Practice! Practice! Practice!

http://www.gypsyrumor.com/blog

This single most important piece of advice I can give that will improve your dancing is to practice on your own in addition to whatever dance classes you are taking. The same way a student studying in a university, wouldn't just go to classes, if that person wants to achieve high grades they would also study and prepare for exams. Same thing with dance.
I wish somebody told me this piece of advice earlier in my flamenco dance journey, I would have improved faster.
In this video, I will cover a few points that I try to keep in mind when I am practicing on my own.
The absolute worst thing that you can do when practicing on your own, is practice something the wrong way. I have made this mistake before, so I know how costly it is. I was learning a certain choreography in class, when I practiced it alone, in the dance studio, I remembered it wrong and so I switched the footwork around and practiced a slightly different footwork. Not only did I hurt myself by not progressing in my practice, I was in fact making things harder for myself. Because the next week when I got to the dance class my body wanted to do what it had practiced and I had to expend effort to forget the old pattern in order to re-learn the new pattern. To avoid this costly mistake and make sure that you practice on your own correctly, Let me share with you to keep me on the right practice track.


The key to this is voice recording. Now many dance teachers don't allow video recording in the class, but will allow voice recording. Check with your dance teacher to make sure that he or she is ok with this. Find a way to record sound in the classroom. I use my cell phone which has sound recording capability. Before I had the cell phone, I would lug my laptop dance class and use that for sound recording. The quality of the recording is not super important, as long as you can hear and distinguish the rhythm of footwork and how it fits in the music.

Here is a link to a voice recorder:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QWBM62/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=i...

that my friend uses and he tells me it is the best voice recorder in the world, but that is not what I use. I use the humble voice recording capabilities of my cell phone. I try to record the last 20 minutes of the class, usually that is when the teacher consolidates everything covered during the class. Off course if you are using Gypsy Rumor Tutor (http://www.gypsyrumor.com/tutor) you don't need to bother with any of this, because everything is already recorded for you and provided in the lesson material. After I record the last 20 minutes of the class, I download the sound to my computer.

If a certain part is particularly challenging for me, I slow the sound down. For example in Microsoft Media Player, there is a way to play a sound track at a slower speed. There are also different sound editors that let you slow down music. I practice the tricky part over and over again very slow. If I need to I practice it at a nauseating, snail pace speed until I feel comfortable.
Having the voice recording from the class ensures that I am getting the right pattern and the right rhythm and I am not practicing the wrong thing.
Once I have the right pattern, the right rhythm and the right moves. I practice it faster and faster until I can do it in my sleep.

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Howto & Style

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• flamenco
• flamenco practice
• flamenco sound recording
• flamenco dance
• flamenco dance lesson
• flamenco dance lessons
• dance studio
• dance
• record