The importance of musicality in dance and how to get it

When it comes to dance, some of us already know musical theory, some of us can simply intuit the beat, some can express the emotion and some simply have no idea at all.
No matter your level of musicality (or how much you think you have or do not have) you can dance, but there is probably also room for improvement. This blog will talk about the basics of musicality and how you can use it to make you dance better.
Do you need to know how to count music?
This is a common question. There are people who can ‘feel’ the music and have a sense of when to step to stay in time. However, some dances, when they are taken to a higher level (and actually some from the get go) require you to know where you are relative to specific beat to dance well. That means being in time with the beat, while essential, is not enough. You need to know which beat it is. That means you need to start counting. Depending upon the music you might need to count to 8 and you might also need to count the bars (more about that later).
What to do if you seriously have no idea?
Not exactly sure what people mean when they say ‘beat’ or ‘bar’? Can’t work out what people are actually counting when they are counting music? You’re not alone. However, this should also not stop you from dancing. It simply means you need a crash course in music. Fortunately, that is fairly easy to do:

1. Get a set of music that you will be dancing too (jive, salsa, quickstep, whatever, although salsa is good for a crash course due to its complex nature). Ideally, you want at least 30 songs for diversity to develop rounded skills and so you do not get bored with the music
2. Listen to it non-stop. While you are at work, when your are driving, when you go for a walk, when you are cooking wherever and whenever you can.
3. Pay attention to the patterns in the music. Don’t sing along with it, which is less likely with dance music anyway. Listen to the music. Try picking the different instruments and what they are doing.
4. Eventually, you will start to notice parts of the music where there is a certain strength to it relative to the other parts. These are beats that often indicate the start of a cycle (a bar or measure of music) or a key point within.
5. Now try counting the parts between – these are the beats.
6. Once you can do that try simply tapping to the beats, maybe use 2 fingers for the major beats to show you can do different things on different beats.
7. Take your new-found skills to your next dance lesson and run them by your teacher to tune them a bit.

Then you’re all set to steadily improve.

What is musical appreciation and how to use it?
Musical appreciation can be taken to considerable length. However, for dance the following is like what will serve you best:

1. Character: the mood of the music and using it to influence the way you dance so you express the music and feel it with your partner.
2. History: by understanding the history of the music (and the dance that goes with it) you can better dance with the character of the dance and the music.
3. The instruments: if you can pick the instruments being used, then it is easier to connect with it when dancing.

Be aware of 1 and 3 when dancing and take the time to find out a little about 3 for the dances you are interested in.
Then when you are dancing:

1. Listen not just to the beat, but also notice the instruments
2. Note what is dominant and how it make you feel or the vibe it expresses
3. Think about how you can alter the way you execute your figures to express that vibe

You now are dancing with better musicality. You will look better when you dance, you will enjoy it more now that you have that extra connection and your partner will enjoy dancing with you more as you highlight the music to them.
Note: do not let your expression interfere with how you lead or follow. Some people get into the music so much that they forget their partner.
Key musical terms for better musicality
There was mention already of beats and bars above. However, it is worth going over these in more detail and noting some other features of music for you to be aware of:

• Beat: This is like the pulse of the music. There might not be something happening on each beat and at times something might happen between the beats. However, most of the time it is on the beats that the brum is hit, the guitar is strummed, the horn is blown and so on.
• Measure/bar: Usually these come is sets of 4 beats. However, waltz has 3 beats in a bar. Also, it is not uncommon to have bars come in sets of 2 – making a pseudo bar of 8 or 6. In these cases, the first bar will start with a much clearer beat.
• Down beat: often the odd beats in the bar.
• Back beat: the event beats. When these are strong, music will often become more danceable.
• Phrase: A collection of bars that will often have the same feel to the music. They usually come in sets of multiples of 4 bars. It’s handy to be familiar with music so that you know when the phrase will change – you can then change your style of dance to suit the new phrase.

The video below is about DJing, but it gives a good coverage of the key parts of music. 

Other things to note
When you become better at musicality, you might find that you simply do not wish to dance some figures to some music; they just won’t fit.
It can at times be hard to identify individual instruments. Watching a band play so that you can start to link the sound to the instrument can help.
If you want to get a link between the audio and the visuals of music, then try Jam Studio. It let’s you make music and shows you’re the beats as they are played. That can help you hear them.
It can be worth finding sheet music to see what the music is meant to be. I know of waltzes that were actually 9 beats to the bar, but everyone thought it was a 3 beats to the bar song. You could still waltz to it, but knowing it was 9 beats to the bar meant that one knew the phrasing would be different.
Many songs you might want to dance to can be found on Chordify, which will play the music and show you the beats in the musical score at the same time. This can also help find the beats in the music