One of the great things about west coast swing is the sheer breadth of music available. But how do you discover great new music for dancing WCS? If you’re looking for new songs, the first place to check is what is actually being played by WCS DJs. Check out the following sites, which are updated… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: music
Where the & Belongs
This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Music and CountingThe biggest difference between straight and rolling count is when the weight transfer between the beats happens: either directly in the middle of the beat, or closer to the upbeat. However, there is another significant difference between the two forms of counting. Each… Continue Reading
A Two Beat Dance
This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Music and CountingAlthough west coast swing is composed of six- and eight-count patterns, the actual dance itself is a two-beat dance. Every movement in west coast swing goes through a downbeat-upbeat pair. Those pairs of downbeats and upbeats are then joined together into a full… Continue Reading
Rolling and Swung Counts
This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Music and CountingThe first part of this series introduced the difference between straight and rolling counts in west coast swing. In this post, we will introduce the third kind of count common in WCS music: the swung count. As we saw earlier, the rolling count… Continue Reading
Straight and Rolling Counts
This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Music and CountingIn west coast swing, there are three common ways to count music: straight count, rolling count, and swung count. This post will discuss straight count and rolling count; a follow-up post will take up the differences between rolling and swung counts. At a… Continue Reading