Counting/ Timing with the music

[AngelSakuya]

hi everybody.

im new to this forum and i would love to have advice from people who knows about dancing.

i been dancing for almost over a year now and i have been to a few competitions and theres always one thing that i can never get right: my timing.

i dont know what it is.. i cant seem to hear the beats/ rhythm when i dance but when im not dancing im totally fine.

can someone please give me advice on how i can improve my timing? i have tried methods like practicing with the music.. drilling dance music in head non stop. but i dont know whether it is working.. :confused:


i want to try and improve because i love dancing and i dont want to give up.. but sometimes i do because i get rather stressed and upset when i cant do it right and it doesnt help that my partner is getting fed up with me.. :(

PLEASE HELP ME!!! :notworth:

[latingal]

Welcome to DF AngelSakuya!

Though we've had a lot of threads about posters who have had problems counting music, yours has a slightly different twist. You can count music when you're not dancing - but have an issue when you are.

Do you count aloud when you practice to music? Perhaps that will get your mind used to be disciplined to staying on the beats? This method has one drawback, you will have to be careful about not mouthing counts when you actually compete/dance.

[jennyisdancing]

hi everybody.

im new to this forum and i would love to have advice from people who knows about dancing.

i been dancing for almost over a year now and i have been to a few competitions and theres always one thing that i can never get right: my timing.

i dont know what it is.. i cant seem to hear the beats/ rhythm when i dance but when im not dancing im totally fine.

can someone please give me advice on how i can improve my timing? i have tried methods like practicing with the music.. drilling dance music in head non stop. but i dont know whether it is working.. :confused:


i want to try and improve because i love dancing and i dont want to give up.. but sometimes i do because i get rather stressed and upset when i cant do it right and it doesnt help that my partner is getting fed up with me.. :(

PLEASE HELP ME!!! :notworth:

Hi Angel S,

You said that when you are not dancing, you are totally fine - so, does that mean you can hear the rhythm when you are not dancing?

If that is so, yet you have trouble when dancing, then I would think it's a matter of practice to get your muscles to respond properly in time to the music. But you say you have been practicing so, I'm not sure here...
Other possibility: you get tense or distracted while dancing and therefore you lose track of the beat?

In any event, have you brought this up with your instructor?

[AngelSakuya]

i think i do sometimes count aloud when practicing.. but then i forget my steps when im so focused on counting lol..

well people told me that i speed up when i dance in a competition.. so i dont know whether its down to being nervous or im just useless :(

[AngelSakuya]

Hi Angel S,

You said that when you are not dancing, you are totally fine - so, does that mean you can hear the rhythm when you are not dancing?

If that is so, yet you have trouble when dancing, then I would think it's a matter of practice to get your muscles to respond properly in time to the music. But you say you have been practicing so, I'm not sure here...
Other possibility: you get tense or distracted while dancing and therefore you lose track of the beat?

In any event, have you brought this up with your instructor?


hmm i think you're right about having my muscles responding in time.. and maybe i do get distracted when im in the competitons and so i lose track of the beat.

yeah i told my teacher about this but i think shes too nice to me because she says that i only danced for not long and just need practice. (i think its because she once saw me in floods of tears :confused:)

thank you everyone for these advices.. they are helping me :)

[JodiD]

First of all find the "one". Try walking in time with the music and counting in your head. Don't count out loud, is a hard habit to break. Plus, it looks bad on the floor

It you must pick up the "two" as in Cha Cha Cha or Rumba Start with 1234,1234 1234 a few times to get your head at least into the correct rhythmic place, and then add the "and" 1234 to 1 2&3 4&1 to 23,4&1; 23,4&1. Walk it first then substitute the basic social pattern without a partner. Get to be comfortable with where you are in the music with movement

If you count in your head, that little voice will always be with you. If you get out of time, STOP, and start over. Even in competition, only one or two judges out of 7 will even notice. If you stay out of time through the entire heat, ALL of them will see. You can bet on it.

I don't know if this will help you, but you have to move in time with the music or forget about competing for a while. The first thing the judges look for is, being in time with the music. If your not, your out.

[mamboqueen]

I would recommend dancing (while in practice) only the most basic movements in each dance repetitively. I have had timing issues myself, mostly in rumba where some songs the beat is less discernible to me, and I just do walks through the whole song. It may sound monotonous, but if you can't get it in the most basic movements, it's going to be really hard to get it in more complicated steps. Just my 2 cents.

[latingal]

well people told me that i speed up when i dance in a competition.. so i dont know whether its down to being nervous or im just useless :(

Ah well this can be a completely different problem.

I too can rush the music in competitions at times. But it has nothing to do with whether I can count the music and stay on it, it usually has to do more with thinking you don't have enough time to complete the actions in the time given. If this is what is happening to you, it's more of a mental discipline to REALLY listen to the music and relax in to your movement. With the correct technique and practice you'll be able to perform the movement in the time required by the music. Keeping to the music and really interpreting it after that is a matter of confidence and experience.

If you're newer to dancing, I would imagine your teacher is correct. You probably just need to gain the confidence in your movement.

[Chiron]

hmm i think you're right about having my muscles responding in time.. and maybe i do get distracted when im in the competitons and so i lose track of the beat.

yeah i told my teacher about this but i think shes too nice to me because she says that i only danced for not long and just need practice. (i think its because she once saw me in floods of tears :confused:)

thank you everyone for these advices.. they are helping me :)

Welcome to DF Angel. I think most people tend to speed up when we get nervous (i.e. competition). Also your teacher is probably right when she said you just haven't danced long enough and just need practice. When I dance I can juggle 1-3 thoughts. Usually they are music, floor craft, whatever I'm working on. (In a competition I'm lucky to concentrate on the first two). The more practice the more things there are that will become automatic for you. Sometimes I can do this with music but not always. Practice your routines so that they become automatic. Also try practicing basics to the music and see if you can stay with it then (i.e. box or basic amalgamation in waltz, basic in rumba or cha cha). Keep with it...

[atk]

Sharing, in the hopes that OP will at least know s/he's not alone, as I have the exact same issue with rythem, especially mambo. I experience it both at comps and at social dances. What usually happens is that I'll find the beat, and start okay. Then, when I decide to lead anything other than the basic, I start listening to my partner, and start paying attention to other couples, and stop listening to the beat. When I notice that I've lost the beat, I pick the wrong one for "1", think I'm late, and try to "recover" by speeding up. Any attempt by my partner to slow me down (other than just slowing down, herself) inevitably speeds me up even more, because it distracts me from the beat. Even when a partner taps the beat out on my shoulder or counts aloud, it distracts me instead of helps.

The counting aloud trick does no good for me. When I get distracted (listening to my partner, or paying attention to avoid collisions) and lose the music, I start counting when I place my feet instead of counting the beat.

One option that I've tried is to listen to the music for as long as I can stand it. This backfired for me - instead of getting comfortable with the music I got sick of the music and didn't want to hear it any more. I couldn't listen to latin music for a few weeks after this attempt. But I've heard that other people have a lot of luck by listening to the music.

I think the core problem (for me, anyhow) is that I did not grow up with latin music, and find the rythem/melody to be foreign and unnatural (unnatural in that I don't naturally hear it, like I do with country, pop, classical, etc.). If I devote most of my attention to the beat, and very little to my partner, anyone around me, patterns, etc, I can usually hold on, but it makes for either a boring or dangerous dance for my partner. If/when I become comfortable with rythem, and if/when the beat sounds natural to me, I expect I'll be able to maintain it better. Until then, it's just gonna be a struggle.




Right now, all I can recommend is "persevere, and some day it should work."

[mamboqueen]

mambo is tricky because there is usually a lot going on in the music; there are some CD's on dancevision that will break songs down to the barest beat. I bought this for my fp because he had some problems with counting mambo:

dancevision.com/store/music/browse_by_style/mambosalsa/CD473/

I'm pretty sure there is a similar one for regular ballroom music there, too....although IIRC, the music isn't really the best.

[_malakawa_]

my opinion is that you have a problem with the steps, not with the music.

you still don't have a muscle memory to do the steps without thinking. ;)

like your teacher said - practice, practice, practice !!!

[atk]

you still don't have a muscle memory to do the steps without thinking. ;)


Maybe this deserves (or is covered in) a separate thread, but do you *ever* lead a step without thinking? I don't mean thinking through the whole step in detail, but without watching for collisions, paying attention to your partner's inertia, momentum, and responsiveness?