How to hear the '1' in the music

Written by Salsa Steph

It’s one thing to know how to dance, but it’s another to understand the music you are dancing to. It's no fun not knowing where the beats are, every step of the way! It would be great to know how to visualize music in order to dance to it. is there someone who can explain it to me in dancers' terms?

Music is not like a run-on sentence. It's organized into blocks.
The trick is to hear the start of each block. 
One move, like a cross body lead, fits in one block.
Usually a song has 4 blocks per verse, (even non-salsa songs), so a turn combination consisting of 4 moves will almost always fit the sound of the music!

 Let's explore how to count the blocks of music.

COUNTING SALSA

Maybe you didn’t know that in most Western music, there are blocks or phrases that repeat themselves. We can label these blocks any way we like, as long as they are the same 'lengths' or amounts of time.  Musicians use blocks and count them in 4s-Dancers use the same blocks but count them in 8s.

 1               2              3             4               1             2              3               4

 1             2              3              4              5             6              7              8

Where do the repetitions start in the music? Where does a block start and end?

There are 3 easier ways to find the '1':

Listen for the lead voice, the chorus and the horns that generally start on '1'. It's not 100% accurate, so you can't take this literally, however these 3 clues help guide you. Imagine the beats are invisible and the instruments are the coloured markers that highlight the beats.

Techno music is so useful to find the beats, because of its obvious and consistent 'boom' booms'. Salsa doesn't spell it out unfortunately. So we have to listen more attentively to the blocks and notice more subtle signs.

Sometimes your body will naturally tap or  move to the main pulses. This is a great sign! If you don't, ask Salsa Steph to guide you through the music. If we are not shown, how do we know what to do with music? It's not just a natural phenomenon. Each person's experience in ear training and awareness is different.

The pulses are like a clock tick-tocking consistently, almost annoyingly. The pulse drives the music-it never stops from start to finish, even if there are no instruments sounding out. First, find the tick-tock. Second, pulse out four from where you think is the beginning, and if you hear all major changes in sounds and instruments on your starting point,  you're doing well. If not, try again.

Don't confuse timing with rhythm. Rhythm is how you use the main pulses and create patterns around the pulses.

 There is an equal amount of TIME or space in between each main beat. The space in between is divisible:

1              2              3              4              5             6              7              8

1     +       2    +        3    +        4    +        5    +     6    +        7    +        8     +

So now we have the main beats with the ‘+’ (said ‘and’ not plus) exactly in between them. 

These are also divisable:

1   +   a   2  +   a   3   +   a   4   +  a   5  +   a   6  +   a   7   +   a   8   +   a  

These are also divisable:

1 y  + a   2 y  + a  3 y  +  a  4 y  + a  5 y  + a  6 y  +  a  7 y  +  a  8 y  +  a

Notice how the space in between each beat is equally distributed as you listen to a salsa selection and snap or tap to the beat. See how it’s very consistent (it doesn’t speed up or slow down) becoming very repetitive and predictable. Eventually, you can feel how ‘long’ one block of 8 beats is.

There are so many sounds, patterns, accents, that many people get distracted and forget to follow the steady pulse of the 8-beat block or phrase. So, if you hear crazy fast instrumental patterns/rhythms, or see a dancer dancing really quickly, it doesn't mean the music itself got faster. They're simply playing between the main pulses.

Hearing music requires you to train your ears in the same way you coordinate your body and train it to do what you want. There's hope for everyone!

Make sure to be pro-active while listening for the beats. Musicians aren't necessarily good dancers, dancers aren't necessarily good musicians! Focus on the dance first, then align it to the music, or vice versa. It's too hard to put everything together at once when learning something, no matter what level dancer you are!

Have fun!

For information about private lessons on this topic, email info@godancemambo.com