Tap Solo Music – Selecting the Best Music to Suit Your Dancing Style
The first thing to do is know what will not work for you. Most Adjudicators at you local Dance Festival will be more mature ladies who have a great deal of dance experience as a performer or as a teacher. Typically, these ladies do not appreciate seeing ten year old girls pretending to be in their twenties performing provocative dances – you’d be surprised how many times I have seen it and cringed!
How good is your tapping?
You need to be honest with yourself here. Many tappers can dance to fast music, but all too often their dancing becomes a little untidy. It is usually better to dance to a slower piece of music to enable you to perform a quality routine rather than dance to something which may show off all your latest steps, but you’re not quite hitting the mark.
Conversely, if your music is too slow you may find yourself wobbling – this is also bad.
So, what works? In the 2009 All England championship the winners almost all used what would be considered to be “traditional” tap solo music. This would be not over orchestrated, usually medium tempo swingy/jazzy tunes or show-tunes. Whilst there is a market for tapping to the more modern music this is usually best left to the professionals.
So, if you are planning to dance a tap solo, duet, trio or group pay particular attention to your music. Choosing the right music can be as important or in some cases even more important than getting the costume right. Choreography should compliment the music and be sympathetic to the style of music.
5 Places to Download Music Safely
Among places to download music from there are safe and unsafe options. The reason why harmful and risky sites are still attracting visitors is free stuff. People do get tempted by free latest music for their players, forgetting or choosing to ignore the aspect of security. Many are under the wrong impression that to download music legally and safely is always too expensive.
While it is true that free legal music is a rarity on the Net and one has to pay for great quality and decent service, how much you will pay is really depends on you. In other words, if you do not want to overpay, you do not have to. It is all about choosing the right place to download music.
Here are the main variants of legal and safe music websites the Internet has to offer:
1. Pay-Per-Track Websites
Almost all official music selling websites operate on a pay-per-track basis, meaning that each song has to be bought separately. No subscription or registration fee is taken. iTunes Store, Rhapsody and Amazon are some examples. While paying for each download allows flexibility, it is not that advantageous for bulk downloads considering their total sum.
2. Monthly Subscription Websites
Some of the pay-per-download sites as well as a few other large music sites, like Napster, have an alternative to paying for every song. At a set fee, taken each month, you are given access to unlimited downloads. A great way to save, as it might seem, it is not always that great in fact. In order to keep the downloaded tracks, you have to continue the subscription – if you do not, all the songs you downloaded become unplayable.
3. Free Websites
Quire rare, free legal music is actually also available on the Net. Such places to download music are safe, but usually have a very limited choice. No latest hits from big banners can be found here – rather aspiring musicians, independent bands and some of the all-time favorites. Music styles that are not so popular might dominate. However, if you do not mind the off-beat track, such sites can really enrich your collection.
4. Free Sections of Paid Websites
Many people simply do not think about these as places to download music from. But why not? Be it Amazon or Napster, they feature free download section in the main paid website, and the best thing is that the song selection, though limited, changes regularly. So, frequent checking for free stuff can help you get a few nice tracks completely free.
5. Unlimited Download Websites
Somewhat similar to subscription websites, places for unlimited downloads take a set fee, but once and for a lifetime. No scary price-tags here – the fee is a modest two-digit figure (anything more is a rip-off to steer clear of). After the fee is taken, there is no count of the number of songs you download, no restrictions, no extra charges.
You can find links to some of the greatest places to download music on my blog.
Watch YouTube Music Videos to Help Improve Your Singing
Most of us watch YouTube music videos for pleasure. We enjoy seeing others do the things that we would like to do. But not too many of us watch videos with one specific goal in mind, -”What can I learn from this video that will help me to sing better?”
If you often watch just for fun, do this the next time you sit in front of your computer screen, try the following:
1. Choose a couple of singers whom you admire who also perform the kind of music that you sing. (This is not to suggest that you can learn only from those musicians who are in the same genre. You can learn from watching anysinger. But it is a good idea to keep up with singers who are doing well in your specific musical category.)
2. Ask yourself what it is about this singer that has made him/her a successful performer. For example, with Michael Jackson, it was his ability to dance and his great rhythm.
Choose one or two characteristics that you like about the singer you have chosen.
3. Now watch the video while you concentrate on how s/he expresses those qualities in this performance.
For instance, if you are impressed with your singer’s voice – watch carefully how s/he breathes. Listen to how s/he phrases, how s/he uses her/his mouth, tongue, jaw to create a unique sound.
If possible, watch videos of live performances. We know that many, if not most professional music videos are dubbed with a high quality recorded version of the music we hear. Those singers are often not singing the music that you are hearing. So if you want to watch how they really produce their sound, watch them in a live performance.
4. Watch the same video again, this time concentrating on some other aspect of the performance that grabs your attention. The way your singer moves, perhaps. Or how they interact with other members of the band. Perhaps you are amazed by how this vocalist handles a microphone. Watch carefully. Think about it. Try it with your own microphone.
The point is to study what others do, and then try to mimic it. Set up your own video camera and watch yourself in action. Over time, you can create your own version of another singer’s scintillating moments.
Think long term.
Some singing careers last decades. If you are serious about singing, decide that you are in it for the long haul. Whether you are an amateur or a hopeful-pro, aim to make wonderful music for many years, and watching YouTube Music Videos can help you.