Learn About Music to Practice Musicality!

By Bob Anholt

Recently an article by Paul Ski entitled “The myth of musicality” passed across my Facebook feed which spoke to some prime interests of mine. The “myth” part refers to the fact that there is no agreed definition of what constitutes musicality, but there are several ideas commonly stated in discussions of musicality. His list:

• Connecting to the music
• Having a relationship with the music
• Moving rhythmically to the music
• Grooving with the music
• Accentuating the breaks and/or hits in the music
• Dancing with feeling to the music
• Reflecting the vibe/mood/drive of the music
• Telling a story through the music
• Dancing to a particular instrument or vocal in the music
• Dancing as another instrument of the band

Musicality is not something that gets much emphasis in learning or practice. We are taught steps and figures to counts and even when the dance teacher plays music their counting is what most students hear and dance to. Dancesport presentations are designed to be performed in any standard rhythm, so when hearing “the next dance is a Waltz,” the student and teacher need only identify the 123 in the rhythms and dance their dance no matter what breaks and other hits the music presents. In studio practice parties and other DJ’d social dances, the DJ tells everyone what dance to do, so most leads just connect to rhythm du jour, and apply figures and sequences to it.

One cannot teach musicality nor learn it, but one can teach and learn about music. The article has several suggestions to dance teachers that teach more about music than is currently practiced. For students, there are several things you can do to learn about music on your own. Check back next month for part two, including Paul Ski’s list and my thoughts on it!