Everything you need to create authentic electro swing—all in one place.
This website has become Japan’s most-read resource on how to produce electro swing.
After researching English-language resources, I have yet to find another website that breaks down electro swing production in this level of detail—covering chord progressions, bass patterns, drum patterns, commonly used scales, brass riffs, backing patterns, sound selection, effects, and more as separate practical topics.
The music theory and production techniques behind electro swing are universal. That is why I decided to make this knowledge available in English and share it with music producers around the world.
This complete guide organizes every essential element of electro swing production into a clear, step-by-step learning path. By following the articles linked on this page, you will gain a deeper understanding of the genre and learn how to create a more authentic electro swing sound in your own music.
Some related articles are still available only in Japanese. Please use your browser’s translation feature when necessary. I am currently translating the entire site into English, so please bookmark this page and check back regularly for new tutorials.
I’m a composer, arranger, and music production instructor specializing in electro swing and jazz. My work includes music composition, arrangement, mixing, and event production. A commercial song I worked on won the Music Award at the Yamagata Furusato Commercial Awards. My collaboration with zensen and Anshelly, “Oshare ga Shitai wa,” has surpassed 450,000 views on YouTube.
🎩 What Is Electro Swing?
Electro swing is a genre that combines elements of swing jazz and big band music with modern club styles such as EDM and house.
For a more detailed introduction to the genre, see the following guide:
▶ What Is Electro Swing? Its Appeal, History, and Essential Artists Explained
In recent years, more listeners in Japan have discovered electro swing through Vocaloid songs, VTuber music, video game soundtracks, and music released on streaming platforms.
As the genre has grown, more producers have also become interested in creating electro swing with a DAW.
The genre has three main characteristics:
- A bouncy swing rhythm
- Jazz-based instrumentation such as horns and piano
- A club-oriented beat structure, often built around a four-on-the-floor kick
Together, these elements create a distinctive form of dance music that sounds both retro and modern.
When you begin producing electro swing, however, several questions quickly arise:
- How heavily should the drums lean toward EDM?
- Should the bass sound like jazz, or should it be a synth bass?
- Which chord progressions and scales work best?
This page brings together the guides you need to learn each part of the production process in a logical order.
🥁 Build the Rhythmic Foundation: Drum Patterns
Electro swing drums are generally built on a four-on-the-floor EDM beat, with jazz-inspired swing and rhythmic embellishments added on top.
The guide below covers everything from the fundamentals of kick, snare, and offbeat hi-hat placement to tom fills, ride cymbals, and other types of fills.
▶ Essential Electro Swing Drum Patterns Explained
🎸 Create the Core of the Groove: Bass Patterns
There are many different approaches to writing an electro swing bass line.
The guide below explains several commonly used options with practical examples, including classic root-and-fifth patterns, walking bass, synth bass, and donk bass.
▶ Essential Electro Swing Bass Patterns Explained
🎼 Shape the Mood of the Track: Essential Chord Progressions
This guide introduces jazz-influenced chord progressions that are commonly used in electro swing, complete with musical examples.
Changing the chords alone can make a track sound much more convincingly like electro swing, so this is one of the most important areas to understand.
▶ How to Make Electro Swing: 5 Essential Chord Progressions for Beginners (With Song Examples)
🎹 Define the Feel of the Track: Backing Patterns
The distinctive bounce of electro swing depends heavily on how the accompaniment divides its roles between the downbeats and offbeats.
The following guide explains classic piano, guitar, and brass backing patterns in a practical way, with MIDI examples.
▶ Electro Swing Backing Patterns Explained: Piano, Guitar, and Brass
🥁 Understand Swing Rhythm
Swing is the rhythmic foundation at the heart of electro swing.
The following guide explains how to create that bouncing rhythmic feel and how to reproduce it when programming melodies and rhythms in a DAW.
▶ How to Make Electro Swing: Adding Swing to Melodies and Rhythms
🎷 Make Your Melodies Sound Authentic: Scales
“The notes are technically correct, but the melody still does not sound like electro swing.”
In many cases, the problem is the choice of scale.
The following guide explains several scales frequently used in actual electro swing tracks, with practical phrase examples.
▶ Essential Scales for Electro Swing: How to Write Authentic Phrases
🎺 Create the Signature Sound: Writing Brass Riffs
Brass riffs are one of the most important elements in defining the sound of electro swing.
Building on an understanding of scales and chord progressions, this guide explains how to layer and arrange brass parts effectively.
It also covers practical techniques such as writing unison lines and choosing the right combination of brass instruments.
▶ How to Make Electro Swing: A Detailed Guide to Brass Riffs
🎹 Choose the Right Sounds: Recommended Virtual Instruments and Samples
Sound selection has a major impact on the quality and authenticity of an electro swing track.
The following guide introduces virtual instruments and sample packs suited to the genre, including horns, piano, bass, drums, and vintage jazz material.
▶ How to Make Electro Swing: Recommended Virtual Instruments and Sample Packs (2026 Edition)
🎛 Add the Final Character: Effects Processing
Once you have created the basic sounds with virtual instruments and samples, effects processing helps give the track its final electro swing character.
Common techniques include:
- Adding vinyl-style noise, wear, and degradation
- Using pitch instability and saturation to create a vintage feel
- Adding modern processing with tape-stop and glitch effects
Balancing these retro and modern elements is an important part of the genre.
The following guide explains which plugins can be used and how to recreate these effects in practice.
▶ 3 Effect Plugins for Electro Swing Production
🎺 Find Vintage Material for a Retro Atmosphere
Vintage jazz recordings can add an authentic period feel to an electro swing production.
The following guide explains how to find public-domain jazz recordings, where to download them, and what you need to check before using them in your music.
▶ Public-Domain Audio for Electro Swing: How to Find and Download Vintage Recordings
🎛 See a Real Electro Swing Production Setup
If you are wondering what equipment and software are actually used to create electro swing, I have shared my own production setup in detail.
The guide covers the DAW, virtual instruments, plugins, and samples I use when producing electro swing for artists, games, and other professional projects.
▶ My Electro Swing Production Setup: DAW, Instruments, Plugins, and Samples
🎧 Listen to Music by the Author
If you would like to hear what these techniques sound like in finished productions, you can explore my released work and production credits below.
The methods introduced throughout this guide are the same techniques I use in my own professional productions.
Listening to the finished tracks alongside the tutorials will help you better understand the rhythm, bass, brass arrangement, sound selection, and effects processing.
▶ Discography / Works
📝 Conclusion
Electro swing may sound complex at first, but the production process becomes much easier once you break the genre down into individual elements and understand the role of each one.
This page organizes electro swing production around structure and musical principles, rather than relying only on a vague sense of what “sounds right.”
As more tutorials are published, this page will continue to be updated as a complete hub for electro swing production.
Bookmark this guide so you can return to it whenever you need help during the production process.
📩 Get Free MIDI Files and Production Resources
Newsletter subscribers can receive production resources introduced throughout this blog, including:
- Bass pattern MIDI files
- Drum pattern MIDI files
- Backing pattern MIDI files
- Brass riff MIDI files
- Sound presets
The newsletter also includes:
- Production techniques not covered on the blog
- Behind-the-scenes insights into electro swing production
- Practical MIDI resources you can use in your own tracks
If you want to expand your production toolkit, subscribe below and receive the free resources.
👉 [Subscribe to the newsletter and receive the free downloads]
🎹 Want to Improve Your Production Skills Faster?
This complete guide is designed to help you learn electro swing production in a structured way.
Even so, you may still find that:
- Your tracks do not sound as authentic as you want them to
- You understand the concepts but feel unsure when applying them
- You have reached the limits of learning entirely on your own
- You want professional feedback on what your music is missing
I offer one-on-one online lessons and track feedback specifically for jazz and electro swing production.
Whether you are a complete beginner or already producing your own music, the lessons are adapted to your current level, goals, DAW, and musical style.
▶[View the Online Music Production Lesson Details]
