If you are a dancer who has trouble finding a “right” beat to start dancing on, or difficulties keeping dancing in time with the music, then you are certainly in the majority of the population, in the majority of beginner dancers, and probably in the majority of all regular social dancers and all dancers who take classes at higher than beginner levels.<\/p>\n
I came to this assessment as a teenage musician, and have become increasingly confident about it over the subsequent decades.<\/p>\n
For most of my life I thought that there was a complexity in dance timing that was beyond me, as nearly all dancers I watched appeared to move in patterns and to rhythms that had very little relation to what I was hearing or what my bands were playing. The Eureka moment happened for me when our jazz big band played for a Swing Dance ball attended by international, national and local dancers, all of whom danced in time and in keeping with our music throughout the evening. With the great dance timing mystery solved I took the plunge into dance classes myself in a variety of genres and am making up for lost time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve decided that now is as good a time as any to make a few suggestions to anyone who wants to listen, about how dancers can help themselves to overcome those \u201cwhen to start\u201d and \u201cstaying in time\u201d challenges.<\/p>\n
Here goes!<\/p>\n
All dance music adopts certain structural elements, some of which are obvious and the rest of which can be learnt. Dance music for Latin and ballroom, salsa, Argentine tango, West Coast swing, rock n’ roll and Ceroc dancing (and presumably most other dance forms) have elements that include:<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> a stream of musical notes that have a regular pulse, with the notes typically being written and recognised as being within a continuous series of \u201cbars\u201d or \u201cmeasures\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> a melody and lyrics (in the cases of songs), which are usually the most recognisable elements of tunes or songs<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> a tempo or speed of the rhythm or underlying beat (often expressed as so many beats per minute)<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> an even or uneven distribution of consecutively played or sung notes (resulting in the tune or song having a swing feel, or a Latin or other non-swing feel)<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> the repetition of verses and choruses throughout the tunes or songs, plus sometimes an introduction, an ending and other sections, such as a bridge or pre-chorus<\/p>\n
\u2022<\/span> layers of sounds coming from the various musicians and their instruments that can be heard as harmonies, chords, accents, etc<\/p>\n
There are often other elements, but improving the ability to listen for, recognise and understand a bit more about just those listed above, would be a significant step in improving a dancer\u2019s ability to decide when to start dancing and then how to stay in time.<\/p>\n
In the interests of making sure we are speaking the same language, and of enabling you to put into practice some of my suggestions, I need to explain a little about some alternative languages of music, and in particular about bars and notes. If I didn\u2019t, and then I was to suggest how you might go about working out how to find a particular beat of a bar, we could be totally at cross purposes. It\u2019s not necessary for a dancer to have more than a passing familiarity with just one of the various languages, but greater familiarity can certainly aid communication.<\/p>\n
I’ll be refering to the tune “Sing Sing Sing” by legendary drummer Gene Krupa, so here’s a YouTube clip of it by the Benny Goodman Big Band (with Gene on drums), if you want to check it out (or have it as background music while you read on):<\/p>\n