Not all musical accents are the same. The notes in “How Long Can a Fool Go Wrong?” demand a sharp, hard movement. Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain” calls for a longer, softer, drawn out movements. Learning to dance the same accent in either a hard or a soft way can substantially improve the musicality… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: musicality
How to Find WCS Music
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
Hearing Musical Phrases
This entry is part 7 of 7 in the series Musicality 101If you’ve followed this series so far, you have spent a lot of time listening to music and counting out musical phrases. However, counting to 32 or 48 is not realistic when you’re actually dancing, and counting to 8 can even be difficult during… Continue Reading
Phrasing with Two Beat Extensions
In last week’s post, we practiced using two-beat extensions within basic patterns. Now it’s time to apply that technique in order to phrase the music. The Drill: First, listen to Sweet Sixteen by Junior Wells: In the last four beats of each major phrase (musical paragraph), there is a clear bass drum on the beat,… Continue Reading
32- and 48-Beat Phrases
This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Musicality 101The last post in this series compared the chord progressions in blues music with pop music in order to explain why some songs are built with 32-beat paragraphs, or major phrases, and other songs have 48-beat phrases. The next step is to practice listening… Continue Reading
Blues Chord Progressions
This entry is part 5 of 7 in the series Musicality 101In an earlier post, we talked about chord progressions in pop music. The standard pop chord progression relies on I, IV, and V chords to create tension and resolve. In this post, we’re going to compare pop chord progressions to blues chord progressions. The… Continue Reading
Two Beat Extensions
WCS is a two-beat dance. As a result, it is easy to extend patterns by two beats in order to phrase the music. In order to remain on the same foot, we’ll use a double rhythm unit to extend the pattern, and we’ll put the extra double between the rhythm units of the base pattern.… Continue Reading
Know Your Partner’s Musicality
One of the reasons that musical interpretation adds so much to the dance is that we all hear different things in the music. If you dance with a regular partner—either socially or in a strictly swing—you can improve your teamwork by learning what kind of things your partner hears in the music. This exercise aims… Continue Reading
Coloring with Arm Movements
In WCS, arm movements are used to either finish or dissipate the energy of a move. An arm that goes goes up or out signals energy; contained arms or arms that finish downwards tend to look calmer and less busy. By adjusting your arm movements, you can ramp up the energy of a movement or… Continue Reading
Tension and Resolve
This entry is part 4 of 7 in the series Musicality 101At this point, you know that (WCS) music is written in eight beat phrases and you know how to point on the 1 of each phrase. Now it’s time to talk about why we point on the 1. This will require some music theory,… Continue Reading