Musicality for Swing Dancers: AABA 32-bar song form

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Musicality for Swing Dancers AABA 32-bar form | Shuffle Projects

“Learn about the AABA jazz form” is the seventh tip in my article “33 Actions & Tips To Become A Better Swing Dancer“. The interest in this tip is huge, reason enough to examine the AABA form in a separate article. After the introduction, we will take a look at the theory. Then we will listen to an example, where the AABA form is used. And finally, you will learn a basic idea, how to implement AABA into the dance by using a simple routine. Introduction The AABA form was style-defining for the popular music of the United States. It is [...]

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How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists

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How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 3: Smart Playlists | Shuffle Projects

I have the feeling that many iTunes users still don’t know how powerful Smart Playlists (for my German speaking readers: Intelligente Wiedergabelisten) are. When Apple introduced them many years ago, I was immediately hooked and it changed the way how I organize and sort music forever. To really benefit from the flexibility of Smart Playlists, you need a good system of pre-organizing your music with tags, BPM and ratings. If you missed these posts, please check out part 1: Tagging and part 2: BPM & Rating of the series “How to Organize Music in iTunes” before you read further. Now, [...]

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How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

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How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 2: BPM & Rating

Thank you so much for all the comments and emails you have sent me after publishing part 1: Tagging in iTunes. I’ll post some of the ideas I’ve got from my readers in a wrap-up post after this small series is finished. So, let’s start with part two. We need two more parameters to have an idea about the music in our library: the tempo of the song and a personal rating system. Detecting BPM (Beats Per Minute) As you know, the tempo is defined in BPM or beats per minute. Detecting BPM is manual work and it takes a [...]

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How to Organize Music in iTunes. Part 1: Tagging

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How To Organize Music in iTunes: Tagging | Shuffle Projects

Note: This is a post especially for the subscribers of my Swing DJ Resources Email List. Some of these posts won’t be public in future. So, if you would like to receive ALL the posts, then sign up now in the side bar on the right side or at the end of this post. Nowadays, tags are very common to organize or sort all kind of information. In marked contrast to many different software products, which allow us to set all kind of tags, iTunes still doesn’t provide a tagging system to organize music and media. This is part 1 [...]

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Launch Of DJ Chrisbe’s Swing DJ Resources Email List

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Swing DJ

Update 4 September 2012: Today, Shuffle Projects launched “Swing DJ Resources”. The website is the successor of this email list. Check out the website and subscribe there for free resources & updates! In 2006 I started swing DJ’ing and in the last years since then I’ve acquired a lot of know-how. As you might know, high quality swing music in classes and especially at swing events is a personal matter of me. How we dance is directly linked to the music. Good swing music support the dancers in making progress. Now the question is what do I understand by high [...]

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The “Heavy” Follower – Article by Bobby White

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The Heavy Follower Bobby White

Recently, Bobby White published a great article on his blog Swungover, it’s called The “Heavy” Follower and Bobby points out 12 different possible reasons why a follower might be described heavy. I highly recommend this article, everybody should read it – not only the followers! Check it out here. PS. Don’t miss the comment section. PPS. I love the graphics

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Great Music Sources For Swing DJs

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Swing DJ

Where to find new music? Where to get inspiration from? This is a frequent asked question. Here is my compilation of great sources for Swing DJs and everybody else who is looking for Swing music. Please let me know, if you miss something here. I’m more than happy to add more sources to the list! Note: the list is organized alphabetically, not by preference. Forum Swing DJs The must forum for every Swing DJ! Podcasts Confessing The Blues A podcast dedicated to Blues, which started in August 2009 and ended one year later. The episodes are still available. Hey Mr. [...]

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14 Tips To Become A (Better) Swing DJ

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14 Tips To Become A (Better) Swing DJ

Swing DJ’ing is different from DJ’ing House music for example. Neither do we have to mix the songs nor do we have to scratch. Nevertheless it’s much more than just running a playlist! I often get asked for tips about Swing DJ‘ing. So I have put together this list of 14 tips to become a (better) Swing DJ in a more or less random order. 1. Listen to Swing music Do it as much as possible: CDs, radio, internet radio, live concerts. Get a feeling for the music. Which songs make you dance? Why? 2. Know your music library Build [...]

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