david moon
Attempting the Blues
I prefer the notation of eighth rest, eighth tied to quarter because it gives a strong visual cue that the first rest and eighth comprise the first beat, and the tied quarter comprises the second beat. The eighths are still "swing eighths".Let's look at what we're dealing with here.
A blues tune. Not a big band or theater chart or any other king of "standard" song.
Griff is teaching a common rhythm figure. It's a repeating riff played in "swing 8s". He ends the lesson by tacking on what he calls "the Bassie ending". He could just show me the riff, the breaks and the ending and I wouldn't even need tab or standard notation.
But as usual, he shows both. In actuality, the swing notation is there to tell us how to play the riff.
Now the ending. Most of us, myself included, wouldn't even look at the standard notation. But someone did and they noticed it's notated 2 different ways.
One with a dotted quarter, which means the beat is divided in 2, i.e. the ending is in straight time. The dotted quarter "flags" it. It's not some radical change. It's just an ending.
And since the beat is divided in 2, it can be written the other way, as an 8th tied to a quarter. No quarrel there. But that's not what I'm talking about.
But if the rest and 8th notes are considered a triplet, the rest is 2/3 of the beat, just as you say, and the 8th gets the remaining 1/3 of the beat. So it has to be written as a rest followed by an 8th tied to a quarter. It can't be written the other way because it's not a 1/2 beat.
The 8th note is either 1/2 a beat and in straight time and can be written either way or it's 1/3 of a triplet played as a swing 8 and is 1/3 of a beat and can only be written the one way.
It can't be both.
In my previous replies to the OP I tried to find plausible reasons why Griff would intentionally write it 2 different ways or why maybe 2 different programs might interpret it 2 different ways.
If my instructions were to treat every 8th note as a swing 8th I would consider the rest and the 8th note to be a triplet and write it as an 8th tied to a quarter, 1 and 1/3 beats total.
But if I was instructed to treat the 8th rest as 1/2 beat the 8th would also be 1/2 beat I would have the option of writing it the 2 different ways.
Like I said, I don't know anything about writing programs or how a program would make that decision or transition.
Bottom Line: Either the rest and note are a triplet and written one way or they're straight and can be written 2 ways. You and I have options, but does the software program?
But I'm just repeating myself.......again.
The dotted quarter is equal to 3 eighths. I don't see it as a flag to switch to "straight" eighths. The first rest would still be 2/3 of a beat and the dotted quarter would be 1 and 1/3 beat.
I would play both notations exactly the same.