offbeat even after 1 year of poppin

[teshime]

Hey guys,

i know ppl may have posted this before, but i dun seem to be able to find a good advice to it. so i gonna ask this again.

i have been poppin for a year now, and it seems that in this one year, i cant dance on beat. i can pop on beat during fresno and also the beggining part of my freestyle. But after like 5-10 beats into my freestyle, i always go off beat and i am conscious about it. but i dunno why i cant seem to go back on beat. i can pop on beat in my excercises while sitting down or standing up. but the problems comes when i freestyle.

anyone have the same problem?
Also anyone who can give mi any advice for it please do. Im really sick of being off beat during freestyle.

Thankyou!

Teshime

[Rocksteady]

Now that's a serious problem. I had something similar when i started dancing (hip-hop), and even though I'd been doing standard dances for 2 years prior to that, i wasn't dancing to the beat cause i didn't hear it, because my musical hearing just sucked. What i think you should do is to:

1. either learn or make yourself a choreography (2-3X8 counts), and practice that over and over again by counting out loud.

2. count when you freestyle.

Hope this will help.

[popitgood]

i like to breath to the song when i'm getting tired. you can probably do the same when your not tired but don't hyperventilate or you will pass out! lol

[fromthetown]

Not trying to be an asshole but is it fair to assume this problem only exists if you didn't grow up listening to funk/r&b/hip hop?

I'm not saying that hearing these beats as a kid makes you a GOOD dancer, God knows I suck, but it seems like every single person I grew up with was naturally on beat.

[Rocksteady]

I did listen to a lot of hip-hop, house and r'n'b tracks before i started dancing, and my musical hearing sucked. Ever since i haven't met a dancer at our classes (4 years) that sucked so hard as i did.

[fromthetown]

I did listen to a lot of hip-hop, house and r'n'b tracks before i started dancing, and my musical hearing sucked. Ever since i haven't met a dancer at our classes (4 years) that sucked so hard as i did.

If you don't mind the question: What kind of music was played in your household as a kid? That's what I'm getting at. I'm guessing that this problem is cultural, but maybe not. If you grew up in a family whose dancing goes generations back, like most street dancers in the US, I don't think the problem exists. There is a straight line from the blues 100 years ago, to r&b, to funk, to hip hop. And a lot of Latin households had that funky Jazz. So you grow up seeing your grandparents and parents getting down. Anyways, All of this ingrains being on beat.

But it's just a guess. Very interesting to me, though.

[Boy Wonder SS]

slow down....duh
your prolly trying to go fast and try to hit stuff in the song

start basic and build up

[Rocksteady]

If you don't mind the question: What kind of music was played in your household as a kid? That's what I'm getting at. I'm guessing that this problem is cultural, but maybe not. If you grew up in a family whose dancing goes generations back, like most street dancers in the US, I don't think the problem exists. There is a straight line from the blues 100 years ago, to r&b, to funk, to hip hop. And a lot of Latin households had that funky Jazz. So you grow up seeing your grandparents and parents getting down. Anyways, All of this ingrains being on beat.

But it's just a guess. Very interesting to me, though.

We only had communism before 89 here in Romania. Till like 1996-2000 nobody really had any idea what dancing is as far as i'm concerned, except ballroom and standard dances maybe. Some occasionally BBoys but on a very low level. Locking and popping is just starting to come up, but we are still waaaay behind the rest of the world in Street-dancing.

[teshime]

to Rocksteady: hey i have been tryin the things u said. It did work for a while, then for some reason, aftera while, i still go off beat. I tink gettin timing is the hardest thing for me! thanks for the advice. i will keep trying =)

to popitgood: will try that thanks! xD

to fromthetown: well i did grow up listening to R&B. but not much of funk. only started listenin to funk when i started poppin. But the thing is i love listening to music, which is why i started dancing. But i guess i really just suck at being on beat. LOL. and the ppl around mi seems to get it easily! haha!

to Boy Wonder SS: haha... well... it really sounds easy saying that! Lotsa my friends keep tellin mi that! and i agree i am goin too fast. man for once i wish i was born slow! LOL! well many of times, i start slow, and i am on beat, half way through i just messed up somehow! haha. i guess i have to try harder to slow down like u say! gonna train somemore!! LOL thanks for the advice!!! xD

[Lil' Wisley]

bro, i got the same problem when i just started dancing. It seems like a lot of people have it. Part of the reason is becuz when we start learning to dance, we just want to have some cool moves somedays (wave, isolation), we didnt realize that musicality is much more important.

I think to be on beat, u should practice with some simple songs, basically just focus on the clap. Dont pay much attenttion to melody or effects cuz if u miss the clap, u failed.
Though videos on youtube give much inspiration, dont try to kill all the beat like those pros who have been dancing for half of their lives.
Keep it simple, keep it real.

[Lil' Wisley]

btw, one year is not long enough to expect something special, especially for dancing. Dont make a big deal out of it.

[Goles]

I'm not sure if you have tried this but you can set some time specifically to listening to music for the bass, drums, lyrics, etc. A good thing to keep in mind is that the song will usually change in counts of four, eight, twelve, sixteen and so on. The change can be something small such as an addition of a snare hit or something big as the change in bass line. Try to keep a mental count of the music and you can anticipate these changes. I would suggest just listening to music without dancing to it for twenty minutes a day. Focus only on the music and the different sounds in it. Notice how everything changes in multiples of four counts. When you choreo, the first thing you have to be able to do is be able to detect a count or beat (eg. 1, 2, 3 & 4 or 1 & 2, 3 & 4; then "&" does matter here!). Count the music out loud if it helps you. Familiarize yourself with the possible twists and turns that a song can have.

As corny as this may sound, try listening to some classical or some other type of music with lots of layering. If you are able to distinguish the many sounds in classical apart from each other (even the small ones), and if you are able to find a beat (even though there are no drums and such), you would have no problem finding a beat in any type of music. However, I suggest that you start with music with little layering and a simple beat and then work your way up.

Hope that helps you! :)

[whatthe75]

I had the same problem and i was told to freestyle to slow songs.It gets you used to having to wait for the beat and relax in between pops.
I tried it for a few weeks even tried songs like "moments in love" by art of noise.Then went back to more faster songs.
I film all my freestyle and i really noticed the difference,and also i looked a lot more relaxed and controlled too.

Hope this helps.

[Goomba]

listen to beats 24 hrs a day, even when your not dancing
dont have to pay attention to it, just have it always playing
helps your mind develop rythmn sense

[nerdtron]

It took me awhile to really be able to dance completely on beat. Not early, not late, but right on the beat. Almost 2 years maybe. When you're starting out, it's hard to pay attention to both the music and your movement. Your body still feels awkward doing a lot of the movement, and you have to really think as you dance. This shifts your mind's focus away from the music. You'll get better once your technical ability gets better, and you wont have to concentrate as hard on the physical part of your dancing. My only advise to you right now is don't get discouraged, and believe you'll be better later, because you will. Practice slowly, take it easy. Use a mirror while you are dancing once in awhile, and really look at yourself, and see if your hit and movements really connect with the music. For hitting, try hitting late, seriously. Everyone hits too early when they start out. So, try to hit in reaction to the beat, ie. hear the snare, and then hit. Don't try to hit in anticipation of the beat -- that almost always leads to an early hit.

I would try to separate your practice time into at least 2 sorts of practice. During one, you will just do basic, basic movements and hit on the 1-2-3-4, or just the 2 and 4. The focus is hitting right on beat, having clean angles, and clean hits. Using a mirror during this practice is very helpful. The other time, just dance your pants off, try out new stuff and interesting techniques, but still try to remain technical, calm, and on beat. These two practices will eventually start blending into each other more and more.

[teshime]

Hey yo nerdtron! I think what u said on working on technicality is right man! i recently been forcing better technique trainings like more dimestopping and end my pop and hits properly... and it works out very well! I think i was offbeat last time due to lack of proper dimestopping and pop technique. after training more of it, my body control improve much better and my body finally starts to obediently follow the music! Thanks alot man!

If there are anyone out there who wanna practice to be on beat but havin trouble, perhaps this can work for u. could give it a try!

Thanks nerdtron!

[gomes1992]

haha well I also had some kind of advanced pop that would be offbeat
i think it took like about an year to past over
keep training hits to the POP of each song
train only muscle pops! it worked for me :D