Put Your Routines “In the Pocket”

Today’s guest post comes from music editor Morriss Partee at Squirrel Trench Audio.

If you’ve ever spent any time around jazz musicians, you might have heard them talking about getting a song “in the pocket.” That’s musician-speak for creating a great groove, where all the musicians are “dialed-in” and on the same page, tempo-wise. The song just feels great at a certain speed; not too fast, not too slow, just right.

Well, dancers need to be “in the pocket” too when it comes to executing your choreography. A change in tempo of just 2 to 4 beats per minute (BPM) can mean the difference between a dance that struggles and a dance that feels great and natural for the performers.

You can use your iPod Touch or iPhone to get all of your dances “in the pocket” and  match your routines to your dancers’ ideal pacing.

• The first step is to download an app called Tempo Magic Pro (lolo) to your device, available from the iTunes App Store for $4.99. (There may be other apps that will accomplish the same thing.)
• Then, when you are in class with your dancer, select your song, and use the app’s slider to adjust the tempo of the song up or down a couple of BPM and watch to see if it improves the dance.

Tempo Magic Pro automagically figures out the native tempo of the song, so you’ll see both the original and changed BPM on your iPod Touch or iPhone’s display.

Bumping your Beats Per Minute

Usually, a very slight shift of between 2 to 6 BPM faster or slower is all you need. If you change the tempo too far (10 BPM or more), things start to get squirrely.

A change of 4-6 BPM (which is about a 5% speed difference) is noticeable only to listeners who are very familiar with a song, but has a significant impact on the overall pace and feel of a dance routine. For instance, a routine which seems a tad slow at 122 BPM might get just the boost in energy and pacing it needs at 128 BPM, which is almost exactly a 5% difference. Conversely, a dancer might not be able to execute a combo cleanly with a song at 130 BPM, but be able to nail it at 124 BPM.

Editing with BPM

I recommend sticking with measuring tempo changes using BPM rather than a percentage change, especially if you are working with a music editor. Your music editor will likely be able to calculate and execute changes in tempo expressed as BPM much more readily than if the changes are expressed as percentages or some other measurement.

For example, there might be three parts of songs in your routine, and you discover, using Tempo Magic Pro, that you want the middle song of the piece slowed down from 124 to 122 BPM while the beginning should remain as-is and the ending part should be sped up from 120 BPM to 126 BPM. Your music editor will likely be able to calculate and execute changes in tempo expressed as BPM much more readily than if the changes are expressed as percentages.

So the next time you are starting a new song and routine with your class, try using Tempo Magic Pro (or equivalent app) to shift your song up or down a couple of beats per minute. You don’t even have to tell your dancers what you are doing, just ask them which version felt better to dance with. Make a note of the original tempo of the song, and what tempo feels best for your dancers.

If you are editing the song yourself, when you get home, launch your music editing software (Audacity is free and works on both Macs and Windows PCs), and use the “Change Tempo” command to shift the music permanently to the new desired tempo (i.e. BPM change from 120 to 124). This process will change the tempo of the song without changing the pitch. Save the resulting audio track and burn a CD with this new, tailor-made version for competitions.

Scoring big with tiny tempo changes?

Adjusting the tempo may only make a small difference in some cases, but the improvement could be dramatic in others. You’ll never know how tempo affects the unique physicality of your dancer unless you have him/her try it at different speeds.

Since the musicality of a dance is a major component in competition, using this innovative tempo-tweaking technique with all of your performance numbers will give your dancers a leg up in scoring.

With accessible new tools like Tempo Magic Pro, your dancers won’t have to match their pace to the tempo of the song, you can now match the tempo of the song to your dancers’ natural rhythm! This is exactly what live musicians did back in the day.

Now go use this technique to help your dancers grab some gold!

I love finding new ways teachers can improve their song preparation and editing. Though I’m not affiliated with Tempo Magic Pro or Audacity, if you use this method to improve results, I’d love to hear about it!

Morriss Partee is the music editor for Squirrel Trench Audio, a music editing and remix service that creates shortened versions of songs as well as unique custom medleys and remixes for dance routines: Visit squirreltrenchaudio.com. Morriss can be reached at .