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Swing this Music (English)
  • Swing this Music
    • Proposals
  • Understanding
    • Having swing
    • Basic terminology
    • Identifying and following the beat
      • First step. Make sure you know how to follow the beat
      • Second step. Recognising the beat in a song
      • Third step. Specific proposal
    • 1 recognition
      • What is the 1?
      • Strategies that can be used to identify the 1
      • Accompaniment perception
      • Practice the recognition of the 1
    • Structure recognition
      • What is a section?
      • Song sections
      • Phrases organisation
      • Examples of structures
    • Standards & versions
      • What are standards and classics?
      • Versions
      • Rose Room, example of versions
    • Riffs
    • The importance of the backbeat
    • Predictable patterns
      • Structural patterns
      • Melodic patterns
      • Rhythmic patterns
      • "Unpredictable" patterns
    • Triples or kicks?
    • Musical borrowing
  • Musicality
    • General concepts
    • Levels of musicality
    • Accent-based musicality
      • Make accents visible
      • Improve accent-based musicality
    • Playing calls-answers-responses
  • Other activities
    • Improving triples
    • Improving kicks
  • About the authors
  • Contact us
Swing this Music (English)
  • Swing this Music
    • Proposals
  • Understanding
    • Having swing
    • Basic terminology
    • Identifying and following the beat
      • First step. Make sure you know how to follow the beat
      • Second step. Recognising the beat in a song
      • Third step. Specific proposal
    • 1 recognition
      • What is the 1?
      • Strategies that can be used to identify the 1
      • Accompaniment perception
      • Practice the recognition of the 1
    • Structure recognition
      • What is a section?
      • Song sections
      • Phrases organisation
      • Examples of structures
    • Standards & versions
      • What are standards and classics?
      • Versions
      • Rose Room, example of versions
    • Riffs
    • The importance of the backbeat
    • Predictable patterns
      • Structural patterns
      • Melodic patterns
      • Rhythmic patterns
      • "Unpredictable" patterns
    • Triples or kicks?
    • Musical borrowing
  • Musicality
    • General concepts
    • Levels of musicality
    • Accent-based musicality
      • Make accents visible
      • Improve accent-based musicality
    • Playing calls-answers-responses
  • Other activities
    • Improving triples
    • Improving kicks
  • About the authors
  • Contact us
  • More
    • Swing this Music
      • Proposals
    • Understanding
      • Having swing
      • Basic terminology
      • Identifying and following the beat
        • First step. Make sure you know how to follow the beat
        • Second step. Recognising the beat in a song
        • Third step. Specific proposal
      • 1 recognition
        • What is the 1?
        • Strategies that can be used to identify the 1
        • Accompaniment perception
        • Practice the recognition of the 1
      • Structure recognition
        • What is a section?
        • Song sections
        • Phrases organisation
        • Examples of structures
      • Standards & versions
        • What are standards and classics?
        • Versions
        • Rose Room, example of versions
      • Riffs
      • The importance of the backbeat
      • Predictable patterns
        • Structural patterns
        • Melodic patterns
        • Rhythmic patterns
        • "Unpredictable" patterns
      • Triples or kicks?
      • Musical borrowing
    • Musicality
      • General concepts
      • Levels of musicality
      • Accent-based musicality
        • Make accents visible
        • Improve accent-based musicality
      • Playing calls-answers-responses
    • Other activities
      • Improving triples
      • Improving kicks
    • About the authors
    • Contact us

Castellano Català

Are you able to dance to a song lasting 7 minutes without using up your whole repertoire of dance steps? Do you have enough resources to not end up being bored with repeating the same movements over and over again?

Many students or colleagues express these concerns. Moreover, we all go through cyclical phases of crises when we have the feeling of being stuck, of always doing the same thing.

But these worries disappeared (almost completely) the day musicality became an important part of our dance. The day when the responsibility of deciding which step or movement you will do ceases to be a conscious act, a decision you have to make every eight count, and it becomes a reaction to what the music is proposing or suggesting.


Watch this video where we have marked the most outstanding elements of the music that can be used to inspire your dance. If you are able to perceive and express them in your steps, this means, in your case, that music is already guiding your movements and, if you have a good partner who helps you a little, this song may end up being the best of the night. If this is not the case, if you have difficulties detecting or understanding these elements, if for example, you have trouble perceiving the structure of the song, or the feeling of 2 and 4 beats, if you do not know what a riff or a chorus is or you do not know how to express questions & answers in your dance, even with the best possible partner, this song can become a never-ending ordeal.

Our impression is that understanding music and translating it into movements and steps is a field that many dancers have not worked on thoroughly enough and, do they lack resources to improve these aspects. What's more, some dancers also have to resolve basic aspects such as perceiving and following the beat or the 1. This is one of the reasons why we have created this web and tried to organize and systematise the information referring to these aspects, to illustrate them as well as we have been able, to simplify their understanding and provide specific proposals to be able to improve them, if necessary.

So, if you want, let’s start with some general reflections on how we have developed all this material and how we think you can become more musical.




Note: all materials on this site can be used and distributed freely. We would appreciate hearing your comments, what you think about it, and whether it has been helpful. We would also like you to share your knowledge with us. You can do so by mail or on our Facebook group.

You can also subscribe to our Youtube channel, so you'll be aware of all the new material that we are producing.

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