Musicality: Learning Major Phrases Music is written in major phrases. Many contemporary songs are written in 32-beat phrases, or 4 sets of 8 beats; blues music that follows the 12-bar blues progression occurs in 48-beat phrases, or 6 sets of 8 beats. Each major phrase ends by resolving to the tonic. The tonic is the … Read more
The goal of this drill is to help dancers become aware of when they break connection with their partner. The Drill: Connect with your partner in open position as normal, and feel the away connection where the fingers pull against each other. Put a quarter in between this connection point; the quarter should be held up … Read more
In the last post in this series, we introduced the idea of selecting anchor variations that match the momentum of the pattern. This post will expand that idea with open rotating patterns. In an open rotating pattern, the last action before the anchor is a rotation towards a more open body angle. The basic example … Read more
More advanced dancers know how to select an anchor variation that compliments their momentum from the pattern. In this exercise, you’ll start to think about anchor variations that work for linear patterns. For this drill, linear patterns are patterns that don’t involve rotation immediately before the anchor. For instance, a push break is a linear … Read more
by Brian B at west coast swing online
Brian & Megan 
