music: January 2008 Archives
I've been playing with the free sound & music editor Audacity for awhile. This idea came to me in a flash while I was working with a new tune; it's Electronica, and not new stuff, but it's got a lot of the complex layering and shifts in tone that I like about Arabic Classical, as well.
But those shifts also mean it's a hard one to count. And I've heard enough dancers, on all levels, complain about counts that I've had, in the back of my mind, pondering on how to help dancers with counts. A dancer needs to know how to count music, true, and how to interpret music -- esp. for Improv work. At the same time, it's a hard job form someone not musically trained, and also a challenge for some pieces -- Taxsims come to mind.
So, then, I was using Audacity to play this song, so I could watch the waveforms, and sort out when my changes were coming that could not be counted. And then I discovered the Label function, where you apply another "virtual track" of text; labels that bookmark a timestamp. With that, you can literally write your choreography on the music, just as if it was sheet music!
If this works out, it will open up a whole new level of flexibility and complexity for dancers. You still need the ear,a nd the training to use this properly, but instead of having to start off remembering the changes, you can simply focus on building the music you want, and layering the changes ad-hoc. Then, you can print out the labels, and there's your choreography to remember and work with, to pass to the troupe or post online...as I'm about to.
But those shifts also mean it's a hard one to count. And I've heard enough dancers, on all levels, complain about counts that I've had, in the back of my mind, pondering on how to help dancers with counts. A dancer needs to know how to count music, true, and how to interpret music -- esp. for Improv work. At the same time, it's a hard job form someone not musically trained, and also a challenge for some pieces -- Taxsims come to mind.
So, then, I was using Audacity to play this song, so I could watch the waveforms, and sort out when my changes were coming that could not be counted. And then I discovered the Label function, where you apply another "virtual track" of text; labels that bookmark a timestamp. With that, you can literally write your choreography on the music, just as if it was sheet music!
If this works out, it will open up a whole new level of flexibility and complexity for dancers. You still need the ear,a nd the training to use this properly, but instead of having to start off remembering the changes, you can simply focus on building the music you want, and layering the changes ad-hoc. Then, you can print out the labels, and there's your choreography to remember and work with, to pass to the troupe or post online...as I'm about to.
Continue reading Using Audacity to kick ass with your choreographies!.
