Music On The Go - A Review of Google Play

I had originally created this post as a little more personal post, less concerned with dance class/performance but still somewhat related. But in the time between drafting it and posting it, a very Real-Life-Dance example occurred, which I will share below!

In recent weeks I have been reworking my Winter playlist since a friend asked me if I had one to share. It is basically my pre-Thanksgiving/early December playlist, with unconventional holiday tunes, and songs focused on snow, winter, etc. as well as some obscure Christmas tunes. So no Silver Bells on this list, but Joni Mitchell's "River" is perfect, as is Elvis Costello's "I Felt The Chill Before the Winter Came".

Years ago, I used to do music swaps throughout the year with friends, and there was always a winter or holiday-themed swap where we would share our favorites to find new music to enjoy. But now CD's are so 2010, and instead I like to use streaming services to discover new music and share playlists. It's been fun revisiting my list and adding some new gems to love. (and if you're interested, here is my always-a-work-in-progress Winter playlist this year)

The point of this post is to share with you Google Play Music - All Access (a mouthful!). I have been on it since pretty much when All Access was launched, and it has been phenomenal. The service is well worth the cost monthly for what it affords me. It is primarily used through your browser, though there are apps (more on that later). I can add albums to my "collection" without owning them--they just go to my library and are listed among my preferred albums. I can listen to most new music/albums the day they come out, in their entirety, without having to decide to buy it. I can make playlists just like iTunes (though I hope they implement folders soon, because I have a LOT of playlists so it's a little unwieldy), and I can share those lists socially with friends.

Mm Mm Monday - Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl was the keynote speaker at SXSW this year. I shared Bruce Springteen's moving keynote last year, and this year Dave's is just as important and beautiful for artists of all stripes. He poetically details a life of inspiration, creation, collaboration, and hones in on those key moments when we are moved in...new directions. *chuckle*

"Guilt. Guilt is cancer. It will confine you, torture you, destroy you as a musician. It is a wall. It is a black hole. It is a thief. It will keep you from YOU. Remember learning your first song, or riff, or writing your first lyric? There was no guilt then. Remember when there WAS no right or wrong? Remember the simple reward of just . . . playing music? You are still, and will always be that person at your core. The musician. And, The musician comes first.

Fuck guilty pleasure. How about . . . just pleasure?"

Read full transcript at: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/dave-grohls-sxsw-keynote-speech-
And see the video below:

Student Spotlight - Megan Romano

Name: Megan Romano
Age: 32
Profession: Epidemiologist/PhD student (I study the determinants of disease)
Hobbies: Knitting, baking, reading, hiking, swing dancing
How long have you been studying bellydance? About 4 years total - 1 1/2 years of cabaret, about 6 months of Egyptian, and the rest ATS with Shay

When did you first see bellydance? What were your first impressions?
I remember being completely mesmerized by a woman doing bellydance during a talent show in college. At the time I wasn't able to identify it as bellydance specifically, but I was fascinated by the contrast of fluid and percussive movements she used in her performance. I distinctly remember the first time that I saw improv tribal style bellydance. I had been dancing for about a year with the Goddess Dancing in Boston and was participating in their student showcase with the rest of my cabaret class. I had never seen tribal bellydance before, so I watched Tassellations dress rehearsal and was in total awe of how powerful and graceful their movements were and how much fun they seemed to be having dancing together. I must have asked Zia about a million questions afterwards -- "You make it up? Seriously, every time it is different? You use cues to choreograph as you go? Does that really work?" It pretty well blew my mind, and I knew I'd have to try it for myself.

What motivated you to finally take your first bellydance class?
My roommate practically dragged me to my first class, and I've been hooked ever since.

Mm Mm Monday - Everyday Looper

This one has been among my favorites on YouTube for a few years. I love that this guy just whips this stuff up in realtime with an iPhone!  It does make me think about dance (yes really!). He makes it look so effortless. But you know for a fact that it took hours...days...weeks...YEARS for this guy to hone each skill he displays in this video. He didn't just mess around a little bit here and there, he has honed his musical ear, voice, and use of this tool/instrument to create this humble little video. Do you practice enough to make your art look this effortless? He is inspiring!

Bruce Springsteen on Creativity

This year, Bruce Springsteen was the keynote speaker at the Austin music festival, South by Southwest (SXSW), and delivered a great talk about the evolution of music in his lifetime.

What really resonated with me was when he talked about authenticity:

"The genesis and power of creativity... it's all about how you're putting what you do together. The elements don't matter. The purity of human expression and experience is not confined to guitars, to tubes, to turntables, to microchips. There is no right way, no pure way, of doing it. There's just doing it.

We live in a post-authentic world. Today authenticity is a house of mirrors. It's all just what you're bringing when the lights go down. It's your teachers, your influences, your personal history. And at the

end of the day, it's the power and purpose of (your music) that still matters."

I love this sentiment. Truly. I would argue there is nearly always a pure or authentic way to do things. Inasmuch as we have access to the source material, anyone who is moved to re-create what was can take that knowledge and do so; and I think that is an amazing and beautiful art and skill in and of itself. But not everyone desires to re-create, not every desires to emulate, not everyone desires to preserve. Some are more motivated by creating something new, using various influences and inspirations from these original sources (or not!).

Some artists are more interested in the intersection of multiple influences--whether it is an exploration of their similarities, or highlighting the contrasts of their differences, there is room for all these approaches to art and creativity. So long as we are honest about what we are creating, there is a place for everything and everyone in the pursuit of our art.

Ideally, we do our creating with understanding of the Root of what we are doing. Rather than just grabbing this and that and shoving them together, instead really digging into the nuance of the material, and making a conscious choice about the creative decisions we arrive at makes for the very best performances. It is by understanding what came before us that we are best prepared to push the envelope and evolve gracefully into the future.

So which are you? Do you prefer to re-create the source? Or innovate and remix? Neither one is better than the other, it's all about what moves you...

See the whole fabulous speech here:

Authenticity requires context

"I think that we get squeamish about using the term "American" because we are concerned with authenticity. I do believe that it's important to study and respect the dances that came before us and label what we do appropriately. However, I think that when we stress too much about being "authentic", we forget what authenticity really means.

I read an article in Saveur magazine a few years ago that changed the way I think of that term. It talked about how people were going to great lengths to recreate the earliest known recipes for ravioli. In their quest for authenticity, they were ordering game and organ meats from specialty vendors on the other side of the country. They got the details right, but lost the spirit of the dish: ravioli was a thrifty food, what you made with the scraps you had left over from other dishes. The point of the article was that authenticity is meaningless without context."

jmdruadh on Bhuz

This quote really gave me some great food for thought about our definition of authenticity in the dance. When the dances we do today were first conceived, what was the context in which it was created? Why did they move the way they did, address the music the way they did...it's really worth thinking about. Because it can better guide us in making decisions about our adaptations or fusions which really get at the heart of the original form we are building on.

Tribal Bellydance Music I Used To Love (and still do!!)

When I first began teaching, I had a 32-CD case full of music I had collected for listening and practice (and there was a lot more than that which didn't fit in those sleeves and stayed at home).  But among that collection, there were a few albums which were regularly used in my classes and performances--they were the 'must-have' albums for tribal dancers in those early days of the genre--which are still among my favorites today.  I thought I would share those titles with you, so if you don't already own them, you can fill out your musical collection if you are inspired.  Of course, you probably don't buy CD's very much these days, so I am linking to their MP3 downloads for your convenience. 

Ollin Arageed by Hamza El Din

A song we often dance to in slow in class, Ollin Arageed by Hamza El Din, has a beautiful history behind it.

"Hamza El Din - Ollin Arageed
A Nubian percussion performance, played for a person only once in a lifetime--at the celebration of a first wedding--the rythm composed of three different beats on the tar, accompanied by a melodie handclapping, feet beating on the ground, and, traditionally, singing and the noise of women's jewelry in their soft movements to those rythms (sic)."

Hear the whole song on YouTube HERE
Buy the song yourself HERE
Thanks to the beautiful Amel Tafsout for passing along this link!



Side note, this was a popular song played by The Grateful Dead. You can hear a snippet of the live version played at Gizah HERE

On Music and Passion

I loves me some TEDTalks, and this one is no exception.  I dare you not to be moved and inspired by this talk by conductor and musician Benjamin Zander.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Skillz & Drillz! Mapping Your Music

If I haven't said it enough before, I'll say it again: ya gotta know your music! But other than listening to it over and over again, what else can you do to get intimate with your tunes? Music mapping is a fantastic tool to find new ways to visualize your music's structure, so you can use it to maximum effect. There are many different ways to map your music, such as dividing out the 8-counts in each verse and chorus, noting time signatures of major changes throughout the song, drawing pictures to illustrate the feel of each part of the music ("this part is swirly, this part is sharp and jaggy, this is a slightly wavy line"), and there is also the ever-beloved Excel spreadhseet for those so organizationally inclined (I don't know what you're talking about...).

This month, it's time to make your own music map. Find a piece of music you would like to know better (if you don't have one in mind, check out Luxor Baladna from the Suggested Music List) and sit down with it. Listen through it a couple of times, until you feel you are starting to hear patterns emerge. For instance, think in terms of what instruments, sounds, or feelings come through, and when they repeat: "here the drums seem to come forward more, here the mizmar is really pushing to the top of the pile, then back to the drums." Or "this part is more quiet, this part is rambunctious, this part sounds really happy, then back to quieter," etc. Then select a method of choice to give each section a delineation, be it by counts, times, imagery, or whatever other way you would like to try. Maybe try a couple methods to see which one is the most useful to you. Once you have your map, consider what movements or movement families seem to best reflect each section of your music. Then put your feet to floor and see how it feels. Let me know how it goes, guys--I love to hear feedback on your Skillz & Drillz! work.

A question of musicality...

On Tribe, a fellow dancer shared a wonderful link to spark a discussion about how you learn and/or teach musicality in bellydance.   It ties into yet another Tribe discussion on the Tribal Bellydance tribe where a fellow member asked about whether you "count" or "feel" the music, which this article also addresses.  The article is about salsa, but the concepts apply, and offers good food for thought, so I thought I would share!

Here is a snippet:



"To the many who try to downplay the use of counting music, consider for a moment our beloved salsa music that we yearn to dance to. Those musicians count their music. In the words of “The Unlikely Salsero” Don Baarns, “Music ain’t random.” It has structure. No matter how dynamic or unconventional a song is, it has structure. The count is the structure of this music. A band has to count its music the same so that each member can be on the same page, or else musical chaos ensues. When each band member is playing his or her role and instrument, doing something different from one another that still somehow gels together into the beautiful sounds we hear, the count is the common ground that they all return to. I dare anyone to try to convince a legitimate musician or band not to count because it’s not important. The members of the band cannot simply “feel” the music. Each band member thinks differently and has a different personality, and therefore will not feel or interpret the music the same as the next. If each member only relied on his or her “feeling”, the song would be an un-danceable mess. This is no different for us in this partner dance we call salsa. If you are dancing with another person, you are dealing with another mind, another personality that will not feel the music the same way that you do, not to mention the fact that person is of the opposite gender (but that’s another story). The count is there so that you both will be able to be on the same page, the same way that the members of a band would. If the musicians that produce the music we dance to feel that counting is important, why shouldn't we?"


DanceNerdsUnite also has a post about musicality that I really enjoyed reading.


"Musical dancers, on the other hand, never disregard the music to fit in more tricks. “You can see the effort in a nonmusical dancer—they are often step-driven,” says NYC ballet teacher Deborah Wingert. “Musical dancers don’t just turn until they stop. They turn until they have to move on to the next point in the music. Musical dancers never get so caught up in steps that they ignore the music.”"

The Sound of Music: Fast Class Music

You have asked for it, and I am happy to be sharing with you more music suggestions for dancing and listening. This month we're looking at the common music we use in classes each week. The more familiar you are with these songs, the better you will be able to respond to it in the moment, and the better dancer you will be. Especially in the lead, timing your transitions thoughtfully around changes in the music is a key to gently bringing your followers along with you, making everyone look synchronous and confident.

And the more you listen to Middle Eastern music in general, the more you will begin to recognize common themes and patterns. Eventually, you develop an ear that can anticipate changes, even in music you may have never heard before, and be able to respond to them spontaneously. That's when the real magic strikes...and opens doors to dancing joyfully to live musicians!

So here is a list of fast songs we use in class, which has links to the album on either Amazon or iTunes where you can purchase the individual songs, or the entire album!


Baladi Unplugged (our zilling tune!) / Helm / Itneen

Abu Leila Dance Song / Hasan Abu Layla / Music of the Fellahin

Saidi Festival / Upper Egypt Ensemble / Egypt-A Musical Voyage

Bred Atay / Kasbah Rockers / Kasbah Rockers

Mazamir / BodyShock / The Bellydance Project

Saidi / Atef Mitkal Kenawy / Passion for Percussion*

Sout With Spice / FatChance Belly Dance / Itneen

Baladi We Hetta / Hossam Ramzy / Hafla Bellydance Party

Wuh Ya Booy (Oh Father) / Hossam Ramzy / Sabla Tolo III

Salam Salam / The Third Planet / The Third Planet

Entah / Helm /Itneen

Badass Baladi / Raquy and the Cavemen / Greatest Belly-Dance Hits Vol 2

*This is a legal, free download of this entire album. Just click "Slow Download" to start the transfer.

Music Monday: Latin-y!

It's yet another installment of Music Monday, and this week it's Latin-stylee for the win! A mix of titles from around the world with Latin flava', for dancing on the stage or around your living room.

Song - Artist - Album
Onda Buena - Barrio Del Rio - Baila Habibi
Flamenco Tapas (Barcelona Bounce Remix) - Ethno Dance - Club Passport Remix
Santa Maria - Gotan Project
Cumbia De Los Muertos - Ozomatli
Hanuman - Rodrigo y Gabriela
Magalenha - Sergio Mendes - Brasileiro

Music Monday - Moody Monday

I love iTunes for the way it can organize my playlists. I have ones for my classes, divided up by different levels of skill and paces of music. I have ones for performances, and for styles of music (Spanish, Bhangra, etc). And for personal music, I also have ones divided up by mood or feel. I have an Upbeat playlist, as I shared last week I have a Meditation playlist, a Chill playlist, and this week, I am sharing some selections from my Moody playlist.

As I come down from the high that was the Tribal Dreams Festival weekend, and I sit in my grey, quiet living room alone, I feel a little moody. Why is it that when we're in a sad mood, sometimes the only cure is sad tunes? Well, my  Moody List isn't necessarily sad songs, but just songs with lyrics or general feel of...well...a little bit blue.

Moody Monday
Save Me                                   -Aimee Mann            -Magnolia Soundtrack
Hide and Seek                          -Imogen Heap           -Speak for Youself
Watching You Without Me      -Kate Bush                -Hounds of Love
Feels Like Home                     -Newton Faulkner     -Hand Built By Robots
Call and Answer                      -Barenaked Ladies    -Stunt
I Know Why                            -Sheryl Crow            -Wildflower (mine is an acoustic version)
Sea Dreamer                            -Sting w/Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale    -Breathing Under Water

Music Monday - Movin' and Groovin'

 Here's music that makes me bop around happily.  Movits! has a couple songs I love to use in high-action drills to start off my more advanced classes, and herein is one of them. Augustito 2004 is good for medium drills, with a fun spirit behind it (look up the lyrics). Louis Prima, The Beatles, Cherry Poppin' Daddies...yeah, we got a little bit of everything here.




Jump, Jive, An' Wail                Louis Prima             Collector's Series   
Fel del Av Gården                    Movits!                   Äppelknyckarjazz   
Ob - La - Di, Ob - La - Da       The Beatles             1967-1970 Blue Album\Disc 2   
Agustito 2004                          Ketama                    20 Pa' Ketama
Jump in the Line                      Cherry Poppin' Daddies          
Smile                                        Lily Allen               Smile - EP     

BTW, the Movits! video for Fel del Av Garden makes my day, too. Check it out!

Music Monday - Meditation

I have not been as regular in my meditation practice this year as in previous, but I hope to get myself back on the wagon this winter.  I meditate with gentle music in the background, as I find it helps center me, and my monkey mind is a little less wild. I also like to set up playlists so that they run the length of time I would like to meditate, so that I don't shortchange myself by getting grumpy and giving up after 5 minutes, nor do I lose track of my day and sit for an hour when I really only have a half hour to spare.  I like the tracks to be 5-7 minutes or more apiece so that I am not constantly "shifting gears" with new tunes every 3 minutes like most songs run these days.

Unfortunately, much of my music is still "trapped" on an iMac that pooped out on me, but I will share these three I still have on my laptop playlist for your enjoyment. Enjoy!

Music Monday - Feelin' The Love

Alright, I have never been one for the "every day of the week has its own blog theme", but I have been wanting to give a little more space for music recommendations and discussions 'round these parts, so I am going to implement a "Music Monday" theme and see how it goes. Let me know what you think, eh?

Music Monday will have a little bit of whatever it is I am listening to right now. Some will be dance music, but some will just be my listenin' and enjoyin' music!  Most everything I listen to these days is available on iTunes and/or Amazon, so you can snag it for yourself. :)

I have been listening to a lot of love-themed upbeat music lately to keep me singin' along and feeling positive. So here are some of my favorite "Feelin' The Love" tunes right now, with links to iTunes:

Song - Artist - Album

Super Duper - Joss Stone - The Soul Sessions
Whenever I Say Your Name - Sting Feat. Mary J. Blige - Sacred Love
Home -  Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up from Below
Throw Your Arms Around Me - Neil Finn - (live bootleg, sorry, but here is another version, and here)
Three Little Birds - Bob Marley - Legend
You Give Me Something - Jamiroquai - A Funk Odessey

I wanted to make an iMix to put all the songs in one place, but apparently some of my music wasn't "approved" for use in the iMix by iTunes (even though they sell these exact songs). I will look further into this in the future, to simplify browsing the music in one place, rather than with individual links. For now, enjoy the music!

More on music: Traditional music opens you up...

Expanding on the "Does Music Make the Dancer" post the other day, fellow dancer and student, Meissa, posted this on the Shira.net tribe earlier this year:

"I have been told "you can bellydance to anything you want" more times than I can count True, but, I also crashed and burned so very hard on my last solo of 2009 (which was a total trainwreck and a huge pain to watch-I can't believe I subjected people to THAT kind of self-indulgence), and preparing my first solo of 2010, cause I didn't learn from my 2009 mistake.  

I was so hellbent on dancing to that obscure music no one had danced to before, and putting on that pretty costume that no one else had, that I forgot what I really wanted to do: BELLYDANCE.

I was so very proud of myself when I danced solo to a traditional piece for the first time. I forgot about all the trinketry and the jewelry and just allowed myself to open up and feel the music."

I simply adored these sentiments from Meissa!

Does the music make the dancer?

When I first got together with a troupe, we were a democratic group, with no director. Everyone contributed music and costuming and choreographies to their best ability. There was one member who always brought really diverse music that was fun to move to, but it was never anything event remotely Middle Eastern or North African. Some of it we used for variety, sure. But when she kept bringing less and less appropriate music (by our opinion of course), I had to ask her about it. Her response was "I don't really like Middle Eastern music." And I had to ask her, "They WHY are you into bellydance?" And yet today, this is a very common sentiment...bellydancers who don't care for bellydance music. How does that compute?

While I am a big proponent of being able to play with lots of different music to add variety to your dance, particularly when we perform for mostly bellydance audiences (and who wants to hear Miserlou again), I would think one of the base requirements of being a bellydancer is listening to, appreciating, and dancing to Middle Eastern music. Otherwise, I would think any number of other styles of personal expression would make more sense: modern dancer, interpretive dancer, or world fusion dance is my favorite.

So before I make this sound like I am just judging other people and don't know of what I speak, I myself have also struggled with this topic.

iPod Touch worth it?

Today a student of mine asked about iPod Touch on her FB, and it got me thinking about my Touch I got for Christmas and how it has been working out for me in the intervening months. I wrote her a lengthy reply, and thought I would share it here. I know a lot of my fellow dancers and teachers use iPods extensively, and might benefit from hearing my experience.

Q. My ancient iPod classic is on its last legs. Anybody have an ipod touch? Thoughts? Why would I get one of those v. another classic?

A. I have owned three iPods--a Classic 20 Gig, Nano 2nd Gen 4 Gig, and Nano 4th Gen 8 Gig. I hardly ever used my (old, heavy, clunky) Classic 20 Gig to its fullest capacity because it was so hard to scroll through so much music. The click-wheel is truly an incredible innovation, but it has its limits. 20 Gigs was TOO MUCH music, and the interface being limited on purpose for simplicity made it cumbersome to use at that size. Then my 4 and 8 gigs weren't enough. The 4 because it was way too small to keep all my class and troupe music on and still have anything left over for my own listening pleasure, and the 8 because that now had a color screen and was also storing album art, the occasional movie, etc. But even at 8, despite some innovations in the interface software, I was starting to get that old familiar irritation of having a limited interface for a lot of data.

Enter the iTouch.

I got the largest version, because I wanted to be able to use all its features without having to choose what can and can't fit--I wanted all my dance music, plus some music for myself, and some videos. So far I have barely scratched the surface of its capacity, and though I am glad I made the choice to get a large capacity one, most people can probably get away with the mid-range for uses like mine.

As for the interface, it is just as intuitive as the other iPods, but with even more robust navigation options for accessing and working with your data. Though I have more music on it than my other iPods, I can get to it all faster. I can edit on the go playlists without having to start from scratch. When browsing lists, I can skip to a letter of the alphabet without scrolling interminably to get there. I can switch from Album to Artist without going back-back-forward, I just click on an icon at the bottom of the screen. Things just move a little faster, smoother, easier. Also a lot easier to read and see the body of information displayed thanks to a nice big screen.

Plus I have a calendar that interfaces with my Google Calendar, and updates whenever I am near an open WiFi connection (which I am a lot). I have a weight/calorie tracker to help with my diet efforts. Last night pulled up my Last.fm program, plugged it into our stereo, and played a Sneakerpimps-inspired playlist for a party. I ripped a copy of my favorite bellydance video to have on hand for reference of basic movement verbiage used in teaching. I can take a quick note for later reference--the virtual keyboard on these are shockingly easy to use. I have a few games to pass the time when waiting for appointments, or to pass to a friend's child to amuse them while we chat over tea (yes, I have some toddler-specific games for just that purpose ;). The list goes on.

I wish I could have an iPhone, but I won't switch to AT&T (too many friends who have been unhappy). I would love to be able to use 4G and not have to be near WiFi anytime I want to access the net (though I have a G1 phone for that), and I would love a camera in it. But those are my only complaints. I think the iTouch is really handy for my uses. Food for thought.