Mapping Out The Music
"Beat Sheet"
Here is a choreography tip that I commonly use. Before you begin choreographing, listen to the music you are going to use and map out the music on a piece of paper. Sometimes I call this the "Beat Sheet." By doing this you have a visual map of the song, which helps you track your progress as you choreograph and prevents you from over or under choreographing.
The first step is to listen to the piece of music from beginning to end. In vertical columns, draw a short vertical line for each eight count. If there are sections that are another amount of beats, then just write the number instead of the line. When there is a change in the music, draw a short horizontal line. This will automatically create little sections on your beat sheet. If there are certain notes or ideas you want to add, write them next to the corresponding lines you wrote or next to a particular section. You may have to listen to the music several times as you map it out or add comments or ideas to it. After you have mapped out your song choice, you can begin choreographing. You can write down your choreography on your map right next to the sets of beats or sections. Below is an example.
/ Entrance from stage left in groups of two
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
_
/ Music Speeds Up
/
/
/
/
/
4
_
/ Music Briefly Slows Down 4 Pique' turns 2 counts each
/ 4 Slow walks into next formation, 2 counts each
_
/ Chorus
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
/
_
6 Ending Beats
No comments:
Post a Comment