This is really my opinion and you don’t have to agree with
me but I have huge issues with using only small portions of a piece in my
performances. I tend to use the whole
piece. I’ve seldom done some music mixes
because of that. To me, up to a certain
point, if you are using only bits and pieces of a music piece, you’re kind of
deconstructing someone else’s art for your own needs. And I have some issues
with that. Now, I do love industrial music
and we all know that they do sampling quite a bit… and that’s fine. But may I
point out that they do it with artistry and the insertion of those elements is
so well done that it’s seamless. Also,
both with industrial music and electronica, it can get repetitive so I
understand cutting such music; if you do, I’d like to hear a representative
portion of the piece, though.
I know enough musicians to know that their music is their
children… just like my dances are my children.
So I view performances as actually a play date between my child and the
musician(s)’s child. And, yes, it’s
possible to have a play date with more than 2 children, of course! You can
invite other musician’s “children” to play but, just like in real life, it
shouldn’t be complete and utter chaos.
In real life, if play dates were too chaotic, the parents would put an
end to it or go with smaller numbers. Similar analogy with your mixes.
Also, try not to make a baby Frankenstein. Sometimes, I’ll
hear mixes where the songs have so little to do with each other that it totally
felt like someone patchworked a baby Frankenstein together (you know, like an
arm comes from this child and a leg from this other child, and a torso from
this other child, etc.). Just like you should be striving for your music, your
costuming, your movements, your hair and makeup to work harmoniously together
and have common elements, you want the pieces that you’re using to work
together and create a seamless story.
I don’t know if these tendencies to want to mix music that
have nothing to do with each other is a by-product of wanting to perform them
all and feeling like there aren’t enough opportunities. I totally understand that there’s a lot of
good music out there. But I think that it’s important for a performance to have
focus and, if you use music pieces that have nothing to do with each other in
your mixes, it will give a sort of schizophrenic effect of not knowing where
you wanted to go. If you’ve ever watched Project Runway or Top Chef, you’ve
most certainly heard the judges say something like “there are some good ideas
in there but this lacked focus.” It’s
like that.
Believe me, based on the few times that I’ve had to mix or
cut music, it takes a long time to get a seamless effect (and, yes, even with
doing just a cut). There are tons of softwares out there, some free, to help
you out (I use Audacity). But it still takes time. So take the time. And, no, it’s not something
that you can pull off at the last second unless you are very experienced with
these editing softwares. If you don’t have time to do a good job (I understand
being pressed for time), try to find a DJ who can help you with that. There are
a lot of DJs out there and a good one should be able to mix your pieces very
seamlessly.
So when you’re picking out the different pieces that you
want to mix together, think of the story and mood that you are weaving
together. Consider that you’ll most
likely need to adjust the mood with each piece… even if they’re all about, say,
sadness. No two pieces are exactly alike. How are you going to transition the
pieces from one to the other musically? And how will that affect your
dancing?
What progression are you going for? Worst mixes are going
up-down-up-down… e.g., happy, anger, love, more anger, hope, hate, etc. So strive instead for some sort of
progression… something that would make sense in the real world. People are
rarely this chaotic in their emotions (PMS excluded, of course). And,
throughout, keep in the back of your mind this question: What is the overarching
theme of the whole piece? That should help you figure out how to order things.
