T is for Music

In case you missed my post on P--which is P is for Dancing, I dance. One of the most important elements of dancing is time, and by time I mean rhythm and beat. But it's called keeping time for a reason. Beat would mean nothing without time. It's what keeps everything from happening at once.

To be totally truthful I am horrible at keeping time, although I'm pretty good at tricking people to thinking I'm good at it.

One good way to trick people is to count the music, not the movements. Some music is much easier to count than other. And its truly fascinating to see the way different cultures use time and rhythm in their music.

Most music is broken down into meters of eight, especially western music. Although you have your variations, like the Waltz which is a three, or the March which is a four.

Arabic music is typically 6's and 4's and it changes from one to another, which is something you rarely hear in western pop music (or Arabic pop music either for that matter)

Yet all music has something in common and that's rhythm and good writing should have rhythm too. I'm not saying it should keep the same tempo the entire time, the pace can speed up, time can seem to speed up, but it should have a beat. A pace, a pulse. If it doesn't have time (and not just a timeline) then everything happens at once, and that's no good at all.

I figured I'd leave you with some of my favorite music to listen too while I'm writing:

Right now I've been obsessed by Beat Antique--they are a fusion band, mixing in Arabic rhythms with western pop music (particularly dubstep)