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FIND THE RHYTHM - Alex Wilson - £19.99
The Ultimate Salsa Work Book for Dancers who want to Connect to the Music.
An exciting new CD/Workbook by top UK salsa/Latin jazz musician Alex Wilson (creator of salsa hits "Show Me", "Ain't Nobody" & "Antonio") and leading salsa instructor/dancer Lee Knights, is a must for lovers of salsa and latin rhythm in general.
It explains the structure of the music and highlights the role of individual instruments. It gives the dedicated dancer a deeper insight into salsa in an easy accessible style.
Find the Rhythm allows the reader to explore and interpret the colour and texture of Salsa and to express themselves more fully on the dance floor.
* read the Introduction Chapter bellow before you buy the book!
Introduction
How to Stop Counting and Start Connecting to the Music
Salsa ... an exciting style of music! Both of us - Alex, the musician and Lee, the dance instructor, are confirmed addicts and have written this book for the thousands of others we have met along the way.
If you love salsa, you want to live the dance and the music when you get out on the floor. But it's not that easy - the music can seem complicated and confusing. For the man, the pressure to come up with an endless sequence of moves to "satisfy" his partner can turn what should be a pleasure into a stressful experience.
For the woman, there can be a sense of disconnection from her partner and the music as she tries to come up with random styling and footwork or follow moves that don't seem to fit.
Yet both men and women are looking for the same things - a moment, a connection, enjoyment, authenticity, fun, moving fluidly together in harmony with the rhythm of the music, disappearing into the music to become one on the dance floor.
Find the Rhythm! unlocks the secrets of salsa, gets you inside the mind of the musician and the heart of the music. Full of guidance from a musician’s perspective, practical workbook exercises and a CD with relevant audio examples played by real musicians, this book opens a door to understanding salsa music in all its complexity.
Written for the dancer and non-musician, Find the Rhythm! helps you:
• Unlock the secrets of salsa that separate you from the best dancers
• Make the missing connections between your feet and the music
• Gain a deeper insight and understanding of salsa music to sharpen your musicality and heighten your dancing pleasure
• Find your way through the maze of salsa rhythms to consistently find the 1
• Stop endlessly counting and start feeling the music
• Get beyond executing random moves over and over again that do not seem connected to the music
• Be inspired by the music to style up your dancing in a more authentic way
• Get ahead of the game on the dance floor – we break down a whole salsa song so you know what’s coming next
• Identify different styles of salsa and different Latin rhythms that can guide your dancing and musical interpretation
• Identify what individual instruments are doing in salsa songs and use these insights to guide your dancing
• Gain insights into feeling, mood and groove in salsa songs, enabling you to mirror this on the floor
• Who plays the music you love? Build up your own musical library of salsa’s top musicians and singers
• Free yourself to live the music on the dance floor!
Find the Rhythm! is the distillation of Alex’s years of experience as a salsa musician, translated for the dancer. It gives you deeper insights into the wonderful, rich array of ingredients that make up salsa music. It will help you demystify the music, and take your dancing to the next level. It will give you an insiders understanding of salsa music, help you earth your dancing, sharpen your musicality and heighten your expressiveness on the dance floor.
Find the Rhythm! plugs you directly into the mains of salsa music. Practical workbook exercises and the accompanying CD allow you a direct, personal experience with the music. You are free to customise your own salsa musicality programme. All these exercises can be stand-alone, allowing you to jump straight into an area that interests you.
Let’s say what this is not – this isn’t a dance instruction manual.
Rather, it is a musician’s explanation of salsa music, how it’s put together, its main influences, how it’s structured and the musician’s intentions at different parts of a salsa tune. This isn’t a coffee table book either. Find the Rhythm! is a practical, hands-on musicality workbook for the salsa dancer, with a wealth of exercises for you to try out at home and on the dance floor!
We use the count to explain a lot of the rhythms in this book, but only as a means to work towards internalising the music and abandoning the numbers. Dancers who currently rely on counting to get through a song will experience a new found freedom, opening a whole new world of expression, dancing from within the music as opposed to alongside the music.
Here’s what is covered in this book:
The Source of the Sauce – What Salsa Music Is and its Musical Roots - Chapter 2
Ever wondered what’s coming next in a salsa song and why? We look at the ‘anatomy’ of a typical salsa song, dividing it into easy-to-understand sections and practical audio examples so that you can start to hear the music as a musician does - Chapter 3
Latin Flavas that Make up the Salsa Sauce - Using plenty of audio examples we explore the wealth of rhythms that have fed into the salsa genre - Chapter 4
Backed up by helpful audio exercises, we take a look at the clave, demystifying its role in salsa music and dispelling common myths- Chapter 5
Using helpful audio exercises, we explore individual instrument patterns - what are they doing and why and how they change through a salsa song - Chapter 6
Using practical audio examples, we explore salsa’s main styles, helping you appreciate their different characters - Chapter 7
We look at core questions for dancers and answer them from the musician’s perspective Chapter 8
We look at the wider issues surrounding salsa dance and live music and throw out some questions for the ongoing debate in Chapter 9
The musical phrasebook gives you a point to refer back to as you use this book, try out the workbook exercises and listen to the CD
In our dialogue with dancers and teachers, what comes across very strongly is the passion for salsa. With this passion come strong opinions. We want to to hear your views!
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