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
Tag Archives: phrasing
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
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
Acknowledging the 1 in Patterns
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Musicality 101WCS patterns don’t neatly fit into musical phrases. We dance six and eight count patterns, yet our songs have accents on the first beat of each eight beat phrase. Being able to acknowledge those accents when they occur in the middle of a pattern… Continue Reading
Identifying Musical Phrases
This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Musicality 101When you learned WCS, you learned to distinguish downbeats and upbeats. In musical terms, the downbeat and upbeat are quarter note rhythms: they take up a quarter of a measure, which is the division used in musical scores. A single measure of music for… Continue Reading
Musicality: Accenting the 1 for Followers
For followers, accenting the 1 of the musical phrase is more challenging than for the leaders because you don’t get to pick the pattern that is being led. As a result, you need to have options to accent the 1 at any point within a pattern. The good news is that you don’t have to… Continue Reading
Musicality: Accenting the 1 for Leaders
Once you’ve learned to hear musical phrases, the next step is to start matching those phrases with the patterns you lead. This drill is designed to ingrain some simply accents into your dance memory. The Drill: Put on a song with a clear, repetitive accent on the 1 of each musical phrase. Fill Me In,… Continue Reading