Learn "Swing Shift": a Texas swing, taught as a whole song

What the song is. "Swing Shift" is an original Texas swing, written for this course in the way the psychobilly course's catalog describes the Reverend Horton Heat's swing side — "Eat Steak" and "Drinkin' and Smokin' Cigarettes", swings counted as a two near 190. No record was heard for it and no line of one is in it (see How this was made).^[1]

KeyG, from the A stringTempo184 bpm, swungTime4/4, three slots a beatLength125 barsWords4 verses, 1 bridge

The words are a man's account of the second shift and the dance hall after it; the last verse asks to be buried with a walking bass line.

• You need: standard tuning, a flatpick, a clean tone with the neck pickup's warmth, and a slapback if there is one.
• You should already have: palm muting, four-string chord shapes moved up and down the neck, a whole-step bend on the B string, a slide into a note, and reading tab.
• If the answers are new: from lesson 10 on, every section's card has an easy tab above it — the same bars with the walking line alone, the song's own figure — and so does the whole song's. Play the course through on those first, then as written.

The form. Twelve sections, a hundred and twenty-five bars, in this order:^[4]

the guitar alone — the kickoff, the turnaround, the boogies, the solo, the ending   the walking line and the answers under the singer   ·   the numbers are the chords' places in the key of G

The verse is sixteen bars on the swing's own changes — four of the I, the IV home, the II to the V, and the I–VI–II–V turnaround — every chord a 7th; the bridge is eight bars on the IV, the I, the II and the V; the boogie is the verse's first half. Each sung line is two bars and the guitar answers in the two after. The verse, the bridge and the boogie are presets under Psychobilly in the Jam tab.

Tone and style. One guitar, two jobs, over the swing band:^{[1] [3]}

• The band: the ride swung in eighths, the kick on one and three, the snare on two and four with the brushes, the bass walking in four with a slap on the backbeats, a jazz voicing on the piano.
• The muted job: the walking line, the riffs' roots, the walks — the heel on the strings by the bridge, every note a thud with a pitch.
• The ringing job: the chords held, the pairs, the solo — the heel off.
• The switch between them inside a bar — the root muted, then the pair ringing — is the thing to practise. Slapback on everything.

The model, and the idiom. The psychobilly course's catalog puts the Reverend's swings on Bob Wills' band: Eldon Shamblin's rhythm — four to the bar, "brisk downstrokes on each beat", two and four "a little heavier", the chord slid in from a fret below on a change, and "a lot of runs in his rhythm chords" because Wills asked for them.^{[1] [6]} This song is of that kind, with the owner's own reading of the rhythm from his pictures: the runs made the whole bar (the walking line), the sock reduced to one chord (the stab), and the answers between.^[2]

• The song was written on 19 September 2026 as the fourth song for these courses, a Texas swing where the other three are a polka, a surf-billy and a train beat.
• The owner's pictures voice every chord from the A string and asked for that in place of the three-note shells: the 9th, the 6th and the 6/9 shapes, none wider than three frets under one hand.
• The pictures were read for their devices only; docs/SWINGSHIFT-RESEARCH.md §2 records what was taken and what was not.

The idiom, device by device — every one is in the song, and the notes and their order are this song's own:^{[1] [2]}

The swung eighth. The feel divides every beat in three, and the two eighths sit on the first and the third slot — long, short — with the middle slot empty except in the chromatic triplets and the run.^[1] One beat, counted:

• The count is four to the bar: the walk's notes land on the beats and their "and"s, and the tab writes them as eighths in 4/4.
• The swing is in the pair: the first eighth twice as long as the second. Count the triplet under your breath until the pair comes out that way by itself.
• The weight is on the beat, and two and four a shade heavier — the swing rhythm guitar's habit.

The walking line. The song's own bar of the feel, under every sung line: root, 3rd, 5th, 6th on the bass strings, each struck twice, muted. On the G7:^[2]

• The notes are the G on the low E string's 3rd fret, the B at the 7th, the D on the A string's 5th, the E at the 7th: two frets on each string, the first finger and the pinky.
• The heel of the picking hand stays on the strings by the bridge, so every note thuds and none rings into the next.
• On the other chords the same shape: the C7 a string up, the A7 from the A string's 5th, the E7 from the D string's 7th. The bass strings, drawn below, are where the walk and every walk into a change live.

The grips. Three shapes, each rooted on the A string and none wider than three frets, and the open A7:^[2]

• The 9th shape (x-3-2-3-3): the sock chord — socked on one and two before a walk, jabbed in the solo, stabbed on the eighths before the C7, and the shape that moves by semitones into a change.
• The 6th shape (x-10-9-9-8): stabbed on the eighths — after a rest, on every eighth in the even verses, and in the kickoff; the open A6 before the turnaround's moving chords.
• The 6/9 shape (x-3-2-2-3): the chord struck once and held after the walk — the single stab — and the kickoff's first chord.
• The A7 is open (x-0-2-0-2), since its 9th shape would sit at the 12th fret; its 6th and 6/9 are one open chord, the A6 (x-0-4-2-2).
• The ending's G6/9 spreads over five strings with the root on the low E, and the boogie's stabs are two three-string shapes on the top strings.

A line under each diagram says where the chord is struck in the song.

The three forms. The chords under the singer, and what the guitar does in each bar:

The two cards below are the verse's and the bridge's changes with the walking line in every bar and no answers — the same every time. They come back as the easy tabs of the verse and the bridge.

The walk, and the single stab. Each sung line is two bars. The first is the walking line; the second is the walk's 5th, 5th, 6th on one, the "and" and two — the same notes as the walk's second half — and then the 6/9 chord struck once on the "and" of two and held, the rest of the bar empty. On the G7:^[2]

• The hand's move: from the A string's 7th fret up to the 6/9 shape at the 10th in the space of one eighth, the heel coming off as the chord lands.
• The empty half-bar is the singer's: the chord rings under the end of the line and the answer starts on the next downbeat.
• On the A7 the chord is the open A6, and on the E7 the E6/9 at the 7th fret after B, B, C♯ on the D and G strings.

The even verses. Verses 2 and 4 change the second bar of each line: the 6th chord — G6 at the 10th fret, C6 at the 3rd, the open A6 — stabbed on all eight swung eighths, short, the offbeats lighter, in place of the single 6/9. The walk before it is the same.^[4]

• Eight downstrokes, the fret hand lifting its pressure after each so the chord stabs and does not ring.
• The weight is the walk's: the beat heavier, the "and" lighter.
• In bar 4 of the even verses the moving chords are replaced too — by three 6ths falling onto the C7, which the riff lesson teaches.

The double-stop riff. The song's main answer, two bars: the root on the bass string under the heel for a beat; the root-and-3rd pair on two strings on two, a fret down on the "and", back on three; a rest; the 3rd-and-5th pair above struck on four and held over the bar line. Then, the pair still ringing, the wiggle again — and the walk down home, or the 6ths falling. The first bar on the G7:^[2]

• On the G7 the pairs are G and B on the D and G strings at the 5th and 4th frets, a fret down, and B and D on the G and B strings at the 4th and 3rd.
• On the D7 they are D and F♯ on the G and B strings at the 7th, a fret down, and F♯ and A at the 11th and 10th — the highest the song goes on the neck.
• The 6ths falling (even verses, bar 4): the D and B strings at one fret are a 6th apart; the 7th fret, the 6th and the 5th fall onto the C7's 5th and 3rd, G over E.

The moving chords. The chord melody the swing rhythm player makes at a change: a chord stabbed on the first four eighths, then the next chord's 9th shape two frets off on the "and" of two, a fret off on three, and the chord itself on the "and" of three, held. Into the C7 it is one grip all the way — the G9 at the 10th fret, then the same shape at the 5th, the 4th and the 3rd:^[6]

• The move is one shape slid: G9, D9, D♭9, C9 — the grip never changes, the hand drops five frets on the "and" of two and a fret at a time after, the pick landing each one. (It was the G6 at the 10th to a B♭9 at the 1st, a jump no hand makes in a triplet slot; the owner had it turned round, 2026-09-19.)
• The stabs after a rest are the same 6th chord with the silences written: nothing on one, the chord on the "and", two and its "and", a semitone down on three, back on the "and", nothing on four, and the chord again on the "and" of four to lead the next bar.
• In the turnaround the moving chords come from below instead: the open A6 on the eighths, then C9, C♯9, D9 — a short move from the nut to the 3rd fret.

The short riff, and the pair with the walk. The bass hand, then one bright chord: the root under the heel for a beat, one note off the walk on two, and the root-and-5th pair on the B and e strings struck on the "and" of two with the heel off and held. Its cousin keeps the root, holds the pair a beat, and walks the last two beats into the next chord.^[2]

• On the A7 the pair is A and E at the 5th fret; on the G7 it is G and D at the 3rd.
• The walk after the pair is E, F♯, G, G♯ up the low E into the A7 — the riff's bar ends where the next line's walk begins.

The walks, and the run. Every change in the song is walked into on the bass strings in the last two beats, four notes in swung eighths, muted; the downbeat after them is the landing. Wills asked Shamblin for the runs, and this song makes them the rule:^{[6] [4]}

• Muted, all of them: the heel stays on, the notes thud, and the chord or the walk that lands on the downbeat is the first thing that rings.
• The ♭7 and the 7 are the chromatic steps — two frets, both struck — that every swing walk climbs; the walk down is all semitones.
• The run is the one figure that strikes every slot of the beat: triplets, even, up to the E.

The kickoff. Four bars before the turnaround, the guitar alone in front for two of them:

The band comes in on the walking line in bar 3, and the run up to the 6th in bar 4 hands the turnaround its downbeat. The two bars alone are counted at the song's tempo — 184 bpm — so the band lands with the walk.

The turnaround. The I–VI–II–V once, after the kickoff and again as the ending:

The turnaround is the song's four figures in four bars — the walk, the stab, the moving chords, the sock and the walk — and the verse's last four bars are it too, with the short riff in the A7's place.

The ending. The turnaround once more, and one chord:

The band drops out for the last bar and the G6/9 rings alone — the root on the low E string's 3rd fret under E, B, D and A, the swing's closing chord, drawn among the grips above.

The boogie. Eight bars with nobody singing, the riff for a bar and the stabs for the next. The riff on the G7:^[4]

The stabs are on the D, G and B strings: G augmented (G, B, D♯) on one and the "and", G6 (the D♯ lifted to the E) on two and held on the "and", G6 on three, and the root-and-5th on four leading back into the riff. On the C7 the riff moves to the A and D strings and the stabs to the top three.

The verse. Four lines, each over the walk and the stab, each answered. Two bars a row:

The singer's line sits on the swung eighths inside its two bars with the last word held into the answer: over the G7 on the 5th and the 3rd, over the C7 on the 3rd, over the A7 on the 3rd and the 5th, and over the turnaround on the 6th, with the G♯ leaned on over the E7. The even verses — 2 and 4 — stab the 6th chord on every eighth in the second bars and drop three 6ths onto the C7 in bar 4; the second card is verse 2.

The bridge. Two lines over the C7 and the A7, each answered:

The bridge is the verse's middle with the words about the hours: the C7's walk and stab under the first line, the G7's answers, the A7's walk under the second, the short riff, and the riff on the D7 with the walk down home into the next section.

Three ways through the song. All hundred and twenty-five bars are on one card, in order, the same every time. Take it three ways:

1. Listen first, with the guitar up, until the form is in your ear.
2. Play along with the band and the guitar, a section at a time with the looper, up the ladder 124144164184 bpm.
3. Play it yourself with the guitar part silent and the band and the singer up, so every bar is yours.

Loop the one section that is not clean rather than the whole song; the change from the muted hand to the ringing one inside a bar is the usual one.

The solo, and its devices. Sixteen bars over the verse's changes on the top strings between the nut and the 10th fret, made of six devices the owner's picture of a swing solo showed — and no scale runs.^[2] The first bar, the line slid into:

Bar by bar. The solo's sixteen bars, each one device:

The solo's notes live on the top three strings at the nut, up the B string by the slide to the 8th fret; the box is drawn below. Every note is a chord tone or a semitone on the way to one.

How to make a song in this style. This lesson is six assignments, each played with the band, and each says exactly what to play. They draw on the six habits a song in this style is made of:

1. Two bars a line: the walking line under the singer, then one chord struck and held; the answer in the two bars after.
2. Three shapes from the A string: the 9th, the 6th and the 6/9, none wider than three frets, moved to every root.
3. The answers are pairs and moves: a pair wiggled and a pair held; the next chord's shape moving by semitones into the change; the 6th stabbed with its silences.
4. A walk into every change: four muted notes in the last two beats, up by the chromatic steps or down by semitones, and the downbeat is the landing.
5. A solo is six devices, each a bar, on the chord's own notes: the line slid into, the jab, the run by a slide, the bend, the triplets, the rake — no scale runs.
6. The words sit on the swung eighths inside their two bars and hand the answer to the guitar; the turnaround the swing lives on is yours to make.

Every card in the assignments is the song's own bars — the verse, the even verse, the boogie, the solo and its devices, the turnaround — with some bars left to you. The assignments say what to do with them.

The terms. The words this course uses, one line each:

• The swung eighth is the beat divided in three with the eighths on the first and third slot: long, short.
• The walking line is root, 3rd, 5th, 6th on the bass strings, each struck twice, muted — the bar under every sung line.
• The heel is the side of the picking hand resting on the strings by the bridge, the tab's "x".
• The stab is one chord struck down and either held (the single stab, the 6/9) or damped at once (the 6th on the eighths).
• The sock is the swing rhythm guitar's chord struck down on the beat, short; in this song it comes on one and two before a walk.
• The 9th, the 6th and the 6/9 shapes are the three four-string chords rooted on the A string the song is voiced in.
• The wiggle is a pair of notes struck, moved a fret down and struck, and moved back and struck.
• The moving chords are the next chord's shape moving by semitones into the change — the chord melody; into the C7 one grip slides down from the G9.
• A walk is four muted notes in the last two beats of a bar into the next chord's root; the run is six notes up the scale to the 6th.
• The boogie is the root-and-5th, root-and-6th riff on the bass strings, and its answer the augmented chord resolving to the 6th.
• The jab is the chord struck short in the middle of a solo line, as a note of it.
• The rake is the pick dragged across the lower strings, damped, into a note.
• The kickoff is the four bars the guitar plays before the turnaround, the first two alone; the turnaround is the I–VI–II–V — G7, E7, A7, D7.
• I, IV, V7, II7, VI7 name chords by their place in the key: in G they are G7, C7, D7, A7 and E7.

The song was written the way every part in this app is written (docs/STYLES.md), the course the way the courses are (docs/COURSES.md), and the prose to docs/WRITING.md.

• Every bar is written note by note in the data module's event language on the feel's twelve-slot grid — the kickoff, the turnaround, the four verses, the bridges, the boogies, the solo, the ending, and the walking-line bars of the easy tabs. Every card is the song's own bars, the same every time it is opened.
• The solo's two whole-step bends were silent on the demo page — its module dropped the flag — and play here; nothing else in the song was changed when it was folded in.
• The singer's line is written the same way, a syllable a note of the first verse's words (the other verses fitted to their own counts by the shared rule, sing in js/dive-realize.js), in a baritone's range, G3 to E4. The engine's voice sings it — a tone with no words — on a bus of its own, a slider on the card.
• The data has no DOM in it (js/swingshift-guide-data.js), so node tools/dive-check.js swingshift --print realizes every card as the page does. Every card was read that way against the research: every chord one of the three shapes, every walk in the last two beats and muted, the solo's every bar one of its devices.
• A test loads the page in a frame and holds all of it, and the course's shape. It was broken on purpose once and seen to fail.

The sound is the app's own recorded guitar and synthesized band. Tempos are the song's.