West Coast Swing Musicality - The 3 Levels of Musicality for WCS 

Wow, fantastic. I wasn't able to watch live, but I'm so glad to be able to watch this online. Excellent explanation. Very clear and easy to comprehend the steps involved. Super useful and even something I can practice without a dance partner (though I'm sure it would be a lot more fun and useful).

OMG why have I never heard this before.? This is an incredible eye opener. Because I play percussion myself, I became annoyed when I started counting next to the beat of 8. I felt the tempo and was irritated several times that there were 6 counts in music of eight. This is one of the best theories I really needed. Thank you very much brian. Now I can start really dancing. Do you happen to have videos where you do figures in this way where you count down to an accent? Thank you very much in advance.

You ARE on fire today! The social distance fail made me chuckle. Watching 3 yrs later. Thank you for the drills!!! And doing from follow view as well. Its like relearning from the beginning to count differently but think it will be key to next level! Ps. Ive played many instruments and yes the 6 count was driving me crazy (because a 6 count to me suggests two 3 counts which would be a waltz) I cant thank you all enough

Love it! You explained it really well.

In our LindyHop class we do not bother really with the concept of 6counts "not fitting" into usually 8 count jazz/swing music simply because it all comes down to 2counts. As with anything you learn once you have copied and repeated (think of a child learning to speak, first: mimic and copy, repeat on their own) enough times and this greatly depends on previous experience (10 year latin ballroom dancer will pick up swing MUCH faster than you average joe or jill) and talent, you will have build up "muscle memory" like in every sport. We usually start out with an 8 count pattern, the basic, the swing out (which your WCS took and made it into a whip) and go thru musicality class 1: making dancers understand that 8 fits 8, no worries (looking at you salsa). They usually start to hear the phrasing by then in the music and we keep going 8s and now trying to hit breaks - usually the last 8 beats of 32 beats (=1 phrase having 4 times 8 beats, which pop music also has, so this applies usually also to west coast swing, but it is more pronounced in swing usually) and have them do some solo-jazz figures or let them improv on those last 8s. Most important: find the one again and keep this up throughout a song - we pick an easy one where it is really really obvious. Than we introduce STOMP OFF, which is not common in westcoastswing, but a way to communicate to your partner in lindy: hey, I am done, one is coming up, lets leave the break and go back to something else (usually a rock step, but we encourage to play around with it). Once dancers get the hang of this drill we go all crazy: pick an easy 6count and our basic 8 count and do this again: 6x4 + 8= 24 + 8 = 32, perfect, so we can do 4 times the 6 counts and need one 8 count to complete the 32: so we let them split it up like 2 times 6 counts, do an 8 count, 2 times 6 counts: and then they usually go: OH WAIT! I am dancing RIGHT INTO the break, that is weird. YES! Got some! For some it takes longer, for others it is more second nature - a personal thing - but those who get that feeling of "well yeah it fits, but dancing right into the break is weird" we take to the side and give them tools to shorten or longer patterns, so making a 10 or 8 count out of an 8 or 6 count or reducing a 6 count to a 4 count. It is not always simply possible and sometimes they just need to experiment when another turn or spin (there are other ways) would get you where you want to be. It is a process and you need patience. Also what helps: go dancing 3-4 times a week, 3 times training, 1 social dance. You will fly by all those "I only go dancing once a week / oh I missed a class now its been two weeks" people - even the once in "intermediate class". ;-)

I've been out of the first group for a long time. I haven't counted patterns in ages. I like to be able to converse with my social dance partners. But I'm definitely not in the second group. I've tried counting 8s (we called it WCS Math), but never found a way to make good use of it. It's rather like if I'm sitting listening to the music (and or watching other dancers), I keep feeling a variety moves that would fit - hmm, the beginnings of musicality. But if I am actually dancing, I get a disconnect between that part of my brain and the rest of my body. Where I'm learning something new, I count in 2s, because everything happens in blocks of 2s. What has helped a bit, but I think it's kinda cheating, is to follow my follow. In my previous community, most follows also didn't have any musicality to speak of, but with those that did, once they expressed something in the music, I would try to mirror or mimic them, which ever was appropriate. Still difficult...

DUDE. I've been a musician for almost two decades. My wife and I started ballroom a month ago and I was trying to explain how annoying the 6 count against 8 counts in two bars thing was and no one was understanding why it was soooooooooooo frustrating to me. We did a 8 count Lindy with our instructor and it was like a breath of fresh air actually being symmetric on the counts with the steps.

You guys are great... I wish I wasn’t in Australia. I have trouble with the 6 beats... because it seems uneven and has to go through the music. I am naturally rhythmical and have usually have no trouble hearing the beat of the music. But I’m struggling to even see the the basic 6 count steps.... doesn’t help that nobody here teaches it. Ok I need to replay this and get up and ‘do it’. You are an excellent teacher. Would love to learn from you!

WCS music (some of it) to me seems like the music that doesn't have home or dance elsewhere, so they lump into WCS dance. Danced two WCS dances last night. The first one was fine, the second one we couldn't find the beat or rhythm at any time during the song. As soon as we thought we'd found it, then it disappeared again. So we just ended up dancing to our own rhythm, independent of the music. Very frustrating, not enjoyable. Glad when the song was over lol.

The audio went out when you answered questions.