Robert said:
I've been doing Salsa for two months now. At first I thought maybe I was one of those people who would never be able to hear the beat in the music. Well, I purchased a copy of Edie, The Salsa Freak's timing CD last month and after hearing it the first day, I picked up a little of the beat the following night. Tonight, one month later I heard the beat and followed it in every track that was played in the beginners class! I'm still having trouble with the faster more complicated music at the clubs, but I only know it is a matter of time before I hear the beat in those as well.
1) It would have been better if the CD had multiple tracks rather than the entire CD been one long track.
2) How about producing a timing CD2? Primarily Salsa with maybe some Cha Cha since these are the most common latin dances in S. California. I would like longer segments of music with each track increasing in pace and difficulty.
I also have the Mike Bello's timing CD. His is longer, but I prefer hers. She counts at just the right volume (Mike is too soft). Also, I like the way you count a little, then don't count, then start counting again - this is an excellent training concept.
Robert
Hi,
here my experience with counting/timing cds. To be honest I had a lot of problem as I started to take on 2 classes. So I looked around for different cds. I will give a short comment about them. This is not complete (since I don't have time to hear all this cds now and give more detaisl) but I would like to share some few infos with you. There are some cd with only counting and other that explain more about the instruments and rhythm.
Eddie torres : This is a counting cd. He has got 8 Tracks: The first track he counts 1-8 during the whole song. Then for the next songs he counts 2 and 6. then he counts 6,7 (since the guy starts back on 1 in ET Style, starting on 6,7 forth gives the opportunity for the girl to start dancing with her right foot back. In the the next songs he counts the clave (3/2 and 2/3) ). The same songs are then played without the counting. My opinion: it is all about counting. no more not less. The only instrunment he adresses is the clave.
Jay and Candy: They have 3 songs played at 3 different speeds. For each song, you get following countings during the song for the different speeds: 1-8, then only 1 and 5, then only 2 and 6 and without counting. So you can use this cd if you dance on 1 or on 2.
Salsa-rhythms.com: this is an ebook which explains in details which important instruments and rhythms are used in a salsa song. Each instrument (conga (tumbao rhythm), piano, bass, clave 2/3 and 3/2, Guiro/Bell) is played alone at different speeds. They tell you when (on which counting beat ) the instrument are played. So this is a great tool to find for instance the 1, 2, 4 or whatever beat. After the break down of the the instruments the bring gradually songs where the differents instrument are combined. At the end you get an entire song with a whole band. A Test song is also included.
Because if you recognize the rhythm of one instrument and since you then know when it is played (on which counting beat), you can easyly be in sync with the music. For me it is clear, precise and you get the most important things you need to understand the basic musical structure. No waist time with too much theory. Personally it opened a new world for me to be honest.
Weak points might be: it is an ebook. So you need a computer and you need internet for registration before you can use the ebook.
Mike Bello: has 2 Cds. One where different instruments and rhythms are played alone and gradually combined. At the end an entire song is played.
So a bit like salsa-rhythms. But he goes further in that he also gives the structure of a salsa song (intro, bridge, ...outro). A booklet (paper) is there with different explanations. You get an introduction to on 2 dancing (modern/classic mambo == et/power 2). The second cd is a counting cd. Each song is played 2 times (one time with counting and one time without)
May be it helps.
