Hi,

Recently when I practice dancing,

I listen many beautiful songs,

most of them are counted 8 beats for a

phrase.

I'm wondering why we count 8 beats for

a phrase ?

Thanks for the answer.


Smith

Because most music is written in an Octave comprising of 2 bars of music.
An ascending bar and a descending bar .

And, by the way, we do NOT always count in 8s-- to the contrary, thats the old stage chor. way of counting down to the next verse or chorus ( 16 and 32 bar segments )

salsa teachers (?) tend to count in 8s. because most are not ballroom trained ,and have little or no formal dance training .

Lastly-- many figures are structered over 8 notes .

Hi, terence2,

Thanks!

Now, I've more sense about the music.

Smith

Untill it is pointed out how many realise that eight is an important number in dancing,. As was pointed out most music is written in an Octave comprising of 2 bars of music or 8 beats if this is Foxtrot. Once we know where the Slows and Quicks are we can count the Feather Step Reverse Turn Three Step and the Natural in eights.
Most of your Jive Steps are in eights. In some more advanced sixteen steps, which is 8 x 2 anyway.. Spanish Arms for instance.
I have a Latin tape by one of the best and everything they do in the Jive is to an eight count with him counting. As I said above eight is a very important part of anyones dancing.