Salsa Timing and Musicality

Salsa Speed Test – How Fast Can You Dance?

Give it a try and post your maximum BPM (beats per minute) in the youtube video comments!

I wanted to do something different with this video and I turned it into a fun little game to see how fast you can dance salsa.

Why?

Salsa is a fast dance and, although dancing as fast as possible isn’t the goal of social dancing, when the tempo increases it’s a good stress-test for your skills.

It’s one thing to be able to do something slow. It’s a whole other thing to be able to do it smoothly and elegantly with your partner at high speed.

We’ll only use the basic step in this test but you can use this same concept when you’re practicing partner work:

  • Learn the move/sequence slowly to counts
  • Try it to slow music
  • Try it to faster music

That’s a great way to progress and find your current limit.

Once you’ve identified your limit, check your technique to find out what’s holding you back. Once you address your limitation and get some more slow practice in, you’ll likely be able to do it a little bit faster each time.

This test uses 160-300 BPM (beats per minute):

  • 150-180 BPM: slow salsa songs
  • 180-200 BPM: mid-tempo, ideal for dancing
  • 200-220 BPM: fast
  • 220+ BPM: very fast, usually stops being fun 😅

Test yourself and comment your speed on the youtube video.

Have fun with it!

 

 

How to Find the Beat in Salsa Music (Free Video Course)

(Full course outline below)

Finding the Beat (FTB) is a free youtube course that’s helped thousands of new salsa dancers get past their #1 problem: how to find the beat in salsa music.

If it helps you, please share it with your friends!

Although designed for salsa dancers, because salsa music is the most complex, these lessons will help you find the beat in ANY type of music.

I’ve broken down the process into 4 logical steps:

  1. Counting non-salsa music (easy music)
  2. Moving to non-salsa music
  3. Counting salsa music (more complex)
  4. Moving to salsa music

By the end of this course you’ll be able to…

  • Understand the structure of music
  • Count music
  • Hear the beat in salsa music
  • Find the 1 in salsa music
  • Stay on time while dancing salsa with much higher success

Here’s the Finding the Beat youtube playlist and you can find the entire course outline below.

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Salsa Timing: The Difference Between Salsa On 1 and On 2

There are a lot of questions and myths out there around the difference between salsa on 1 and on 2, so we’ve collected the facts here for you.

We hope this article will allow you to have more educated conversations on salsa timing, and help you decide which timing you enjoy more. It’s OK to love both!

Before we dive in, here’s some quick background…

On1 salsa timing is commonly known as LA style salsa, which was developed by the Vazquez brothers focusing on sharp hits in the music, flashy moves and acrobatics.

On2 salsa timing is commonly known as New York style salsa.  There are a few different ways to dance On2. Most notably there is the original mambo timing from the Paladium era 2-3-4, 6-7-8 (known as “contratiempo” in Spanish), as well as dancing to beats 1-2-3, 5-6-7 (known as “a tiempo” in Spanish). Dancing On2 to 1-2-3, 5-6-7 was popularized by Eddie Torres. The common denominator between all ways to dance On2 is that your break steps are on 2 and 6.

Let’s dig in and find out why these timings look and feel different.

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