting matches the first and third notes of an eighth-note triplet, which is why swing is often taught as "triplets with the middle note left out." The 75% setting matches a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth and produces a sharper, bouncier shuffle.
How swing changes with tempo
Swing is not a fixed ratio. Experienced players adjust it with tempo, and the reason is partly physical. At 120 BPM, triplet swing leaves 167 ms for the short note. At 240 BPM the whole beat lasts only 250 ms, so the same 2 : 1 ratio leaves just 83 ms for the short note, which is hard to articulate cleanly and tends to sound clipped. As a result, fast swing tends to flatten toward even eighths, while slow and medium tempos can carry a deeper, more triplet-based lilt. Even within one performance, a soloist may swing harder on a relaxed phrase and straighter on a fast run.
Swung sixteenths work the same way on a smaller scale. Many hip-hop, neo-soul and funk grooves use sixteenth-note swing somewhere in the mid-50s to low-60s percent range, subtle enough that it reads as "feel" rather than an obvious shuffle. Drum machines and DAWs commonly express their swing settings on the same percentage scale, so the numbers you learn here transfer directly.
Swing practice drills
- Triplets to swing. Set triplet subdivision at 80 BPM. Play all three triplet notes for 2 bars, then only the first and third notes for 2 bars. Now switch the metronome to eighth-note subdivision with 67% swing. What you play should not change at all.
- Swing sweep. Play the same simple scale or groove at 50%, 58%, 67% and 75%, four bars each. Listen to the character shift from straight, to laid back, to classic swing, to shuffle.
- Click on 2 and 4. In 4/4, mute beats 1 and 3 so the click sounds like a hi-hat on the backbeat. This is how swing is felt in jazz, and it forces you to supply the downbeats yourself.
- Tempo range. Play a swing pattern at 100, 160 and 220 BPM. At each tempo, find the swing percentage that sounds most natural. You will usually choose a lower setting as the tempo rises.
For more on clicking on 2 and 4 and silent-bar practice, see how to practice with a metronome. When you are ready, open the metronome, choose a subdivision, and set the swing amount to match the drill.