Hi everyone,
could you please forward me the artist’s name and the songs from the videos in which Anthony and Melanie are dancing. Thanks a lot
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hendrik
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Anthony Persaud
I enjoy this song very much. I thought I’d share it for those who don’t get much access to salsa/cha-cha music outside of the US!
Download: Morning Cha-Cha
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Anthony Persaud
That is a great start! I’ve said it again, most of the work of learning salsa is on helping your brain to think and process information, and respond in a manner that we are not used to. One of the greatest milestone a salser@ will have is the ability to slow things down (like a “Matrix” ability). As a beginner, I remember how much work it was to pull-off a cross-body lead with turn to a 180. Everything seemed to move so fast, that it felt I couldn’t perform the move properly or even combine multiple patterns together: I needed a basic in-between to think about what to do next.
However, after several months of more dancing, I had my ‘Matrix’ experience. Something had clicked in my head. As I was dancing, I felt that everything felt much slower than normal. I did not feel as rushed as before. It felt as if I had more time to think through the moves, know what was happening between my partner and I, more time to mind my surroundings (columns/other dancers taking up too much space), and extra ‘memory’ to figure out and retain what the next 16 counts of moves would be. It was an amazing experience, similarly to learning how to sprint from walking. Having this new ’skill’ which I think every dancer develops, also aids in your everyday life and work. While it is said that most people only use 10% of their brains, I think dancers, having forced themselves to develop this complex thinking skill, get an extra 5%.
I’m not a neurologist, however, I think what happens is that the brain ends up either strengthening paths to perform those moves, or makes ’shorter’ connections to those repeated motor instructions. This makes it a lot easier to manage these tasks. And because you end up saving time by ‘thinking less’, it feels like you can perform many tasks in parallel - maintain timing, protect the lady in a crowded nightclub, add body movement, lead patterns properly,
fix errors if a pattern goes wrong, keep our feet moving… (the list goes on)I look forward to when you reach this milestone.
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donv69
For the first time today, like finding out I have superpowers, I was watching a bunch of dancers at the club and was able to read their 1,2,3 5,6,7 moves and match them up to the music. And from that was able to understand the beats.
I found it much easier than listening to endless amounts of music and then counting the steps trying to find something that matches. It was a really cool experience.
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Marco
Does anyone have any kick butt Tito Puente Album suggestions? I bought a compilation of his old 78’s out of the 50’s. Great songs-Mambo Gallego rocks- but lacking the type of remastered quality that I am used to.
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Anthony Persaud
@greeneggs
You try using the instrumentation loops that are provided with Garageband. You can find cool tutorial videos on how to use Garageband on Apple’s website. If you come up with cool tracks, send it our way - we would love to hear your creativity!
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greeneggs
I was really impressed by your Garageband tracks, Anthony. Any tricks on getting up to speed with this program? Where I should I look for help? The built-in clave and horn don’t sound at all like what you recorded.
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donv69
What do you guys think of this. It seems to make sense.
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Anthony Persaud
@donv69
You are correct with the cowbell being on 1,3,5 and 7. However, that instrument may not be prevalent in more ‘mambo-styled’ or ‘modern salsa’ songs. You will sometimes have to rely on the Piano or the ‘ti-ki-pah!’ sound, where the ‘ti’ is your 1 or 5. The best way to determine the beat for any song is to find the Conga slap (which requires serious training of your listening skills). Once you find the conga slap (which mark the 2 and 6), it is easy then to the clave. Since all other instruments in a song play relative to the clave, it because extremely easy to find any of the other beats.
To prevent some frustrations, you may also discover that songs between the 1960s - early 1980s will have rhythm changes , which will also throw you off. For example, you may have found the 1 and the 5 correctly, but in the middle of the song, there may be a rhythm change that will invert the location of the 1 and 5 for a short period of time. This is because a musician may want to play with the clave (switching it from 2-3 to 3-2 or vice versa) - however, this is a longer explanation than what I have here.
I’m not sure what you mean by reproducing the quality of music because it usually depends on the DJ on how they have their Equalizer set during the night.
