Using Audacity to kick ass with your choreographies!
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.
WARNING: The below is incomplete and incorrect. I will post the final, but I wanted to give a quick example of where I'm going with this. The choreography is actually just the sagat(zill) portion of a larger piece I'm slowly working on...
So, the idea in the editor'll look a little something like this, when zoomed to fill the window fully:
You can see how the labels bookmark a moment in time; that's where you know your next change is coming, and it will describe what to change to. If you zoom in, it's like a rolling timeline, where you can watch not only the waveform of the music, but also see what the next change'll be as you go.
And this is how it looks when you Export the Sagat label:
0.054898 0.054898 (8 count) 4x alt. 1 - 1.2.3.4.5 patternSo now, we're out of beat-based mode, where you're having to keep track of how many measures you just did, and into a "stopwatch" mode, where you track your movements via the seconds and minutes it takes. This is exactly what you need for some musical types, and can be transforms into "counts", or a hybrid if necessary.
8.344533 8.344533 (8 count) 3.5x Heavy11.1.2.3.4 - 1.2.3
22.810221 22.810221 Fast 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10
23.935635 23.935635 (8 count) ?x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
63.386886 63.386886 (4 count) 16x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
79.465209 79.465209 (8 count) 4x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
102.659717 102.659717 (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
110.379783 110.379783 (4 count) ?xHeavy11.1.2.3.4
118.507386 118.507386 Slience
122.410773 122.410773 (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
130.197076 130.197076 Slience
132.244307 132.244307 (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
140.190476 140.190476 (8 count) 4x Scrape1.2.3.4 - Heavy 1
147.957551 147.957551 (4 count) 4x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
151.916553 151.916553 Slience
157.988571 157.988571 (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
165.703401 165.703401 Slience
177.499138 177.499138 Rattle sagats
185.359093 185.359093 (4 count) 8x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
201.084807 201.084807 (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
208.817052 208.817052 (4 count) ?x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
216.746667 216.746667 (8 count) ?x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
220.755011 220.755011 (8 count) 4x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11
228.635283 228.635283 Slience
230.101043 230.101043 (8 count) 3x Heavy11.1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4
236.248526 236.248526 (4 count) 8x 1.2.3
240.425215 240.425215 Slience
248.308390 248.308390 (8 count) 2x 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4Heavy11 - 1.2.3 - 1.2.3.4.5.6.7
256.181406 256.181406 (4 count) 16x Heavy11.1.2.3.4
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I sure do love Audacity :D
*chuckle* This isn't supposed to be live yet! Argh!
*runs to clean up text*
Great idea, thanks for sharing! I've never used labels, another excuse to upgrade my 100 years old Audacity version.
Regarding counting and taqsims. In classical Arabic music taqsim is a b>nonmetric instrumental solo improvisation, so you can't really count it. You could determine its structure by following the modulations within the maqam system.
Rhythmical taqsims do exist but they are not as common in classical music as in popular music and you count them according to the underlying rhythm.