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Rhythm and Music for Beginning
Dancers Part I
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| Rhythm and Music for Beginner
Dancers (Part I) |
| by: Shawn
Trautman |
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| Contrary to popular belief, you do
not need to know much about music to be a great dancer.
Assuming you know very little about music, we’re
going to get you started with the essentials that will
have you feeling like a pro in no time. We’ll
briefly describe what you need to know about each of
the following terms in this article, and in Part II of
“Rhythm and Music for Beginner Dancers” we
will give you some exercises to practice these music
and rhythm concepts. |
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| Beat. The heartbeat of the music.
What you would tap your feet to. The recurring
pulsation that is constant and regular. Watch a
metronome or a second hand on a clock or a watch, and
you’ll understand what to relate the beat
to. |
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| Step/count. The amount of time
allocated to each step taken. For example, a
“slow” step denotes a step requiring two
beats of music, and a “quick” step denotes
a step requiring only one beat of music. |
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| Measure. The number of beats
grouped together according to the time signature (the
top number). For example, in most songs you’ll
hear a series of eight beats that continue to repeat
themselves through the entire song. |
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| Downbeat. The first beat of a
given measure. This is your starting point. You first
have to know when the measure is ready to repeat
itself, and then you get ready and go so that your
first step is actually down on the first beat, or
downbeat. This is where the expression
“5-6-7-8” becomes extremely useful, because
it prepares you for the ending of a measure and gives
you your starting point. |
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| Upbeat. The last beat of a given
measure. This beat is often called an “and”
count when starting to move with the music. Rather than
the “5-6-7-8” mentioned in the previous
bullet point, one might say “ready, and”
and then start dancing. It would be the equivalent of
the count 8 in the previous example. |
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| Rhythm. The arrangement of beats
in a given song. Essentially, rhythm is symmetrical
groupings formed by the regular recurrence of either
heavy or light accents. In a regular rhythm, the
dancer’s movements should look natural and be
even and symmetrical, and all walking steps should be
the same length. |
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| Tempo. The rate of
“speed” of the music, measured in BPM
(beats per
minute). This is how you determine whether
the song is slow, medium, or fast, and it will give you
an idea of what dance to dance. |
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| Phrase. Two or more measures
grouped together. This is more important for advanced
dancers in dealing with choreography or in social
dancing when you are trying to align your dance with
the structure of the song, but it’s good to
understand. It may or may not help you immediately, but
it will one day prove its value. |
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