Thread: teaching a choreo at a reduced speed

Hello dear dance teachers, I have a question.

If you are teaching a choreography to a fast song, and decide to introduce it at a slower speed, do you:

a)Teach part of it slow, bring that part up to speed, then move on?

OR

b)Teach it all slow, then bring it all up to speed?

Which works better?

Thank you!! ..g.:

For more complicated choreographies like drum solos) I teach sections at 80% speed, then do them all at 90% at the end of the class. Once the whole choreography is learned, I have them do it at 95% for a while, then the full 100%.

3 repeats of a segment slow, one fast..next segment is repeated 3x slow, one fast, both segments hooked together slow, then repeated fast and so on. This takes hours to cut, but the muscle memory goes deep in a short space of time.

A - I teach a section, first without any music, then at a slow tempo, then a bit faster, then at full speed. I prefer my students to get used to the normal pace from an early stage. If I left it till the whole piece was learned, it would mean we don't use the normal pace for maybe a couple of months of classes. I'd rather students knew what pace they were aiming for, than get complacent with the slower tempo.

But I've only just started doing this, so my practice could change in the future.

I do sections at a time at the slowest tempo, then a bit faster, then up to speed. We repeat at the same tempo until the class seems to get it and then speed it up. Max 64 counts at a time though.

So - are you guys working without music or just with a drummer or what?

With music. You can easily speed up or slow down digital music files using audacity (free program).

Originally Posted by crystalllized

With music. You can easily speed up or slow down digital music files using audacity (free program).

Oh wow - thank you!

Thanks for the responses!!

What Bea does pretty much. Section with no music. Try with music. Try again with music or break it down again and do it without music slowly. Try several times with music. You just do little sections each class, and then in each class you begin with "let's revise the bit we know" followed by new bit, as above, followed by whole thing up to and including the new bit.

Same as Zummarad and Béa mostly, section by section, first slow with no music, then speeding up a bit while I 'sing' the movements (poor students), then at 'real' tempo without music, then with music.

Originally Posted by Khalida

Same as Zummarad and Béa mostly, section by section, first slow with no music, then speeding up a bit while I 'sing' the movements (poor students), then at 'real' tempo without music, then with music.

Same here. Another thing I've done is to gradually speed up using a track where the tempo increases, for example, when drilling step patterns. Nourhan Sharif's Arabic Rhythms Volume 2 is what I usually use for this, but now I've learned to change tempo in Audacity I suppose I should start making my own.

It depends on how quickly students are picking the routine up. For straight dancing, I like to go a section at a time, repeating it at slow speed until they've got it and then move on to full speed. If they can do each section at full speed, they should be able to do the whole song at that tempo, without the intermediate step of doing the whole song at slow speed. I'll make an exception for finger cymbal choreographies, though. I've worked them as whole songs at slow speed, even though students can do the choreography part (without cymbals) at full speed, just because it can be a lot to process everything at once.

Here's my mini-tutorial on using Audacity for slowing down a song:

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/music-trad...song-free.html

Originally Posted by aziyade

Here's my mini-tutorial on using Audacity for slowing down a song:

http://www.bhuz.com/forum/music-trad...song-free.html

Thank you!!! This is great -

Glad to help!! (By the way, you DO NOT want to know how long it took me to figure that out, lol. Audacity is a great program, but I wouldn't call it all that user-friendly!)

You can't edit on pause, for example! It took me forever to figure out what I was doing wrong the first few times I tried to use Audacity.

Originally Posted by aziyade

Glad to help!! (By the way, you DO NOT want to know how long it took me to figure that out, lol. Audacity is a great program, but I wouldn't call it all that user-friendly!)

Yes, this is so true!

Each new section (these are very short) is taught without music, at a relatively slow pace.

Put a couple of sections together at same relatively slow pace without music, then with music. (I don't have a way to slow the music down with my player, so they get "full speed" all the time!)

Like Zum posted, usually go right back to a somewhat slower pace without music! ;-) Then work the speed back up, then with music.

Repeat, adding previously-learned sections back into it.

I also work each song's ending a lot, beginning relatively early on in the rehearsal process.

I have been known to work backwards. But that could be a simple genetic trait from my mom, who often reads the newspaper back-to-front . . .

Deborah

Originally Posted by Ainsley

You can't edit on pause, for example! It took me forever to figure out what I was doing wrong the first few times I tried to use Audacity.

hahahahaha I cried I was so frustrated when this happened to me. Then my radio engineering roommate came home and said, oh just take it off pause. ,m::

Originally Posted by crystalllized

hahahahaha I cried I was so frustrated when this happened to me. Then my radio engineering roommate came home and said, oh just take it off pause. ,m::

EVERYBODY I've talked to who uses Audacity has hit that. I've had more conversations that start, "You know that Audacity thing you recommended? Well, none of the functions work...."

Originally Posted by casbahdance

Each new section (these are very short) is taught without music, at a relatively slow pace.

Put a couple of sections together at same relatively slow pace without music, then with music. (I don't have a way to slow the music down with my player, so they get "full speed" all the time!)

Like Zum posted, usually go right back to a somewhat slower pace without music! ;-) Then work the speed back up, then with music.

Repeat, adding previously-learned sections back into it.

I also work each song's ending a lot, beginning relatively early on in the rehearsal process.

I have been known to work backwards. But that could be a simple genetic trait from my mom, who often reads the newspaper back-to-front . . .

Deborah

This sounds familiar.

..l;,

Originally Posted by aziyade

Glad to help!! (By the way, you DO NOT want to know how long it took me to figure that out, lol. Audacity is a great program, but I wouldn't call it all that user-friendly!)

Heh. I'll bet that's doubly true for people like me who are lucky if we can figure out how to turn the computer on...l;,..l;,..l;,

Originally Posted by crystalllized

With music. You can easily speed up or slow down digital music files using audacity (free program).

Does anyone know if Garage Band ( on a Mac ) has this feature as well? I can't figure out how to use Audacity even though everyone said it was easy.....w.:

Originally Posted by HipGypsy

Does anyone know if Garage Band ( on a Mac ) has this feature as well? I can't figure out how to use Audacity even though everyone said it was easy.....w.:

I've never used Garage band, but here's what I found online

Change the tempo of an audio file, with GarageBand on Mac | Kiran's Blog

I've done both ways, and I like option A: learn slow, then run-thru at regular speed on the sections they've learned.
I think spending too long with just the slower speed might be detrimental when finally speeding up, but that's just a theory, I don't have any firm evidence -

Originally Posted by tigerb

Hello dear dance teachers, I have a question.

If you are teaching a choreography to a fast song, and decide to introduce it at a slower speed, do you:

a)Teach part of it slow, bring that part up to speed, then move on?

OR

b)Teach it all slow, then bring it all up to speed?

Which works better?

Thank you!! ..g.:

Originally Posted by crystalllized

I've never used Garage band, but here's what I found online

Change the tempo of an audio file, with GarageBand on Mac | Kiran's Blog

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!