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MCP's Academy of How to Make a Routine Good and do Other Things Good Too. PDF Print E-mail
Written by Administrator   
Thursday, 05 February 2009

MCP's Academy of how to make a routine to music good and do other things to music good too.


First of all, of course, you have to find a good piece of music. Now what this entails is almost an article in itself. Lyrics or none? Climatic or not? Classical? Emotive? Of a particular genre, over used? Recognised?

Well, having chosen your music, here's how I start off making a new routine. First off, I'll 'mark up' the music...

Lets use a favourate piece of routine music as an example... Something from the Matrix soundtrack? Or maybe Gotan Project... No instead I decided on using a piece of Amelie's Soundtrack as an example...

Les Jours Tristes [Instrumental] – 3:03

A bit short for our purposes, but never mind.

Firstly, we go through the music, marking the obvious cues...

0.0.00 – start
1.0.18 -
2.0.39 -
3.0.54 -
4.1.15 -
5.1.37 -
6.2.06 -
7.2.27 -
8.2.49 -
9.2.56 -
10. 3.03 – end

Then we have to listen to the music again and decide if the cues are really valid cues, and give them descriptions or names, something to more easily identify the sections of the song, and help to constrain what should go in those sections....

11.0.00 – start
12.0.18 – Slow accordion
13.0.39 – Guitar added
14.0.54 – Xylophone
15.1.15 – Cellists
16.1.37 – Melody Repeats – Building. Key/Octave Change?
17.2.06 – Full melody arrives
18.2.27 – Accordion Returns
19.2.56 – Climax of Music - Uplifting
20. 3.03 – end

2.49 was a false cue, so that's removed. Remember, it's not obvious here, but each name refers to the time before it...


Now, to do some calculation...

21.0.00 – start
Slow accordion – 18s
22.0.18 –
Guitar added - 21s
23.0.39 –
Xylophone - 15s
24.0.54 –
Cellists - 21s
25.1.15 –
Melody Repeats - 22s
26.1.37 –
Full melody arrives - 29s
27.2.06 –
Accordion Returns - 21s
28.2.27 –
Climax of Music – Uplifting - 29s
29.2.56 –
Fade out - 7s
30. 3.03 – end

So then comes the really fun bit. Counting the beats. Now it seems that this is some kinda waltz, which makes life a bit tricky, cos instead of there being four beats in a bar, there's three. Normally, there would be four. Most songs, have four. But this one has three.


31.0.00 – start
Slow accordion – 18s 19 x 3
32.0.18 –
Guitar added - 21s 24 x 3
33.0.39 –
Xylophone - 15s 16 x 3
34.0.54 –
Cellists - 21s 24 x 3
35.1.15 –
Melody Repeats - 22s 24 x 3
36.1.37 –
Full melody arrives - 29s 32 x 3
37.2.06 –
Accordion Returns - 21s 24 x 3
38.2.27 –
Climax of Music – Uplifting – 29s 32 x 3
39.2.56 –
Fade out - 7s n/a
40. 3.03 – end

So from that you can see a bit better the structure of the song. If you try this exercise with a house or dance track, or even better, a few of them, you'll notice very distinct similarities in their structures. It will probably be a bit easier to count, as there generally won't be so many bars to each section. This song was a bit of an eye opener for the amount of bars in each section.

What do you do now? I hear you ask... Well, I think you find some tricks / moves / transitions and fit them into the music. You know how many beats you have to fill, so you can time all your movements to 6 beats or 12, for this song, might be better. Generally for 4 beat per bar songs, I'll got for 8 beat timings.

So with that information, for can count it out, and work out what beat each foot placement should be on, or where the top of the flower pattern should be on each beat or whatever. If you chose a song with lyrics, you can even break the constraints of the bars and use the lyrics to emphasize your thing, whatever your doing... y'know tricks and whatnot.

Equally, you can not count beats but have a very clear understanding of the structure of the music and the cues in it, that you can work with. All that work is never wasted.

Homework: Find a bit of music you fancy for a routine and complete the above steps for it...

Away my minions!

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