CHAPTER 8


Marking Rhythms




In order to be a good soldier it is necessary to know how to dance.

Plato




Getting the hang of music and rhythm will take time: there is no Learn-the-Beat-in-60-Seconds, there is no 5-Easy-Steps-to-Hearing-Sets-of-8 and there is no 3-Minutes-to-Better-Rhythm. But you can practice this stuff anywhere, without a partner. Heck, if you like, you can do it lying poolside, with a cold drink in hand, listening to an iPod.


It’s time to get cozy with rhythm patterns, time to burn them deep into your primordial brain.


While teaching myself rhythm patterns was straightforward, it took a lot of repetition to reach the point where I could thoughtlessly execute a variety of patterns. Thoughtless execution, the ability to do it without thinking, is the goal as you need to focus on other things like the direction of movement, adjusting to your partner, the lead and follow, what step pattern to do next, navigating through traffic and, if you’re like me, keeping your cool.


The best way to learn a new rhythm pattern is to mark it, a technique, I feel, a good teacher will have you do in class when first learning a new step pattern. I’ve had teachers make you clap a new rhythm pattern with your hands, but the best way to mark a rhythm is to do weight changes while standing in place. This is something you do before you move around the floor, even before you touch your partner.


Taking it a step further, the best way to learn rhythm patterns in general is to mark a variety of them—say, the most common ones used in dance—until they become second nature. This is not something you will do in class but it’s something you can do on your own, at home, alone.


Once you can find the beat I believe marking rhythm patterns is the most important, most valuable, most indispensable tool for the beginner, especially if learning to dance is a struggle. This is the same, authentic exercise I used to lift myself from rhythmically-challenged to dance-bliss.


To get started all you need is some danceable music and the patch of floor beneath your feet. Even carpet will do. You can do this barefoot, in Birkenstocks or in Bruno Magli’s. Stand in place, weight on the right foot for the men (left foot for the women). Then, simply mark the different rhythm patterns below by doing weight changes in place. For men, the first step in a dance is almost always with your left foot. As you step, call the rhythm patterns out loud, or silently in your head, using the words STEP for a weight change and TOUCH for a beat of music with no weight change. However, if you prefer, you can substitute other words for STEP (eg, WALK, LEFT and RIGHT) and TOUCH (eg, HOLD, POINT, LIFT). Do what works best for you.

 

Mark the rhythm patterns below to a variety of music, particularly to a range of tempos, but keep it slow when you start. Pay attention to tempos and note the tempo range where a rhythm pattern works best. It’ll be easiest if you choose music with strongly accented upbeats. Start on any count-1 of the music, the first beat of a set of 8, so you will be better connected to the music.


You don’t need a big collection of dance music. If you like, just surf the radio dial; easy rock, jazz and “oldies” stations are good places to start. If a piece of music stumps you—too fast, can’t hear the beat—move quickly to another station as you have to do it to the easy music before you can handle the hard stuff. Over time, practice to a variety of musical genres to sharpen your skill and to gain the confidence that you can dance to any kind of music.


Marking rhythm patterns with actual weight changes is very important and, for many months, it was part of my daily routine in life. Depending upon your aptitude and how much you practice, you may spend days, weeks or months on one rhythm pattern before it is indelibly and irrevocably tattooed on your brain.











Try This: Mark Rhythms. First, warm up with single, double and triple rhythm, the foundation patterns.


If you’ve never done single rhythm before, expect some awkwardness until you get the hang of the timing. The box below, Dancing Single Rhythm, will get you started. I wish I had worked out the awkwardness at home, alone, so I didn’t look like a dufus the first time I did it in class. Mark single—single—single—single:


                    1       2             3      4               5      6              7      8

             STEP  TOUCH     STEP TOUCH    STEP TOUCH    STEP  TOUCH

                   single                single               single                single





































Repeating double rhythm is just a step on every beat, like a march. Mark double—double—double—double:


                    1      2             3      4          5      6             7      8

                 STEP  STEP       STEP STEP      STEP STEP       STEP  STEP

                    double             double          double             double


Triple rhythm is tricky compared to single and double rhythm so, if you’re having trouble, check out the box below on technique. Make certain you use music that’s at a comfortable tempo. Mark triple—triple—triple—triple:


               1      &      2            3      &      4             5       &       6            7     &       8

              STEP-THREE-TIMES     STEP-THREE-TIMES     STEP-THREE-TIMES     STEP-THREE-TIMES

                    triple                        triple                       triple                       triple




















When you’re ready, try doing the three rhythm patterns from Chapter 7, salsa, fox trot and swing. Remember, you’re not actually doing the salsa, fox trot and swing, you’re just doing the rhythm patterns that you would use to do those dances. Feel free to match some salsa music to the salsa rhythm pattern—warning, the tempo for salsa music is fast so it’s best to start with something slower—but try a range of music, both in tempo and genre, and note how the salsa rhythm pattern works with a lot of different music. The fox trot and swing rhythm patterns are less versatile but note how they also work with a variety of music.


Mark the salsa rhythm, double—single—double—single:


                          1      2           3      4             5      6           7      8

                   STEP  STEP     STEP TOUCH    STEP STEP    STEP  TOUCH

                      double            single              double      single


Mark the fox trot rhythm, double—single—single:


                        1      2            3      4             5      6

                  STEP  STEP     STEP TOUCH    STEP TOUCH

                     double            single                single


Mark the swing rhythm, double—triple—triple:


                     1      2           3     &     4              5    &     6

                  STEP  STEP     STEP-THREE-TIMES     STEP-THREE-TIMES

                    double                triple                   triple









Try This: Improvise Rhythms. If you want to eventually be an improvisational dancer, especially a competent slow dancer—and what guy doesn’t—try this variation: Take a few deep breaths, relax and see if you can make up your own rhythm patterns using just single and double rhythm. Listen to the melody of the music and see if it suggests a rhythm pattern for your feet. Improvise a little. When you’re ready, and when the music suggests, such as when the melody slows down, try adding some “dramatic pauses” by freezing your movement for 2 to 8 beats (these would be blank rhythms, mentioned in the last chapter). Resume steps again on any count-1 of the music. In dance, your feet don’t have to be constantly moving as long as you stay connected to the music. In the context of survival dancing, think “economy of movement” and “less is more”.


After I realized the importance of rhythm patterns, whenever I learned a new pattern in class, especially harder rhythm patterns with syncopations, I’d go home and mark it until it was burned into my psyche. I did it immediately; for me, the half-life of a move from class can be a little as five minutes. Eventually I’d add the direction to the rhythm pattern. At that point, if you throw up your arms into the standard ballroom position (Chapter 11), you’d be shadow dancing. Marking rhythm patterns got me on the path to learning dance. It was magic to my feet.





Copyright 2006, 2007 ihatetodance.com

Al rights reserved.

ihatetodance.com


Every Man’s Survival Guide to Ballroom Dancing

Tip It was exciting to rhythm-train my body and I got creative in marking rhythm patterns. If I was seated and didn’t want to stand, I would, using both feet to simulate dancing, do simple taps on the floor instead of doing weight changes. If I was lying down I would sort of “tap the air”, again using both feet as if I were dancing. If my feet weren’t available, I’d tap my two index fingers. Sometimes I’d just shift my solar plexus from side to side, as if I was doing weight changes. Sometimes I’d just bob my head from side to side, pretending they were weight changes. My goal was to get some physical movement to create muscle memory. But guess what? I could also do it motionless by just visualizing steps in my head as I listened to music (never underestimate my laziness when it comes to dance). It all helped my rhythm, timing and connection to the music.

Table of Contents


PART 1 - Intro

  1. 1.Is This Book For You?

  2. 2.10 Tips to Fred Astairedom


PART 2 - Music

  1. 3.The Beat of the Music

  2. 4.Counting Music:  Finding the Sets of 8

  3. 5.Downbeat and Upbeat


PART 3 - Rhythms

  1. 6.Dance Rhythms and Rhythm Patterns

  2. 7.Common Rhythm Patterns

  3. 8.Marking Rhythms

  4. 9.Counting Step Patterns


PART 4 - Dancing

  1. 10.Posture and Frame

  2. 11.Positions

  3. 12.Movement and Timing

  4. 13.Lead and Follow

  5. 14.Step Patterns

  6. 15.Styling


PART 5 – The Dances

  1. 16.Latin

  2. 17.Swing

  3. 18.Ballroom

  4. 19.Country & Western


Part 6 - Survival

  1. 20.Slow Dancing

  2. 21.Survival Dancing

  3. 22.14 Tips for Surviving a Dance

  4. 23.Surviving The Wedding Dance



Dancing Single Rhythm


To help you get a feel for a STEP TOUCH and single rhythm, try this 8-beat demonstration. For marking rhythms we’ll use TOUCH because “touching” the floor with your toe will give you something easy to do on the beat with no weight change. Do this first with no music, establishing your own, comfortable, internal tempo. Then do it to music with a tempo that’s slow enough to comfortably keep time.


Stand with the weight on your right foot. Now, stepping in place, mark single rhythm four times, which would be a total of four weight changes in eight beats of music. Keep repeating. The critical move in this exercise is on the beats with no weight change, the upbeats (2, 4, 6 and 8): simply touch your toe to the floor.


It’ll help if you call the rhythm pattern out loud as you do it: STEP TOUCH—STEP TOUCH—STEP

TOUCH—STEP TOUCH. When you do this to music, start on the first beat of a set of 8. And away we go...


Start with weight on the right foot.

On count-1 of the music: Transfer weight to the left foot.

On count-2: Touch your right toe to the floor, but no weight change (i.e., weight remains on left foot).

On count-3: Transfer weight to the right foot.

On count-4: Touch your left toe to the floor.

On count-5: Transfer weight to the left foot.

On count-6: Touch your right toe to the floor.

On count-7: Transfer weight to the right foot.

On count-8 : Touch your left toe to the floor.


Note: Verbalizing the words, STEP TOUCH or STEP HOLD, don’t always run off the tongue easily so you might find that STEP-then-TOUCH, or just STEP-n-TOUCH, work better.

Technique for Triple Rhythm


Advanced Info Alert  Triple rhythm requires more technique than single and double rhythm. Here are two secrets for making triple rhythm look sharp:


1) Keep your solar plexus over your left foot for the entire first triple, 1&2 , which is LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT. For the next triple, shift your solar plexus to the right and keep it there for the entire second triple, 3&4, which is RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT. Shift weight back to the left for 5&6, then back to the right for 7&8. Keep your shoulders horizontal to the floor at all times. Double-Secret-Advanced-Info Alert: The weight shifts occur on the &-count before beats 1, 3, 5 and 7.


2)  Instead of the verbal call, STEP-THREE-TIMES, “hang back” a little with the middle step by calling it like this, STEP-then-STEP-STEP, where there is no weight change on the then. This will get you into the “pocket” of the music and put a swing in your step.

Tip  To train for distractions I would read from a magazine while attempting to sustain different rhythms. One of my early goals—the milestone that would prove I could thoughtlessly execute a rhythm pattern—was the ability to talk and dance at the same time. When I could dance and converse with my partner and not lose the beat or the rhythm pattern, I began to relax on the floor and excel as a dancer.