I'm an amateur, capable of some twizzles, a basic salchow or wobbly toe loop and some standing spins, and - following some advice online - I'm slowly starting to plan a competition routine, should I eventually sign up for some bronze-level adult event somewhere. Supposedly that's the level one might want to start getting used to the music, start with an appallingly plain choreography, and gradually enhance it with more interesting moves as I learn them. I'm a maniacal rhythm and dance purist, so no way am I going to take a random song and make a random string of moves for it, hell no, it's going to be beat-perfect or I'm going home; I'm shooting for top scores for "IN", even if everything else sucks. The thing is, I'm a do-it-yourself kind of person, who prefers to do as much by myself, before I start paying for someone's help, as possible. Hell, I even google diagrams of home appliances before I call in technicians, if only to give them a better problem description than "it doesn't work".
So, I made a cut of a catchy movie theme, starting with a slow 26 sec intro at 58 BPM, a 28 sec buildup, another 20 sec for a fast-paced verse at 132 BPM, 5 sec of a breather and finally 30 seconds full of two cheerful and fast refrains, totalling to 1:35. I think it should be fine for a beginner like me.
Then, I wrote a simplified sheet music of the clip, with all accent notes marked, ready for assigning some moves according to the length and speed of the respective parts:
Obviously it won't mean much without some explanation (X and o are notes, dots are silence, beat is above, horizontal lines are placeholders for choreo), but never mind that - it can be read like a drummer's sheet music with choreo annotations and that should be enough, i think. Serious kudos to anyone who guesses the song!
Then, I'll be listing out all the moves I can think of that I can do, with "confidence" levels, to see what I can choose from.
All these steps, in my layman's view, should be a good start to present upon finding a coach and starting getting some serious, paid-for, one-on-one lessons, with the aim of planning and practising the routine.
So now the question is - am I approaching this right? Is there something more that I could still do by myself in advance? Or am I putting the cart before the horse here, and I should - like most novices seem to do - rely on the coach for planning a choreography for me from scratch, instead of trying to be the smartass kid (aged 39, by the way)?
So, I made a cut of a catchy movie theme, starting with a slow 26 sec intro at 58 BPM, a 28 sec buildup, another 20 sec for a fast-paced verse at 132 BPM, 5 sec of a breather and finally 30 seconds full of two cheerful and fast refrains, totalling to 1:35. I think it should be fine for a beginner like me.
Then, I wrote a simplified sheet music of the clip, with all accent notes marked, ready for assigning some moves according to the length and speed of the respective parts:
Code:
PART refrain 2 1:16.300 132 BPM 4/4 /3
BEAT | | | | | | | |
mus. X.o
cho. _
mus. X.o......o.oX........o.o
cho.______ _ ________
mus. X.o......o.oX..X..X..o.o
cho.______ _ __ __ __
Then, I'll be listing out all the moves I can think of that I can do, with "confidence" levels, to see what I can choose from.
All these steps, in my layman's view, should be a good start to present upon finding a coach and starting getting some serious, paid-for, one-on-one lessons, with the aim of planning and practising the routine.
So now the question is - am I approaching this right? Is there something more that I could still do by myself in advance? Or am I putting the cart before the horse here, and I should - like most novices seem to do - rely on the coach for planning a choreography for me from scratch, instead of trying to be the smartass kid (aged 39, by the way)?