The first part of this series introduced the difference between straight and rolling counts in west coast swing. In this post, we will introduce the third kind of count common in WCS music: the swung count. As we saw earlier, the rolling count pushes the triple rhythm closer to the upbeat. Instead of marking the … Read more
One of the biggest keys to dancing rolling triples is using the rolling count. In a rolling triple, the middle step (what we normally call the &) is closer to the upbeat than the downbeat. In order to push the middle step later in the beat, we divide the beat into 3 parts rather than … Read more
Almost all dances can be broken into 2-beat units of a downbeat and an upbeat. Each unit of the dance, in turn, can have a different number of weight changes and can have those weight changes occur at different times. To keep track of the “how many” and “when” of weight changes, we use rhythm … Read more
In west coast swing, there are three common ways to count music: straight count, rolling count, and swung count. This post will discuss straight vs. rolling counts; a follow-up post will take up the differences between rolling and swung counts. Let’s break them down… At a basic level, music is divided into beats. If you … Read more
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