How do skaters keep from getting caught up in their music?

[FSWer]

Say,I was wondering how all you skaters don't get caught up in your music while skating in competition? I mean, usually when we hear music it can either hypnotize us or we end up daydreaming. Especailly if we enjoy a song. Please tell me.....what's your secret?

[sk8er1964]

Actually, my best performances have come when I was caught up in the music and the whole feeling, and didn't really think about what I was doing. It's being in the "zone" and the music is a very large part of it.

However, I do know what you are talking about. I used to worry about a particular element being performed exactly where I thought it should be in the music, and I would panic if I was too early or too late. I have worked very hard to get over that, and the funny thing is that I rarely was and rarely am off my music - it was just one more thing that I thought I was supposed to worry about. :P

[TreSk8sAZ]

I don't know about anyone else, but for me I DO get caught up in the music. That's what makes a program good. The only difference is you have the chance to express it, rather than just sitting and staring. A good program gets the feel of the music across. The connection to the music comes through the skating.

The other thing you have to remember is that most of us hear our programs daily. Usually I run through the program 1-2 times, then do sections and stuff to music as well. By the time you get to a competition, after hearing the music for 3-4 months, you don't get quite as caught up. Plus you have to worry about hitting jumps or spins on times, doing the movements, etc.

[tidesong]

Getting caught in the music helps!! By a certain time of practise, I would automatically associate part of the music with my program and it helps me to remember my program as well. But I must say that usually when I hear music I want to dance to it already...

[Sessy]

Mine's called Adrenaline :lol:

I had this competition "peptalk" printed out for that competition where everybody said I had continued on so well after such an awful fall, anyway this peptalk read "I LIVE FOR THIS SH.. MOTHERF......" And mostly that's what was on my mind during the competition, so when I fell I just thought that and then I could think in the same line for the rest of the programme and make something of it yet, instead of in the line of "oh my gosh I messed it all up now".

[Rusty Blades]

Oh fer sure! Being "in the music" is exactly where you want to be!

When you have done your program to the music a hundred times, the music and your skating should be inseparable and you should be just "feeling" your program, not thinking about it.

[FSWer]

What about a song such as..."Up,up and away in my buetiful ballon"? I heard it in my store yesterday,and it prompted me to post this thread. However when you hear it,you can end up daydreaming or spacing out. What happens if you get a song like that?

[southernsk8er]

I was wondering the exact opposite: how do you learn to feel the music MORE? I love my music, but I'm so focused on remembering the steps and trying to do all the elements right that I forget about the music! It's my first program, so I could use some advice. (Sorry if I'm changing the subject, but everyone was saying they like feeling their music.)

[sk8er1964]

I was wondering the exact opposite: how do you learn to feel the music MORE? I love my music, but I'm so focused on remembering the steps and trying to do all the elements right that I forget about the music! It's my first program, so I could use some advice. (Sorry if I'm changing the subject, but everyone was saying they like feeling their music.)


Practice, practice, practice until you don't need to actively remember steps etc. Also, do you use cure words? They help me when I compete.

[liz_on_ice]

I was wondering the exact opposite: how do you learn to feel the music MORE? I love my music, but I'm so focused on remembering the steps and trying to do all the elements right that I forget about the music! It's my first program, so I could use some advice. (Sorry if I'm changing the subject, but everyone was saying they like feeling their music.)

There's never enough ice time, or times you can play your music on the rink system. My coach told me to listen to my music, a lot, and run the program through in my head while I'm listening. Also practice the program to it in socks on the kitchen floor. The more times you can go through the better. Once you get it and are out of the "oh no, what do I do next?" mode you can listen to the music and start to have fun. That's when you start to feel like a real skater. :)

[doubletoe]

What about a song such as..."Up,up and away in my buetiful ballon"? I heard it in my store yesterday,and it prompted me to post this thread. However when you hear it,you can end up daydreaming or spacing out. What happens if you get a song like that?

The first time you skate your program in front of a judge and you get so caught up in your music that you forget what you're supposed to do next, it pretty much breaks you of that, ROFL! That's actually what happened to me on my very first freestyle test, which, needless to say, I did not pass. But I also have to admit that I had not spent enough time getting the program into muscle memory first.

I get caught up in certain music because it moves me, and that's how I know that it's the right music for me to skate to. However, after that, I need to listen to it at least 50 times as I break it down to choreograph the program, then work on it over and over to get the elements happening at just the right time in the music. By that point, the focus becomes very left-brain (focusing on technique, timing and logistics), so my emotional side is automatically turned off. Then of course I have to skate to it a hundred times in practice and it's just impossible to continue to be as affected by the emotionality of it when it becomes so routine and my coach is yelling at me to land that jump that I keep having trouble on.
BUT having said that, the ideal scenario is to choreograph body movements that LOOK like emotional expression, then do program run-throughs until the technique and timing is thoroughly ingrained in your muscle memory. Then when it's time to put on the costume and do it in front of an audience, you can--at least to a certain degree--surrender yourself to the music instead of having to think so much about what you're doing technically. When you can do that, it enables you to express it in such a way that it looks spontaneous, even though it isn't. I'm still not as good at this as I would like to be, but I find that having an audience that is experiencing my program for the first time helps me feel it fresh, too, and actually get moved by the music again.

[WJLServo]

I'll go with the replies that suggested that getting "caught up in music" is a good thing. Skate wearing MP3 player, at rinks that allow headphones, and miss it badly when I cannot.

Gotta tell ya, few things in life I enjoy more than playing "air guitar" while sailing on a back outside edge!

Although, there is a fairly well known Rock musician who figure skates at one of my favorite rinks; too shy to play air guitar when he's skating there, 'specially if it's one of his songs playing on MP3!

[sue123]

I've never actually done an official program, just my own messing around to a song. But I remember playing piano, I used to get so into the music. Once you know what you're supposed to be doing, you get into this zone where the notes (or steps in skating) just come out without thinking about it. I wouldn't hear the audience, wouldn't hear the mistakes, I just let it all come out. You have to trust yourself that you know the music well enough that you don't need to think which note comes next. I remember one time when I was playing at home, I got so into a song. I had the notes in front of me, but I didn't use them. In the middle, my grandpa came into the room and asked me a question. It kinda pulled me out of my reverie, and after that, I had no clue where I was in the song.

I would imagine the same wuold be true for a program. Once you've practiced it often enough, it just comes out so you don't need to think about doing it.

[sk8er1964]

I agree, Sue - that's what the zone feels like to me in skating, except for one exception. The crowd. It's happened twice to me where I was in the zone, and the crowd was feeding me and it was absolutely wonderful! There's been many other times where the crowd was very very supportive (and I love that 8-) ), but that zone feeling is different. I actually think I feel their energy more when the zone thing happens then when it does not.

[Sessy]

I was wondering the exact opposite: how do you learn to feel the music MORE? I love my music, but I'm so focused on remembering the steps and trying to do all the elements right that I forget about the music! It's my first program, so I could use some advice. (Sorry if I'm changing the subject, but everyone was saying they like feeling their music.)

Listen to it a lot on an mp3 player, imagining that you're doing every step of it.

[FSWer]

Say,while were on the suject of music. I was also just wondering what kind of tape recorder is really used in a Competition or Show to play the music skaters skate to? I mean, alone I'm sure they must use a reg. everyday home tape player. As there just with coaches. Which I know doesn't sound that lound from far away,and can easyly be drounded out by backround sound. But I've seen tapes skaters use,and there just reg. tape casettes. So I would think that there's another type of player that IS powerful enough for arenas,that they are ALSO compatable to. Am I right? Or does anyone have an answer? You may also continue with this thread. Thanks.

[sk8er1964]

FSWer, we use regular cd's and tapes - some competitions doen't accept tapes any more, though, and pretty much everyone uses cd's.

The cd player is the same kind that you'd have in a home entertainment system, or sometimes they are even a "boombox" type. The difference is that they are plugged into some pretty big speakers, and that's why they are so much louder. The next time you are at your rink, look up at the ceiling and you should see some pretty big (usually black) boxes up there - those are the speakers :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Here, it's all CDs and mini-disks now. The coaches all buy cheap CD players that sit on the side of the rink for their pupils' music, and try to play them through the central sound system, usually unsuccessfully (it needs attention!).

Recently, some of the skaters who have their music on their iPods have plumbed them into the rink's sound system, too.

But for competition it's CDs or mini-disks or not at all.

[TimDavidSkate]

For me I pick my music at the last hour of competition. It all depends what I am in the mood for the day of.
Spanish, Classical, Musical Theatre, Alternative... All the edited pieces I bring to competition I have already listened to throughout the year. Others just in a week or so. Thankfully my program does not exceed 2 minutes and 10 seconds, so I have already set jumping passes and spins mapped out.
Then as soon as I hear the first few seconds of my program, I just enjoy getting into a zone.

[doubletoe]

Here, it's all CDs and mini-disks now. The coaches all buy cheap CD players that sit on the side of the rink for their pupils' music, and try to play them through the central sound system, usually unsuccessfully (it needs attention!).

Recently, some of the skaters who have their music on their iPods have plumbed them into the rink's sound system, too.

But for competition it's CDs or mini-disks or not at all.

And I would advise against mini-disks, because it's too easy to lose them in a stack of regular sized CD's. This actually happened at our Adult Sectionals this year. If we hadn't found it at the last minute and run it over to the music booth, someone else would have won that particular event!

[jazzpants]

But for competition it's CDs or mini-disks or not at all.I personally would be afraid to have iPods and MP3 players at competitions. I'm afraid it may get lost/forgotten in the shuffle of warming up, competing, watching other events, meeting up with skating friends, etc... 8O CD's are cheap to burn and make copies.

[Rusty Blades]

I noticed that at the Canadian Star Skate and Adult Nationals this year all the music had been loaded into a computer at the judge's bench and the music man controlled everything from the keyboard. They preferred CDs, both for Master and Copy but would accept tape though I imagine they would have run the tape into the computer before the competition if the CD wouldn't read.

[FSWer]

And I would advise against mini-disks, because it's too easy to lose them in a stack of regular sized CD's. This actually happened at our Adult Sectionals this year. If we hadn't found it at the last minute and run it over to the music booth, someone else would have won that particular event!


How exactally are they plugged into speakers,and what more then likely were they using in Hartford at skate America at the Civic Center?

[slusher]

Yes, all the music is played ahead of time before it is loaded in to the computer and they make sure that the time on the cassette matches what gets loaded, because there can be differences in speed of playback. It doesn't sound like much, but a bit too fast and it might only be five seconds but that can just ruin your program.

Back to being caught up in music, I started out this year with a freeskate program that was a really good seamless piece of music, I cut my own music, but there weren't enough "cues" in the music to give me an idea of how much time I had left in the program. So I recut it to add some highlights, now when I hear a certain phrase I know I need to speed up the footwork or add some filler.

I do get caught up in the music and skate to it, I used to get caught up in piano too. It is absolutely the most wonderful feeling when it happens. You don't even remember the program you skated or the piece you played, it just all comes out. I live for that feeling.


I noticed that at the Canadian Star Skate and Adult Nationals this year all the music had been loaded into a computer at the judge's bench and the music man controlled everything from the keyboard. They preferred CDs, both for Master and Copy but would accept tape though I imagine they would have run the tape into the computer before the competition if the CD wouldn't read.

[Mrs Redboots]

And I would advise against mini-disks, because it's too easy to lose them in a stack of regular sized CD's. This actually happened at our Adult Sectionals this year. If we hadn't found it at the last minute and run it over to the music booth, someone else would have won that particular event!

Unfortunately at least one rink in this country will accept nothing but.

[CanAmSk8ter]

Say,I was wondering how all you skaters don't get caught up in your music while skating in competition? I mean, usually when we hear music it can either hypnotize us or we end up daydreaming. Especailly if we enjoy a song. Please tell me.....what's your secret?


Well, if you start daydreaming in the middle of your program at a competition, you've got issues, LOL. Getting caught up in your music is a good thing, as long as you're able to focus on your elements as they come up.

[Isk8NYC]

How exactally are they plugged into speakers,and what more then likely were they using in Hartford at skate America at the Civic Center?
The speakers are connected with wires to a sound system down on the floor. The sound system lets the event staff connect many different types of devices - each wire has a "jack" at the end of it that fits into a special opening. Just like plugging a pair of headphones into an iPod/MP3 player or a microphone into a karaoke machine.

The music room (which was probably in a hockey box) had a microphone plugged into one outlet for the announcer, the tape/CD player connected with another. The music coordinators would announce the skater, and then press 'play' on the system so the music was sent to the sound system and then to the speakers for everyone to hear.