How To Identify Dance Music – Part 1

While at a dance this week, I was engaged in a discussion about dance styles and music.  The lady I was talking with said she never knew what dance she was supposed to do until either the style was announced or she could see what others were doing.

I told her it would take some time to begin to hear the underlying rhythm pattens but it would happen.  Looking back, I wish I had put more thought into my answer so I’m going to try to give a better answer to her question here.

New dancers  new face the challenge of learning how to tell the difference between the various different music styles.  There are at least 10 different rhythm patterns making up the most popular ballroom, latin and swing dance styles.

To understand what makes a particular song right for a given dance style requires listening  to and analyzing the underlying rhythm pattern.   This pattern is not the  melody but the  underlying percussion pattern.    This pattern can come from a number of different instruments including drums and piano.

Understanding Timing

Timing is a basic way to measure and identify music. But first some definitions that will help us to understand timing.

Tempo:  Italian for time.  Usually represented as Beats Per Minute (BPM). Tempo is simply the speed of the music.

Beat.  Beat is the unit of measurement in a measure.  A recurring pulse in the music usually represented by a drum.

Measure: Simply a segment of time.  A measure’s length will vary from song to song.  A measure will consist of a number of beats which is used to identify the timing.  A measure with three beats and the first beat is the strong beat is considered 3/4 time.  To avoid confusion,  let me explain that 3/4 time is stated as three four time, not three quarter time.

Timing :A representation of the number of beats in a measure and what beat receives emphasis.  The top or first number contains the number of beats per measure.  The bottom number represents the emphasis or strong beat.  3/4 timing the emphasis is on the quarter not,  3/8 would be on the eighth note,  3/2 timing the emphasis on the half note.  Most dance music is emphasized on the quarter not so you will usually see 3/4 or 4/4 timing for example.

Phrase: A group of measures/beats.  A Phrase can consist of 8 , 16, 24, 32 or more beats.

Mini Phrase: A grouping of two measures usually counted 1-8.  This is the most common phrase discussed when taking dance lessons.  The first beat of a mini-phrase of 8 is slightly accented which is why you will often hear an instructor start counting 5,6,7,8 in classes.

Basic Phrase: A group of eight measures consisting of a total of 32 beats.  This is sometimes called basic phrase.  This is very commonly used in choreography.

This is not a actually a rule, but eight and thirty two beat phrases are what you will usually find in music used for dance.   Some Blues music is phrased in 16 or 24 beats and some music will go as high as 40.

When representing different aspects of the rhythm I will use the following conventions;

Boom - emphasis or strong beat.  most likely a base drum or heavy beat.

tic - regular beat, possibly a snare drum or light cymbal.

tap - tango beat.

tada - samba quick ,  sounds like two beats pushed together.

So let’s get started…….

Foxtrot

Timing:  4/4 Time

Tempo:  approximately 120 bpm (beats per minute)

Beat Representation:  Boom tic Boom tic

count:  1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4

Foxtrot is typically dance to Big Band /Swing music and usually danced slow slow quick quick with each slow consisting of two beats and  each quick of one beat.  As you can see, the basic requires 6 beats so to end on a measure requires two basics in the same manner as east coast swing.

Below are some songs for Foxtrot.  See if you can hear the boom tic boom tic beat.

All Of Meby Graham Dalby And The Grahamophones

It’s Cool to Be Coolby Sarah Moule (Boom is emphasized by piano through portions of this song).

Too Marvelous For Wordsby Frank Sanatra

QuickStep

Timing:  4/4 Time

Tempo:  approximately 200 bpm

Beat Representation:  Boom tic Boom tic

count:  1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4

QuickStep is very Fast  and lively Tempo Big Band Swing style music.  Some music may also be suitable for lindy hop or fast swing. Quickstep is danced slow quick quick, slow, quick, quick.

Foxtrot and quickstep are very similar in the musical style as both are danced to big band  4/4 time music.  The main difference is the tempo.  Where Foxtrot is around 120 bpm,  quick step is much faster being closer to 200 bpm.  So as you can see, identifying quickstep is the same as identifying foxtrot only at a much faster tempo.

Here are a couple of examples:

It Don’t mean a Thing by Count Basie Orchestra

Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman And His Orchestra

Waltz

Timing:  3/4 Time

Tempo:  approximately 90 – 100 bpm

Beat Representation:  Boom tic tic

count:  1,2,3,1,2,3

Waltz is danced to graceful and elegant music.  The timing is quite different from most other styles.  3/4 time means each measure has three beats and the first beat will be the strong or emphasized beat.   If the music is emphasized every fourth beat then it is not 3/4 time and not waltz music.

examples

Open Arms by Journey

Fascination by Nat King Cole

Vienese Waltz

Timing:  3/4 Time

Tempo:  approximately 190 bpm

Beat Representation:  Boom tic tic

count:  1,2,3,1,2,3

Similar to waltz, viennese has a tempo that is almost twice as fast as waltz.  As in waltz, the first beat is emphasized.   Another major difference is in the timing of the beat.   In waltz, the three beats are evenly spaced, but in viennese, the two and three beat are closer together.   This give the music it’s rolling slow, quick, quick feel.   One thing to note is that occasionally you might find it difficult to distinguish a viennese waltz from a regular waltz so listen carefully.  You will definitely figure it out when you try to dance regular waltz to this kind of music.

Examples:

Danube Waves Waltzby Alfred Hause Orchester

After The Ball Is Over by Nat King Cole

In Part two, I will continue with a discussion of latin and swing dance styles.