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If you can't hear it, then you can't dance it.
Dancing to music has to begin with listening to music.
Many dance styles have their own particular music, and an appreciation and understanding of that music will greatly improve your mastery of that dance.
Online resources
See also, the rec.arts.dance: “Hit The Breaks”.
Whole Note | Duration | Dotted Note | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
Breve | 4 | Dotted Minim | 3 |
Minim | 2 | Dotted Crotchet | 1.5 |
Crotchet | 1 | Dotted Quaver | 0.75 |
Quaver | 0.5 | Dotted Semiquaver | 0.375 |
Semiquaver | 0.25 |
Note durations are displayed in music notation (using 4/4 time, i.e. four beats per bar) as follows:
Dotted notes are played half as long again as the “normal” version, and are displayed in music notation (using 3/4 time, i.e. three beats per bar) as follows:
The musical term for an increase in volume over a given period is a crescendo.
The musical term for a decrease in volume over a given period is a diminuendo.
The beat is the regular count (1, 2, 3, 4…) forming the framework that the music is built around. Musicians, especially jazz musicians, will deviate from and come back to this regular count, using the beat to synchronise with each other.
Note that not every beat has to be played, and a beat is always a “whole” count — a n, a or and count is not generally a beat. Unfortunately, Modern Jivers will confusingly often count every second musical beat, which will in fact mean that the and in a Modern Jive count will in fact be a whole musical beat.
The beat is generally played by a bass instrument (or drums), in swing music the double bass usually picks out the beat. Note that the beat is not normally given by the lyrics or melody (tune), often these are considerably “faster” than the underlying beat.
Try turning up the bass notes on your sound system, so that the drums, double-bass, etc. become more prominent in the track.
The best way to practise finding the beat for dancing is to stand up and step on each beat — either walking, just changing weight, or moving forwards and backwards. Alternatively, practise by clapping to music, or counting aloud — or listening to a teacher count the music aloud.
Bars can be viewed as slicing the beat pattern into pieces that are equal in duration (number of beats). The number of beats and length of a bar are determined by the time signature of the music.
The time signature of a piece of music is almost always constant. However, there are rare exceptions of pieces of music that change time signature, for example “It's oh so quiet” (Bjork, Marilyn Monroe) alternates between 3/4 waltz-time in the slower quiet passages, and 4/4 in the faster louder passages.
The time signature is written in the form of a fraction; the top figure is the number of beats in a bar, and the bottom figure is the length (or type) of each beat in terms of a musical note. Table 2 shows some common time signatures:
Time Signature | Beats Per Bar | Length Of A Beat |
|---|---|---|
2/4 | 2 | A 1/4 note, i.e. a crotchet |
3/4 | 3 | A 1/4 note, i.e. a crotchet |
4/4 | 4 | A 1/4 note, i.e. a crotchet |
6/8 | 6 | An 1/8 note, i.e. a quaver |
Modern Jive music usually has a 4/4 time signature, and therefore four beats in each bar.
Note that the time signature doesn't indicate how “fast” a bar should be played, as it doesn't indicate how much time each beat takes.
In general, Modern Jive (chart) music will have a slightly more definite beat for the first beat in each bar69; this can be used to help counting which beat is which in a bar, i.e. this can help dancers identify where each bar of music will start. Beats one and three in the bar are sometimes referred to as down beats, and beats two and four are referred to as up beats. Dancers can emphasize particular beats by sinking slightly in to the step, and breathing out.
Practise by clapping with a definite louder clap on the first beat of each bar (unless you are driving), or by counting aloud to music “1… 2… 3… 4”.
…, five, Six, SEVEN, E–I–G–H–T!
A-one, a-two, you know what to do.
Frankie Manning
“All I hear today, is count this, and count that, and remember the count here, etc. Come on all you dancers, I have been dancing all my life, but the only count I know is Count Basey.”
Dawn Hampton
Just as a singer cannot keep singing non-stop, brass or woodwind players cannot keep playing forever without taking a breath — these slight “gaps” break the music into phrases. Phrases can be thought of as the musical equivalent of sentences — they are relatively short fragments of music, but have a structure that makes sense and a notion of completeness, i.e. have an ending.
Unless a track finishes by fading into the distance (or is terminated with prejudice by a DJ) the end of the track is likely to coincide with the end of a musical phrase, i.e. the end of the track and the end of the phrase will coincide. Similarly, other musical structures such as key changes, breaks, etc. are likely to coincide with the end of a phrase.
In swing music, and much music played for Modern Jive the musical phrases are eight beats in length, i.e. two bars of four beats. Many swing dance steps, particularly in Lindy Hop are based on eight beats, so that a move that starts when a musical phrase begins will finish when that musical phrase ends.
Salsa moves are also danced over eight beats, so that a move that starts when a musical phrase begins will finish when that musical phrase ends. In particular, in “on-1” Salsa, the first four beats will correspond to a whole bar, and the second four beats will also correspond to a whole bar of music. Salsa music tends to give a slight emphasis to the first bar in a phrase — unfortunately, this emphasis can be quite subtle to hear (at first). Hence, salsa leaders need to be sensitive to the music; in on-1 salsa the step one of a move will correspond with the beat one of a two bar musical phrase. Leaders can detect an error in their on-1 salsa timing (eventually); if you find that you are not dancing the ending four beats of a move at the end of a track (or at an obvious key change, solo, break, etc.) you are probably dancing across the musical phrases, i.e. dancing step one on beat five of the phrase.
Swing music will also feature longer phrases in the music, e.g. thirty-two beat phrases, etc., which can be thought of as combining several smaller eight beat musical phrases. One technique for “hitting” a thirty-two beat phrase is to dance four lots of six beat dance moves, followed by one lot of an eight beat dance move.
Much blues music and derived forms, like Rock'n'Roll, are based around a twelve bar blues format.
The swing chorus format has two distinct parts (A and B), which are repeated as: AABA.
If you are dancing to music that doesn't sound instantly familiar, then it is a good idea to train your ear to hear any subtle nuances by listening to as many “good” examples as possible — ideally your teachers or DJ should be able to advise you which tunes to select (and where to buy them).
Music for specific dance styles will sometimes feature instruments that are not widely used in popular modern music.
The claves are a pair of short sticks used as percussion instruments. The claves are a common instrument in salsa music.
The bandoneón is superficially similar to an accordion that has buttons rather than piano keys. The bandoneón is a common instrument in Argentine tango music.
Lyrics (in the verse) are more difficult to predict than the melody — there's literally a wider vocabulary to choose from.
The chorus is generally repeated after each verse (and bridge). If there are lyrics in the chorus, these are usually repeated and at least the second and subsequent choruses should be fairly predictable, once you have listened to the first.
In many pop tracks, there will be a small silent section; this silence is a hint that something important will happen shortly afterwards in the track, e.g. a key change.
In general, Modern Jive music will start with the first beat of the first bar and end with the last beat of the last bar. Hence, in order to finish dancing at the same time that the music finishes it is a good idea to be able to predict which is the last beat of a bar. Unfortunately, this is complicated by musical endings that are abrupt, or just fade away gradually. Additionally, some Modern Jive DJs may not necessarily play a track right to its end; this can be annoying, but there is little that a dancer can do to affect that from the dance floor.
A very few tracks have false endings — giving the impression that they have finished, before (briefly) restarting. These tracks are particularly problematic, as there's little that can be done to predict that there will be a reprise — the best idea is simply to listen to as much music as possible.
The cha-cha style rhythm comes from splitting “a beat” into two equal pieces. However, there's not much else that you can do with two equal pieces, if you add them up you just get back to the original beat.
The next obvious idea is to split “a beat” into three equal pieces. This split has two possibilities to make different rhythms: by joining pieces one and two can, or by joining pieces two and three. So the new rhythms are two-thirds of a beat and one third of a beat; or one third of a beat and two-thirds of a beat.
The dance triple step can be thought of extending the first option: two-thirds of a beat followed by a third of a beat, followed by a whole beat.
Musicians can modify this strict triple rhythm by subtly shifting the way they play for two-thirds/one-third split — either lengthening or shortening the first section to change the feel of the rhythm and making it “swing”.
If you are trying to choreograph a routine to a particular beat for a whole song, one quick solution is to use a tape recorder and count whole bars (or phrases) as the music plays in the background — so you can more easily work out the lengths of choruses and breaks, etc. [Dance Resources] has some notes on choreographing routines, etc.
Hopefully, in freestyle you won't have to count more than a few beats, since it's probably more important just to locate the first beat of a bar or phrase. — although if you are predicting a repetitive break, you may be counting quite a lot. So, if you have to count more than a few bars or phrases, e.g. for a particular routine or performance, then you may find it easier to count (and perhaps less likely to lose count) by using the bar or phrase number instead of 1, i.e. rather than counting eighty beats as: 1, 2, 3… 78, 79, 80; for example, count them as ten lots of eight beat phrases: 1, 2… 8,2, 2… 8,3, 2… 8… 10, 2,… 8.
Since the first beat of each bar has a slightly more definite beat, there is scope to accent that musical beat by dancing a move that hits that beat clearly — as a sort of mini break. Counting bars: the mini break will be on beat one (of four); counting phrases: the mini breaks will be on beats one and five (of eight)70.
One way to help the leader learn (and predict) breaks is for the follower to simply say when a musical break is about to occur. This means that the leader can then choose to take advantage of the break in the music, rather than the follower potentially disrupting the lead by trying to freeze or otherwise try to backlead the break.
Predicting the first few breaks can be difficult, especially for new tracks.
The first break in a track can sometimes come as a surprise. Hopefully, the second break is easier to hear — once you manage to hear a break, you can count until the next break, and then use that gap to try to predict all of the subsequent breaks. For example, if the gap between a pair of musical breaks is 16 bars and the music is regular, then subsequent breaks should also occur at 16 bar intervals.
Part of the reason why some dancers seem able to predict breaks and interpret music thoroughly is not necessarily due to psychic gifts — rather they may simply have heard the track (several times) before. So, one obvious way to improve your dancing and musicality is to listen to as much danceable music as possible.
Good leaders may allow their follower to choose the instrument that they will dance to.
Some music can be more challenging to dance to; especially if there are many instruments layered together — leaders may need to choose which particular instrument they (and their follower) are dancing to.
This situation gets more complicated when music is polyrhythmic — when instruments in a particular tune play in the same time signature but use different rhythms.
Modern Jive is commonly danced so that each “step” takes two musical beats: starting the step on the odd musical beat, and finishing the step on the even musical beat. Each step is normally counted or “called” where each count is two musical beats — normally moves are “called”, e.g. First Move “step-back, come-in, twist-out, back-to-face, turn, and step-back”. Other dance styles sometimes count the musical beats (and half beats): a Modern JiveChopped Backhander can be counted: (1) step-back, (2) come in side by side, (3) rotate, (4) step-back; a Lindy Hop Chopped Backhander can be counted: (1) back, (2) rock, (3+4) chassé, (5) step, (6) step, (7+8) chassé. Leads are generally given at least one musical beat (or half a Modern Jive count) before the next step.
Musicality is the art of using your interpretation of the music to aid your selection of your dance moves (and style, etc.) so that your movements are the best fit to that music.
Once you can predict the music and its structures, you can plan and use your prediction to interpret it — this is the foundation musical interpretation and musicality.
Dance in time with the music, i.e. interpret the beat or base line. Interpret the melody. Interpret the lyrics.
When possible: start moves on the first beat of the bar, and finish moves on the last beat of the bar.
Because the music is 4/4 time, 8-beat moves will often fit the music better — although most modern jive moves don't easily fit into 4 or 8 beats. However, the leader may arrange moves to hit a particular beat, e.g. to catch a musical break, etc.
Listen to the music. Find the main tempo you are going to dance at. Listen to the lyrics. Listen to the main instruments. Listen to when the beat changes, and when instruments start and stop within the piece.
Spot the breaks.
Feel the music, is it smooth or bouncy, what emotions does it conjure up — your dancing should reflect the differences in the played tracks.
When I started, the interpretation of the moves was much more staccato which tended to match the 1980's music, e.g. “You've got the look” by Roxette,
One of the great strengths of Modern Jive is that it can be danced to a wide variety of music, from swing and big band tunes, to current chart music. A single universal style and set of moves is unlikely to be suitable for this wide range of music, so the leader (and follower) should work together to provide different interpretations to take emphasize the (particular) music.
There's just a joy in moving quickly when dancing to fast music.
Dancing to fast music is a particular skill:
Dancing to fast music requires a degree of fitness, especially in terms of a quick recovery between fast tracks.
Dancing to fast music necessitates moving faster; either by taking faster steps, or smaller steps or switching to a faster technique e.g. a triple step.
Lead and follow requires a really good connection for fast music.
Catches and changes into, and out of closed dance hold, etc. need to be accurate.
Fast music suits a less-is-more approach, with short simple moves with small movements (rather than long complex ones). Similarly, different moves, such as throws and jumps, may be more applicable to fast music.
Fast music has less opportunity for the follower to improvise, except possibly by adding a Resistor or Half Nelson.
Timing has to be accurate, there's no room for vagueness.
Musical structures are different, for example, breaks are usually quick and abrupt.
When leading for fast music, the leader may adjust their lead so that movements are split equally between themselves and their follower, rather than leaving one partner to do all of the travelling (work).
A considerate leader might lead a few slower moves during fast music, so that both partners can get their breath back.
Fast music can make your dancing appear more dynamic, but won't necessarily show how balanced you can be, or how graceful — but luckily you can use the slower tracks for that.
One exercise is for dancers to gradually learn to dance to fast music.
Start by dancers freestyling to a first medium–fast tempo track that some dancers may consider the speed to be too fast. Replace the track with one with a medium tempo.
After a few minutes replace the current track by one with a slightly increased tempo.
If you have any tips, or lessons, then give them to the dancers.
Continue with dancers freestyling.
Alternate freestyling and increasing the musical tempo while practicable, ideally so that the tempo exceeds that of the very first track.
Finally, freestyle to the very first track.
Increasing the tempo should motivate dancers to modify their dancing (gradually), and to gain some insights into freestyling to fast music. When dancers freestyle the second time to the very first track, it should seem much slower and danceable, due to “over training” by dancing to faster tracks.
Dance to the beat of the bass line, not to the faster melody — you'll still be in time with the music, and possibly look cooler.
Floor craft is obviously harder when the music is fast, so smaller steps will take less space and make it easier. Simplify.
Keep separation smaller, e.g. don't step back or back-rock — rather step out instead of back. “Cheat” turns.
It's much more difficult to catch-up than to slow down; so lead each step with a slightly fast beginning portion and slow the end portion if you are ahead of the music.
Don't think “faster” — this'll tend to panic you (worrying about speed) — think “sharper”, i.e. apply more thought, precision, and control — rather than increasing your speed. You need to allow extra time for braking — if you are travelling fast. Best to avoid large changes of direction — may be better slotted. Think about all of the time you have left, rather than the “lost time” — count out the beats slowly. Relax. Breathe — if you don't breathe then you'll tend to tense up and start panicking — turn blue and fall over. If you have control over the music — and a willing partner — forget your current obstacle, push the tempo high (think “Sing, sing, sing (with a swing)”) and try dancing to that for a few bars — then returning to your original slower tempo and appreciate all that space and time to play with.
Failing that vary your dance tempo — be cool (literally) compared to those turning red and steaming — use two beats instead of one beat — dance a triple-step over two beats, rather than a single step — use kick-step, rather than step. Do a messin' around — a Checked First Move.
Dancing to slower music, e.g. “blues”, has obvious options, such as moving slower or taking larger (more) steps. Musical interpretation is also easier with slow music, since there is more time to plan and react. Similarly, there is much more time and space for the follower to improvise, but jumps might not necessarily fit, whereas a slow, sensuous lean, dip or drop may be more appropriate. It's more important in slower dances to maintain a good line, posture and style, since the steps are slower, and more obvious.
Dance to the tempo — some songs change speed part way through, slowing down or speeding up, e.g. “Minnie the Moocher” and “Bei mir bist du schön”.
Listen for breaks, hesitations and interruptions.
Try adding extra styling appropriate to the music, e.g. adding some Latin hip movements.
Most music for Modern Jive has a regular structure — musical breaks and hesitations will generally occur at relatively fixed points — a whole number of bars apart, i.e. a multiple of four beats.
“Wade In The Water” has a regular 8 bar structure with a break on beat 1 of bar 7.
“Crawling Up A Hill” (Katie Melua) has a regular 8 bar structure with a break on beat 1 of bar 7.
“16 Tons” (Tom Jones) has a regular 8 bar structure, with a break on beat 1 of bar 7.
“King Of The Road” ()
“I`m Just A Baby In This Business Of Love” ()
Breaks, are (brief) pauses in the musical track and are fairly obvious to hear. Other elements in the musical structure, such as change of key, can be treated by dancers in similar ways.
The key point with breaks and hesitations is to hear them. Once leaders can hear and predict breaks (and hesitations), then they can start to lead a dance move to fit them and give the follower time to react.
The simplest way to interpret a break is simply to keep dancing.
If you are trying to lead a move to “hit” the start of a break cleanly, then you may need to predict and lead that move say half a beat or so before the actual musical break.
In social dancing, there should always be a pause before an acrobatic move — if you arrive early for a dip or a drop, then any extra time can be incorporated into the pause for dramatic effect.
There's no reason that you can't add your own stops and breaks, even if there are no definite musical cues to do so.
Moves can be “stretched” and “compressed” to hit particular beats. The most basic stretched move is dance a first move but exit with a double return so that the move takes eight Modern Jive counts (rather than seven) and hence should fill four whole bars of 4/4 music. Other techniques are to repeat a movement, to hit a particular place in the music, e.g. stepping and creating the emphasis by taking a larger step (lunge), or repeating a dip and then creating the emphasis by dipping slightly lower or even create the emphasis with a dramatic exit from the dip.
However, both partners stopping is not the only way to hit a break — it looks odd to see an entire dance floor suddenly playing “statues” because of a musical break.
Note, many classes teach stops, i.e. both partners “freezing”, as a means of hitting a break. Some leaders will signal their partner to stay still by definitely bringing the handhold to waist height and keeping some pressure (with a thumb) on the back of the follower's hand — this works well if the hands are “naturally” returning to waist height, e.g. a Travelling Return.
One alternative to both partner's stopping is for only one partner to stop, while the other spins during the break, i.e. as the break starts partner spins, as the break finishes they catch, or are caught by, their partner — this is a good time for leaders to practise their (free) spins.
Improvise some footwork, keeping relatively stationary e.g. tap one foot, or click fingers, and end the break with a stomp-off. Blocks will fit single beat breaks well, e.g. First Move Barrier, or First Move — Checked (possibly with tango-style leg blocks). Alternatively simply do a dip, or drop and hold for the duration of the break, i.e. “play statues”. If it's more of a showcase and a dramatic fast-break, a slap or an equally dramatic action may fit the music.
Heads and looking at each other can be used to hit a musical accent, if you finish a beat too early. Another easy way to get an extra accent is simply for both partners to take an extra step (or lunge).
If moves are kept small and smooth, then larger (abrupt) movements will be more apparent and dramatic, e.g. head movements, or hand movements.
The head (and how it moves) is important (it's large and heavy to move) but it is more likely to be watched than your feet.
Break after a (travelling) Return — finger lightly on top of follower's hand, lead downwards (keeping pressure) — leader's arm extended and locked
Or lead a similar break after a Texas Tommy.
Break in dance-hold.
Extra hand point forwards each for leader and follower — hit breaks after initial stop.
Alternatively, clap or stamp on the break.
Can click, or tap in-place, and then stop for the break.
Doing extra quick Return (follower doesn't step backwards — leader does all of the stepping back).
Stopping on the returns.
Add extra returns (or top-turns)
(Step forwards / lunge if side-by-side)
Lean drop = single break.
Basket in = single break.
Basket in, basket out = double break.
(Reverse) Figure of eight + slide = triple break (one and two).
Symon's move = triple break (one two three).
Treat the break as a surprise! Add some syncopation. The leader can “tease” restarting the dance. Jazz steps may be useful in breaks / hesitations, e.g. trucking and pecking. Do a body ripple, or shimmy. Very slow unwind, or rondé for the duration of the break. A “caress-move” like a slow basket-comb, etc.
Ideally, your dancing will not only match the music, but will keep your own interest — and any audience's interest. Constant fast dancing can look frenetic and be exhausting, whilst dancing in slow motion continuously can look boring. Hence, one technique is to alternate fast and slow elements — to bring light and shade to your performance.
Similarly, a sequence of complicated moves can just appear to be confusing, whilst a sequence of simple moves will look somewhat basic — ideally simple moves will be used as a counterpoint and to accentuate the more complicated ones. In some sense, a simpler move or break gives a gap for the audience to appreciate any preceding trick, and possibly applaud.
Contrast can also be made by using dramatic repetition to build an audience's expectation and then satisfy, or break that expectation.
Musicality has even been the subject of academic research [MIT Student Dances With Robots] and several academic papers, e.g. [Musicality Experiments In Lead And Follow Dance] and [Modeling Musically Meaningful Choreography].
69In contrast, reggae music has its more definite beat on the second beat in the bar, with beats one and three as up beats, and beats two and four as down beats.
70The definite step forwards or backwards in a salsa basic is on beats one and five (for on-one salsa).
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