I have no problem with most of the dance music (except salsa). But once in a while I hear a dance music that is difficult to find beats or to figure out the dance type until someone else pointed out to me.

Is there a list of such songs? I'd like to train my ears so that if I run into such songs at a dance party or worse, during a dance competition, I won't freeze up.

Why would anyone compile such a list?



jj

quite a brilliant idea! perhaps is some one on here has a personal website we could begin compiling it there

Hesitation. It wouldn't be possible to list all of those tunes that are not suitable for a competition. Whatever style you dance. Don't listen to the vocalist if the track has vocalist listen to the undelying beats. And never in a Rumba or Cha start dancing in the four or eight bar introduction. I did in a Rumba only once. To get a flying start I took of in the Introduction. After the four bar intro the beat changed. Which left me on the wrong beat.
It might be worth mentioning that i have a tape of an IDSF Amateur Final a Waltz which included the now Professional Champion as well as a couple of others who are now Professional Finalists in most events. The music started playing. Nobody moved. The music went on playing. still nobody moved. The eventual winner let twelve bars of music go by before he picked up the beat.
Didn't the two comentators Michael Barr and Allison Lamb have something to say about that piece of music.

Actually some of the difficult musics I heard were during competitions while I was a spectator and at least some were waltzes. None of them were latin, or tango.

What is the name of the waltz used during IDSF amateur final you mentioned?

Hesitation. The name of that Waltz was not announced. Allison Lamb said it was more appropriate for a West End Show than a Ballroom Final. It had this incredibly long introduction which didn't have a regular beat untill the introduction was finished. As I wrote , nobody moved for some 20 or so seconds.

Not sure who or how such a list could be compiled, because everyone would have a different take on this. You may hear a song and can't figure out the bpm or underlying beat for a certain song, but I could figure it out in a second -- and vice versa. I guess what I am saying is there would be no universal list of "songs that are hard to determine a dance." Songs on that kind of list probably aren't suitable for ballroom?
Also, I'm with you Polished on the starting points for rumba or cha-cha. We are working on a cha-cha routine right now for a local fund-raiser competition and it's a difficult routine, but more so because I can't trigger the proper start each time and, as you said, if you don't have it right at the get-go, the cha-cha is unforgiving -- it's hard to regroup and get back on the timing without looking choppy and, well, lost.