Mapping rhythmic fragments to specific words to imitate speech cadence is something which I noticed great pianists, like Sir Andras Schiff, suggest frequently when giving masterclasses to accomplished academy pianists. This is just to say, you are definitely onto something really valuable here 🙂

Great video and I totally agree with your thought on flow and much of what generates it in swing. However, after decades of miss and hit practice on this as a jazz pianist I've come to the conclusion that it actually reduces down to how one plays straight eights. Forget the triplet division, it's really a derivative of a notation issue more than anything else, one should in my opinion focus on playing totally straight at first, then lowering the velocity by a quarter or third on every offbeat and listen to what happens. The fact is that that one is hard pressed not to delay that offbeat by a very slight margin and if one manages to incorporate the timing that occurs from that slight offset with practice, the outcome will almost certainly flow and sound natural. If one listens to Bill Evans or rather drummers like Joey Baron or Tony Allen, they seemingly play straight offbeats most of the time but the flow is nevertheless sublime.

Thanks, Phil. Fascinating and so useful. Great to see you on KZfaq 👌

Thanks a lot for that deep analyze of rhythm variations !

Very interesting and well explained. Thank you, Phil.

Great lesson!!

the greatest talent... I'm a fan of yours..

Phil and Pianoteq is a truly tasty mixture!

Is that a digital piano ro a sythesizer ?