An Intro to Technique - Musicality
Leader: The simple answer to how to relate to the music is just to step on the beat. Any of the beats. If you do this, you will be fine.
Leader and Follower: The sophisticated answer to how to relate to the music is that you want your body to sing with the music. Literally, if you find it hard to sing with your voice to the music (perhaps not well :-) then you will find it hard to sing with your body. The first step is not learning how to dance with your body to the music, it's learning how to have an opinion about the music.
Follower: At the beginning, don't worry about it. Just try to be connected and step when he steps. Later on, inside of his lead, there will be some freedom. And often times, followers think that they show their understanding of the music through embellishments. Really, the more profound connection with the music happens through the quality of the step they take.
Here is the Itzhak Perlman video we talked about: Itzhak Perlman Master Class
- Artist Name:
- Joe Powers
- Song Title:
- El Choclo
- Album Title:
- Amor de Tango
- Artist Website:
- http://www.joepowers.com/
(From the website): International harmonica sensation, Joe Powers is taking his instrument to new heights with his energetic and engaging performances that cover a full spectrum of musical genres.
- 00:04
- Musicality: here are two different ways.
- 00:32
- Could you see the difference?
- 00:34
- The difference was, in the first one...
- 00:37
- ..I really took my time and
I was very even tempoed. - 00:40
- If you listen to the music -
- 00:41
- [Hums]
- 00:45
- So it's really this beautiful sense of time.
- 00:47
- So you can go - in your step, you can go;
- 00:50
- [Hums]
- 00:54
- There’s no rush.
- 00:56
- That was the first way.
- 00:57
- The second way it was getting
a little more strident. - 01:00
- And so when it got more strident
I too got more strident... - 01:02
- and I especially emphasized the landing.
- 01:05
- So I went...
- 01:07
- So I’m going to voice it so you can hear
what I was dancing to before. - 01:10
- [Hums]
- 01:18
- Right, so it was more strident
so I could make the dancing more strident. - 01:20
- We could both make the dancing more strident.
- 01:22
- In this case, the quality of our landing,
the accent of the arrival. - 01:26
- So that’s one way you can be musical.
- 01:27
- You can listen to the music and
then you can say - - 01:30
- ..not necessarily - maybe you’re changing your timing...
- 01:32
- ..doing a quick, quick, slow,
instead of a slow, slow, slow. - 01:36
- So you can use different rhythms.
That’s your prerogative as the leader. - 01:39
- Let’s show them quick, quick, slow.
- 01:41
- So here’s slow, a quick, quick, slow...
- 01:45
- ..slow, a quick, quick slow...
- 01:49
- ..slow, a quick, quick slow.
- 01:52
- So you see the rhythm changes.
Instead of... - 01:57
- ..slow, slow, slow, slow.
- 02:01
- And just to define; a quick in this instance
is a single beat of music... - 02:05
- ..and a slow is two beats.
- 02:07
- But anyway you could do this,either accenting
what you hear in the music... - 02:11
- ..with the quality of your movement...
- 02:12
- ..where the music has maybe a harder edge on the landing
or something like that. - 02:15
- You get there faster but then
you take more time... - 02:18
- ..or you can do it by changing your rhythm.
- 02:20
- That’s part one right;
how you listen to the music actively. - 02:23
- But there is a second thing,
a comment I would like to make. - 02:26
- And that’s that as you do this...
- 02:32
- ..dance, don’t move until you must.
- 02:34
- So a lot of people,
they move too fast. - 02:37
- We talk about letting the music
fill us up... - 02:39
- and then we move.
- 02:40
- And we say this and everybody always says,
“Yes, they understand.” - 02:43
- And then they rush off.
- 02:45
- Yes, or at least, even if they don’t feel like they’re rushing,
it’s still too fast. - 02:49
- So if we’re listening to this music right now, I go -
- 02:52
- [Hums]
- 02:55
- And now I feel it rising up,
and I feel it rising up... - 02:58
- ..and I want to move in.
- 02:59
- Don’t yet. Listen more,
listen more. - 03:02
- D: Until you...
N: And you hold... - 03:04
- N: ..until you must move.
D: Yes, must. - 03:07
- And then you move.
- 03:09
- There’s a supporting clip here
where we link to a clip of Itzhak Perlman... - 03:14
- ..and he talks about this gypsy music.
- 03:16
- And it’s the same with tango.
- 03:18
- It’s full of all of this energy...
- 03:22
- ..and you build it and you build it
and then finally you move.
