TRIPLES OR KICKS?
Have you ever wondered why you dance to some songs using triples and others with kicks?
Do you decide this using practical criteria (in fast songs I do kicks and triples in slow ones) or are there other aspects of the music that help this decision?
Our students often ask about this and we needed a lot of thought and considerable research to be able to explain what we end up doing in each song.
Finally, we have systematized the information we have found and the conclusions we have reached on this subject and have tried to explain it through a handful of examples using four videos.
What we explain here is not absolute. It's just our way of seeing things. Even so, we hope it will be useful and, above all, understandable to you.
In the first video we talk about the main factors (practical criteria and sha-ga-da) that lead us to do one thing or another.
In the second video, after explaining essential concepts about how dancers and musicians understand the basic structure of music, we analyze, instrument by instrument, how the 2-beat rhythmic feeling is established.
In the third video we analyze, instrument by instrument, the configurations of the 4-beat rhythmic feeling.
In the fourth video you can see how musicians mix the two rhythmic sensations both to make the songs more varied and to express phrases and generate musical tension whenever they need to. You can also see how we dancers can take advantage of the feeling of relaxation represented by kicks in relation to triples to be able to enrich our dance and have a great time.
All the instruments are important when generating one or another rhythmic feeling. When you look at each one you realize how many things went completely unnoticed by you. Whatch the version of Evenin' by Swing Jazz Septet. We think it is extremely good song and one of the main reasons is how the double bass plays with 2-beat and 4-beat rhythmic feelings throughout the song. You can watch it in the next video:
As occurs relatively often, in the first chorus A's are played with a 2-beat feel (orange dots), with the last eight (garned dots) and the B at a 4-beat rhythmic feeling.
In the second chorus they begin to play with the rhythm. The bass makes variations and no longer changes to a 4-beat rhythmic feeling in the B section.
In the third chorus the bass plays a pattern completely opposite to the initial one, with a 4-beat feel in the A's and a 2-beat feel in B.
In the fourth chorus (it is an incomplete chorus and only has two A's), to maintain the tension that will bring us to the end of the song, they continue with the 4-beat rhythmic feeling.
Note: You will note that the video does not mark exactly all the notes played by the double bass; some intermediate notes have been omitted to make the video moire understandable.
As you may have seen in the videos, there are no unambiguous criteria or songs that can only be danced with kicks or triples. In the end it is a personal decision. We hope, however, that the ideas and examples shown in the videos have helped enrich your perception of music, make your decisions easier and, therefore, enable you to be more musical (allowing your dance to better express what the music tells you).