I just saw a thread on another page concerning classical piano players having trouble trying to "swing" in jazz styles for the first time. It got technical and started devolving into what it would look like notated VERY quickly, so I responded with this and thought I would share it here as well in the hopes it may help some of you.

Sometimes I feel that folks WAY overcomplicate/overanalyze what is a very "humanly" natural thing to do on a piano. What is UNnatural is to NOT swing and instead play (or speak, or do just about anything else) metronomically. I think if everyone would think of notation less, and listen to themselves speak more, you'd be better off.

For example #1: Comfortably and naturally say this phrase – "Everybody swings a little". OK, now for example #2: Try your best to sound like a robot and say that same phrase speaking every syllable metronomically. Sounds ridiculous right? You'd never speak that way, so for goodness sake don't play that way! Just try to (assuming you are not playing something classical or reading verbatim) land every note (or chord, or whatever you are playing...) rhythmically on one of the syllables of the phrase the way you would naturally speak it and you'll be a long way towards where you are trying to go.