Okay I am going to be nasty, elitist and a hag, but I attended a figure session for the first time in a while last week, and I cannot believe how unimaginative people are with their choices of music. They are going back to things that were played 10 or 20 years ago.

The problem is that as I am planning to attend more regular figure sessions I will be subjected to this music session after session and time and time again. My ears cannot handle it. And after speaking to some of the other skaters they feel the same way. However to solve this problem I do have a criteria for picking music and here are my new rules:

1/ The piece of music must be something that you like, and
2/ It must be something that everyone else can enjoy, and
3/ It must be something that people can handle listening to again and again and again ......, and
4/ When you play the music people start skating to it themselves, and
5/ Coaches must be given a course in latest music trends so that they don't choose these tired old pieces year after year because how many times can you listen to Yanni or Hooked on Classics

Okay this is my personal gripe but if I could consult everyone on their music I am sure I could come up with some more imaginative and interesting music choices than what the current crop of skaters are choosing. Also there is so much great music out there - why do skaters constantly pick pieces that have been done to death?

I am really passionate about music and music choices. Yes I am elitist but I am really sick of listening to the music that is being played.

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I hear ya. As a musician and a music teacher I can't bear to hear the same pieces over and over. What I hate more is BAD cuts by people who don't know much about music. I have one poor girl at my club skating to some variation of the yellow submarine. Ok, might have been cute as a wee one, but this girl is in her teens. I couldn't even imagine allowing my coach to pick that music for me.

I actually picked and cut my music for my program this year. I started with new coaches and didn't know their style or taste in solo music. So I chose it myself and my coach actually liked it.

There are so many wonderful composers and pieces of music I wish people would come up with new stuff

Oh, Willy! I agree completely! There are so many fabulous pieces of music in this world -- classical, jazz, modern. Why would you want to skate to the same old crap that has been used for decades? I think the judges should be allowed to deduct points if they've heard your music 100 times already!!

How right you are! THANKFULLY most of the coaches at my rink are pretty imaginative and actively look for new music Think of us, though, because we have mixed (dance and free) patches and some of the dance music is DIRE

I've chosen some of my music and my old coach chose some too but I was always happy with her selections.

How do you feel about using vocals for Free? I know it's not permitted but there's lots of vocal music that I like but either can't get the instrumental version

L x

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The best whisper is a click

The trouble is, of course, that if you are too imaginative with your choice of music, the judges won't know what you are trying to do. This especially with Interpretive. Having said that, if I were a judge and had to sit through any more routines from Cats or Chicago, especially All That Jazz, I'd automatically give an 0.5 deduction for failure of imagination!

Although I felt so sorry for the two little girls, from different rinks, who ended up both skating to My Old Man's a Dustman in the same Artistic class at last year's Streatham Open Festival!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Hey what's up with music by Yanni? My last programme was to music by Yanni and nobody at my rink had heard of him or heard the music and everyone said how much they liked it. Even better was when I passed my Level 2 Free Test and at the end the judge complimented me on my choice of music, asking what it was and saying how much she loved it. Maybe Yanni is more popular in the USA but I've never heard of anyone else skating to it over here in the UK.

Nicki

I think coaches and skaters pick warhorses because they are basically lazy. Music like Chicago, Malaguena, or Carmen are "easy" to choreograph to - they have clear highlights that even the most tone-deaf can hear, have an obvious character (jazzy flapper, spanishy) and are recognizeable by judges and audience alike.

It's much easier to say to a 12 year old, "Okay, now fling your arm when the cymbal crashes" instead of actually teaching them about musical interpretation and presentation. Especially when you have kids who aren't so serious about their skating and just want to have fun. Coaches aren't always good choreographers, and often it's either too expensive for the parent to do get an outside choreographer, or the coach doesn't see it as necessary and thinks they are doing a fine job.

I'm not at all sure I agree that it is laziness. Beginners need clear cut examples, and are not ready for subtleties, IMO. There are also people who just cannot feel the music (I knew one) and really do need the "clash of the cymbals". OTOH, I too have been driven crazy by endless repetition of such gems as the theme to Austin Powers, or having to watch a large teenager attempting a medly from The Sound of Music, which should have been done by some little sprite.

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I don't know. I think I agree with the original "laziness" comment. The coaches who are the worst offenders where I skate pick hackneyed music for all levels, including their students who compete at U.S. Nationals. These are skaters who *can* feel the music, because they've done so with different music and choreograhers. It's just that the coaches don't put the effort into finding different music. One of my own coaches recently used the Hooked on Swing version of In the Mood for one student, and Malaguena for another! Obviously, I don't let my coaches pick my music.

Also, with a little effort, you can find different music that isn't subtle. There are lots of less-used classical pieces (if you want to go the classical route) that are interesting, but provide definite places for jump landings or choreographic elements. Any concerto (harp, flute, violin, mandolin, guitar) can be cut so as to be interesting and varied, because a concerto comes as a three-pack already -- usually fast, slow, fast.

BTW, my daughter's coach never picks music for her students. She firmly believes that it should be up to the student and that everyone should skate to music they like. At first, I was unhappy about that because it put an additional burden on me, that I knew some other coaches did for their students; but my daughter really enjoyed it and never picked anything too common.

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I agree, dbny. One of the first things my coach asked me when I first started skating was if I had any music background (I had). She said that it would make learning to skate so much easier because I was familiar with beat and rhythm.

Others are not so lucky, especially youngsters.

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Same here! A lot of people loved my Yanni piece at my rink! Of course, I was judging from when I was picking out music with my coach and he played it on the ice session that my coach (he was trying it out) and practically everyone in the session was "skating to it.") Quite humorous, hee hee... So far, I had two other people who know of my skating music who wishes I retire it soon... so THEY could skate to it themselves!

BTW: I *AM* in the US!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

So do I. I was a musician in a previous life before I got into skating. (Or at least according to my college records, I do. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Music, specializing in Electronic Music...) Comes in quite handy for choosing music for me...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Amen with hearing the same pieces over and over again!
If I hear one more "Malguena", I will scream!!

I do agree that children's choices have somewhat different standards in choosing.

Well I am glad I have given an avenue for therapy.

BTW - I have thought of the perfect revenge - play some piece of really bad eville dance music (as there are very few people doing dance at our rink) just to get back at them all. I found a tape of it the other night.

I did not mean to put a pox on Yanni - it is just where I am he is overdone.

jp1andOnly - got to agree about those bad cuts or even picking pieces that just don't go together. Last year one of our skaters had the finale from the Carnival of the Animals spliced together with the theme from Ice Castles - it was shocking and the cut was really bad.

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There was one girl (about 6 or 7) who had such poorly cut music that it would crackle where the music was cut. I saw her at an ex at out rink. Her mom was sitting directly ahead of my mom, the moms of 2 of my friends and I, and she was saying to the woman next to her how happy she was with the way she'd done the music.

Charlotte Clements skated to Yanni with Gary Shortland when they won the British a few years ago! It WAS a really good piece though ..... I was really jealous

I think that you're right, though, I've not heard much of Yanni over here and definitely not for skating. We seem to get endless Carmens, even MORE endless 'show' numbers and add that to the boring dirges that were around a couple of years ago so that everyone could show how 'artistic' they are (when some of them most definitely AREN'T .... miaow ) and you've got a really great mix of music

Lx

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The best whisper is a click

Any piece of music that Michelle Kwan has used generally ends up getting over-used by the younger skaters.

Right now it's "The Feeling Begins" ... can't count the number of times I've heard it in the past couple years (not counting Michelle and Navka/Kostamarov).

and of course the old hacks like Malaguena and Carmen.

BTW, Gary S. has excellent taste as a coach in picking music to do free dances for tests. Spends a lot of time picking music that suits the student. I am at least partially of the thought that there are some coaches who just "pull a tape out of their stash" that's the right duration for the required level and hand it to the kid.

My coach is very much of the "suit the music to the skater" school of thought; I have learnt to trust him for my artistic pieces. Although he will listen to me - it's usually a joint decision what we are doing. But, by and large, the pieces I've chosen for myself didn't work out, and the pieces he chose for me did.....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

If there's one piece of music that's overused for lower levels, it's the entertainer! how many people can skate to it?!?!

SKaters skating SLOWLY to SLOW music. Especially Slow New Age music.

Also, there's about 4 or 5 jazz pieces that seem to be grossly overused by the adult skating community.

Any piece of music that one can recognize..

a. By the skater's costume
b. WIthin the first 5 notes

On the other hand, sometimes people go out to do artistic numbers, and I haven't a clue what they are getting at. And for people like my husband, you need a right old thump-de-dump, as he doesn't hear music very well and has no idea what "dancing in time" actually means. He thought he might just be able to manage to Leroy Andersen's Syncopated Clock, but no.....

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I have chosen all my music so far but often when the coach has heard it first he hasnt been that keen and tries out some other stuff for me. Then just as I am being convinced that he's right and I should go with his choice, he gets convinced that I was right and my piece will be fine after all. To date we have always used my choices!!!

He has chosen music for my kids but only because it happened to be music we were thinking of anyway.

Choosing different music is a great idea in theory but unless you have an extensive musical background and/or handy and cheap CD library and lots of time then it isn't easy.

I have generally cut my own music but again unless you have experience and/or lots of time that isnt' easy either. I do hate the bad cuts and I have heard some realy weird compilations but since most music isn't written to fall neatly into the time limits we have to go with as skaters it is not an easy job to edit the music.

Now if someone would please just update the awful dance music I would be much happier - at least with most free pieces there is a limit to how many times you will hear it but the dance music has been more or less unchanged since dance began!!!! At least we no longer have to listen to the Novice waltz music incessantly as every free skater in the UK had to use for their first test programme but now tehy can choose their own.

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Grr...Syncopated Clock!!! I am choreographing for our ice show and that is the song I was given to do. It's for Basic 1/2 level skaters so I are pretty limited in what they can do. It does have a nice steady beat though...
That is a song that will stay in your head for hours. By the way, is that from a TV show, or movie or something? It sounds so familliar. Game show? TV commercial?