Castellano Català

SECOND STEP: Improving recognition of the beat in a song

The perception of musical beat, like other music features, is a skill that we often learn in the early years of our lives. If you've been lucky, in your childhood, perhaps in school, you worked on these things, in that case you quite possibly haven't had any trouble perceiving and following the beat when you danced for the first time.

If you are one of those dancers who, from the first class of Lindy hop (or any other dance), you recognise the beat of the song naturally and spontaneously, if you perceive it without any effort, then you don't need to waste any more time in this section of the website. You have the issue resolved.

If, however, you're a dancer and you have difficulties perceiving the beat (and, therefore, following it) and are looking for tools that can help make it evident, it is clear that you need strategies to overcome this difficulty.

What some dancers with problems recognising the beat do is to concentrate on the pace set by the drum; others follow the rhythm of the bass or guitar accompaniment. They follow one specific sound but they are not really feeling the beat of the music. It is true, that many times the beat coincides with the rhythmic sound of some of the instruments that are playing.

House music, for example, is characterized by a powerful bass drum hit every beat (see the video). So with this kind of music it is not at all difficult to follow the beat by simply paying attention to this particular detail of the music.

If you want, you can practice following the beat by listening to this house music:

But beat and rhythm are not always like these songs and, therefore, if our way of recognizing the beat of the music is based on direct reference to a specific instrument, we risk making mistakes or getting lost when these references are not clear enough.

Therefore, it is much more practical to try and feel the pulse, the beat of the music, not hear a sound that we identify as the beat.

The exercises suggested below may help you find out whether you have difficulty identifying and following the beat or you can do so but always by tracking a specific instrument. We think it is very important to reach the point where the beat is really a feeling and not the interpretation of more or less evident musical marks.

Undoubtedly, the basic strategy for any dancer who has difficulty perceiving and following the beat should be systematic practice. We're talking about listening to music consciously and intentionally. These exercises should be done at home and not on the dance-floor or during classes, places where there are a lot of factors that distract us from concentrating on what we want to improve. We need the right conditions for learning, maximum concentration on what we want to master.

One possible strategy is to choose songs that have a beat that is easy to perceive and gradually increase the difficulty as you improve perception.

Here is a possible list of recordings you can use. They are pieces with variable difficulty regarding recognition of the beat. In some cases the pulse coincides with one instrument. This makes it easier. But remember, once again, you should try not to pay attention to the sounds, but perceive the overall feel of the piece.

If you've diligently listened to these songs and practised at home but still feel the results are not positive, or if you are still unable to perceive the beat and always need to rely on what a particular instrument is playing, or you don't know what to do to improve this aspect, let us suggest a method we hope will help you solve this problem.

Let's go to the third step.