12/3/12
From: Former Music Director, Jack Martin, Ph.D.
Regarding: Better Playlists for our dance club
Dear Club DJ.
The question, in general,
that's addressed in the following memo is "What Constitutes the Better
Playlist for our dance club?"
Obviously, one of the main
criteria for putting together a "better" playlist will be
"better" dance music. That
issue is discussed elsewhere, and can be reviewed at http://justdancingaround.com/docs/musicquality.html
The three specific questions
that I address in this memo are:
1.) How frequently should any dance genre occur
in your playlist?
2.) What is the difference between a fast dance
song and a slow dance song?
3.) How should a DJ react to dance requests by our
members?
Addressing question 1.), our
club, Balboa Park Dancers Ballroom Dance Club, emphasizes the teaching of ballroom dance music (waltz, Viennese
waltz, foxtrot, quickstep, tango, cha-cha, rumba, bolero, samba), and to a
lesser extent the night club dances (salsa, east coast swing, west coast swing,
hustle, night club 2 step). We teach 2
dances each month, or 24 classes each year. Table 1 shows the frequency, or months per
year, that we teach each dance.
Table 1
* the WMF = NMT x SCF
Based strictly on the number
of times per year that we teach each class, the number of times each genre
should appear on our playlist relative to another genre is equal to "#
months taught". For instance, for
every 24 songs that are played, 3 should be waltzes, and 1 should be east coast
swing, etc...
To compensate for the fact
that our club emphasizes the teaching of ballroom dance genre, I've subjectively
estimated a correction factor, the SCF, to reduce the frequency that non-ballroom
dances occur in a playlist. Other factors
that I've taken into account in estimating the SCF are listed here:
1.) The increase in the rumba NMT from 1 to 2,
and decrease in the bolero NMT from 1 to 0.5, is based on consideration that
rumba is the "dance of love", and bolero rhythm and many of it's related dance figures, are the same as the rumba. Because rumba styling and technique are less formal
than for bolero, it's reasonable to assume that our average club member will
prefer to dance the rumba. At slower
dance tempos either rumba or bolero can be danced depending on the dancer's
choice.
2.) I increased the NMT of cha cha from 2 to 3.0, because, in my opinion, cha cha is the main staple of latin/rhythm
dancing. It's fun and lively, and
carries a tempo that can also accommodate swing and hustle dancing, if/when
burning desires arise by dancers.
3.) I decreased the NMT of NC2, ECS, WCS, Salsa,
and Hustle by a factor of 2, as they are not ballroom dances. The good news is that hustle, WCS, and ECS
dance tempi, to a large extent overlap, so that dancers can have their dance of
choice whenever either of these genre arise on the
playlist.
4.) I've increased the quickstep frequency by a
factor of 1.25, to take into account that, even though many of our members
don't dance quickstep, they enjoy dancing the comparable tempo jitterbug (i.e.
ballroom swing). In effect, it provides
more opportunity for our more ambitious dancers to practice quickstep and at
the same time compensates for the reduction of non-ballroom dance swing genre
frequency.
5.) I've added merengue to our playlists, as I believe, it's a very simple latin dance and it's fun and
lively. From what I've seen, most our members
already know how to dance merengue. If not, it can be
learned/taught on the dance floor in real time.
6.) Argentine tango is a question mark, mainly
because it's not a dance that we teach on a regular basis. However, my thought
is that tango and Argentine tango can be danced to very similar rhythm and
tempo. Many 'tango' songs on my playlist are well suited to accommodate both
styles of tango dancing.
Now let's move on to the
second question, "What is the difference between a fast dance song and a
slow dance song?" Why ask? Well, when I make up a playlist, I like to
separate each "slow" song by a "fast" song. I believe that this is a good policy, in
terms of pacing expended energy for ballroom dancers in general and for our
club's average member.
Intuitively, I know that
swing dances are fast and smooth dances are slow. However, when I referred to my table of
"recommended social dance tempo" (see http://justdancingaround.com/docs/musicquality.html),
foxtrot and tango music have tempi (bpm = beats per
minute) similar to west coast swing, hustle, and some east coast swing music.
Further investigation reveals,
however, that the number of steps taken per beat of music is a better indicator
of dance speed. For instance, in
foxtrot, tango, rumba, and/or bolero, in the basic dance pattern, there are
only 3 steps taken per 4 beats of music. On the other hand, in dances such as east coast swing, or west coast swing,
in the basic dance pattern, there are 8 steps taken per 6 beats of music
(assuming that a complete weight change from one foot to the other constitutes
a step). Similarly for hustle dancing,
there are 4 steps per 3 beats of music.
Therefore, in order to better
determine the differences between fast and slow dancing, I've created a
correction factor or the "coefficient of dance music tempo" (CODMT) which
equals the number of steps in a genre's basic dance pattern (NSBP) divided by
the number of beats in a genre's basic dance pattern (NBBP) or, CODMT =
NSBP/NBBP. The results are summarize in Table 2 below.
Table 2 - Relative Dance Speed
1 SQQ: S = Slow; Q = Quick
2 From ISTD - The Ballroom Technique - approximated the
average tango and quickstep dance figure to consist primarily of SQQ timing.
3 SS TS TS: SS = Step Step; TS = Triple Step
4 RS TS TS: RS = Rock Step;
TS = Triple Step
Table 2, as sorted in
ascending order of Corrected SDT, gives a new perspective on which dances are
faster or slower than others. A surprising feature being that the Night Club 2
Step and Quickstep meet in that column of Corrected SDT at values that I choose
to call the dividing line between fast and slow dances.
Now that we've defined genre
playlist frequency and the difference between fast and slow dances, we can
proceed to make up a "better" playlist that conforms to our club's
teaching schedule.
Table 3 shows a sample
playlist, based on the criteria of relative
frequency and fast vs slow.
Table 3: Sample -
The music genre list can vary
both, from night to night according to DJ's notion of providing our members
with some variety, and from month to month depending on which 2 dances are
being taught.
Now to address the third
question, "How should our DJ react to dance requests by our members?"
Regarding special, and
reasonable, 'requests' for dance music by our members: If your playlist is made up according to the
standards outlined above, in most cases you can honestly say to any dance
requestor, "I'm sorry but I just played that genre", or "one of
those is coming up soon". If the
requested genre is not on your playlist, and it is a dance that we teach at the
club, you may exercise the option to insert one where appropriate. However, if the request is unreasonable (not
a dance that we teach) or if the requestor becomes unreasonable, direct him to
your music director. Keep in mind that, first
and foremost, we play music for our members as a whole
and not for any individual nor for ourselves.
Keep up the better playlist.
Your Former Vice President and Music Director, Jack Martin Ph.D.
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