Ricardo -> RE: Dance Accompaniment: Keeping A Steady Tempo (Dec. 14 2008 6:45:52)
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ORIGINAL: xirdneH_imiJ there are no secrets, there's interaction between the dancers and yourself - and between you and your guitar (and feet!)... much depends on the dancer and his/her capability - some dancers are good but still don't seem to be able to keep a perfect tempo and that's when the job becomes more difficult for you as no dancer will ever admit they're off by even a little...if he/she asks for you to keep a steady tempo what you do is NOT pay attention to their feet but instead you concentrate on your own and your music - this contradicts the fact that you do have to pay attention to the dancers, but not in expense of the tempo which rules the flamenco world... so basically you're a metronome as well as a guitarist... but you'll also be asked to boss the tempo when it comes to slowdowns and speedups, that's almost entirely up to you, but the dancer will show you what he/she wants, you just have to be aware of that or you'll be yelled at... but ultimately when it's a dance performance, the rule is that the dancer is the boss, even if he/she screws up, you have to do your best to follow them, the same goes for palmas...which is found strange at first because it thought the palmeros were the most important, but no, it's the dancers' feet always, even if you can't hear them well or at all...as time passes and spend several hours a week watching feet, you'll be able to catch the tempo by just looking at the feet movement...of course it takes time and practice as everything else... to sum it up, about the steady tempo, just turn your head away, feel your feet beating the rhythm and try to be as punctual as possible, the others will eventually follow you, remember, the students are struggling even more than you do...and if you feel something's really wrong you can always talk to the teacher about it (not in front of the students or you might regret that :)) i spent two years playing for a dancer who was competent in every way but didn't have a really good sense of rhythm, that can ruin it for you but you get used to that...now i'm playing for an excellent dancer/singer and having lots of fun with the weirdest variations to compáses... Well said, I second all of that. There are two things that can help also. It is very good that you are NOTICING the speeding up, because a lot of people don't. Once you sense a move up, you need to hold them back, assuming it is their fault (if you notice speed ups and they dont' then it probably is their fault). Not to the point of dragging, but you need to stay on track. The first way to have help, is insist that the teacher or some other person do palmas (again assuming they can hold it well), and your job suddenly gets much easier. The second thing, if you don't have the luxury of a palmero to help, you need to get a good amplification so you are WAY louder than everyone so you can easily keep everyone on your tempo (again assuming you are really solid). Hope that helps. If this is encouraging, Tati was doing a synchopated step in rehearsal that gave the impression of her speeding up a bit, the palmeros (singers) moved up a notch and we all did. She yelled at them. Of course she only needed to do that once, on the second pass we realized as a group she was absolutely right, she was not going anywhere with the tempo it was just us as a group that were feeling it wrong. (And I am talking about hair splitting minute incraments of tempo increase). So this problem of tempo goes right up to the top level, and people you might work with regularly. Best thing is never argue or point fingers, just try suggestions and pay attention. On a side note, I have often suggested to a flamenco group of dancers (more than say 3 or 4 doing the same loud stomping steps) that we should use a drum machine very loud to tighten up the group feeling. I think practicing that way really helps everyone....but so far I have not been able to convince anyone. [;)] Ricardo
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