Since beginning of summer 2013 I attend salsa, bachata and kizomba dance lessons.

Dancing salsa gave me new dimension in understanding the rhythm in music.

My playing has changed in a way, that I began to feel the flow of music (Note! Not the beat! The flow! Because music doesn´t beat, it flows, in my opinion. I mean, the beat is important in such dances as kizomba, but the teacher says, it is still more important to feel the “flow” of the music and not to count all the time) and my playing became more expressive.

There is actually no need to “tap” with your feet. It is okey, if you are beginner and you do it, but you have to learn to sense the “flow” in your body, because music, especially classical, slows down and speeds up smoothly. And player doesn´t just accelerate the beats like metronome. It´s like the heart doesn´t start to beat immediately, but gradually. Example: when you start to run, heart still beats normally, but few seconds later it is little by little accelerating. Otherwise too sudden change may harm work of all budy. Work of all “piece”. So, the idea of speeding up also comes first and only a bit after the music speeds up.

“Feel the rhythm in your body” for my means first of all: breath. Takу into consideration the character of the phrase. For example, if the phrase has calm character, then your breathing also has to be calm. If the tempo is “allegro”, then your breathing also has to be more frequent. Allegro is smth like “cheerful”, so breathe as if you would jump all around the place! 🙂

I suggest to all musician to attend dance lessons, there you can learn a lot of sensing the rhythm and getting new inspiration for your playing!