Zero to Rhythm in 12 Days

“People call him up just to put him down, ’cause he ain’t got rhythm!” Many people believe rhythm is something you are born with. You either have it, or you don’t. But I believe that rhythm CAN be learned, and you CAN get your body to move to it.

For those of you who believe you “ain’t got rhythm,” try this tutorial and you’ll soon be dancing with confidence.

Day 1: Rock Out

1. Have a musical friend find you a solid rock song that is nothing but a pounding beat, one where the rhythm is pounding you in the head with a brick.
2. Move like that rhythm brick really IS hitting you in the head, a dance move most often referred to as head-banging. If you have long hair, make sure it is loose so it can fly around for added effect, or put it in a pony-tail for a helicopter variation.
3. Continue head-banging until you have a head ache.
4. Take a drink of water, some Advil, and head-bang some more…
5. Stop short of giving yourself brain damage. Good work for the day.

Day 2: Rock Out Some More

1. While commuting, put on the song you practiced to yesterday. Try out a minimalists head-bang, tap your fingers, walk to the beat. Be careful not to try moving the steering wheel back and forth to the rhythm, unless your drive happens to go through nothing but pasture. Just do what you can without causing a car accident or getting stopped by a police officer.
2. When you get home, let your hair down. Review yesterday’s work with a little full-on head-banging.
3. After this little warm-up, put on your combat boots and chains if you’ve got them, and get your body moving. Rather than just feeling the rhythm in your head, it’s time to add the rest of you. Stomp, jump, punch, and kick to the pounding rhythm, and don’t hold anything back. If you were surrounded by other people you would actually be doing a dance form known as moshing. If there were no music you may be confused for one of those extreme fighters, so make sure the music is turned up loud.
4. Find some padding, a mattress and pillows or the like, and continue moshing for as long as you can take it. Remember you’re actually dancing to a rhythm, though – not just going wild. Each head-bang, stomp, jump, punch, kick, and body slam should try to match the pounding in the song. If you’re not perfect, don’t beat yourself up about it. Beat the pillows instead.
5. Continue until you’re in a heavy sweat, then slam down a good bottle of water and take a break. (I could suggest another beverage, but as you’re working on becoming a dancer, I will suggest the healthiest choice.)
6. Clean up the mess before you get caught.

Day 3: Passionately Sway

1. Continue practicing what you’ve worked on by repeating finding rhythm during your daily commute. Always and forever. Or at least for the next 9 days.
2. You may also repeat the full exercise from Day 2 if you feel like you haven’t mastered it yet. Try changing up your music slightly if you get bored.
3. But now, ask that same rhythmic friend for to help you find a passionate song with a solid beat, preferably a Rock Ballad, like Love Hurts.
4. Find a private place with no one watching. Extend your arms up as high as you can and sway with your entire body back and forth as if this was your favorite band playing your favorite song that means everything to you. You can dim the lights and hold lighters or a cell phone for extra dramatic effect.
5. The key here is to feel passionate in your entire body, extending that passion from your littlest toe out to your furthest finger. As the song reaches the climactic point, or nears the end, you may add jumping, but make sure it’s a passionate jump – full of love or desire. Not like the harsh pounding jumps of yesterday.

Day 4: Rocking your Repertoire

1. During your daily commute exercise, switch up your music. Instead of the same song you’ve been using, tune into your local hard rock radio station. These songs should still have a driving pulse that you can move to.
2. At home alone, tune in again to the hard rock station. Vary between head banging, moshing, and swaying, doing whatever is most appropriate for the song. Use commercial breaks to get a drink of water.

Day 5: Take a break and stretch

1. Attend a drop-in yoga class that uses background music to help soothe you. Your ears and body could use a good break from the harsh things you’ve been subjecting it to lately.
2. Listen to the music as you move. Try to follow the relaxing sounds as you move further into your stretch, or as you allow your muscles to relax.

Day 6: Go Ape Wild

1. Using the hard rock if you really like it, or any other music with a strong beat that your friends help you find, it’s time to move your body in a completely different way. Rather than harsh, sharp movements, we’re going to focus on fluidity.
2. Once again, you’ll want to do this exercise with no one else around so you don’t allow any embarrassments to inhibit your motions.
3. Think of non-human primates, and how they move. Using a full bounce in your legs, and full swing in your arms, walk around to the pulse of the music. Take a deliberate step on each beat, but make those steps with your entire body.
4. After a bit of walking around using your arms and legs to their full extent, add your head and full spine to the motion. Round and bounce your back and neck. Go further and imagine the most relaxed, possibly drunk primate you can: flailing your body around in swirling swinging motions, yet continuing to take deliberate steps on each beat.
5. Feel free to let your imagination run wild, pretending to swing on branches or defend your forest, whatever it takes for you to move your entire body.

Day 7: Apes can be groovy, too.

1. Repeat yesterday’s exercise, only change the music. Browse around different radio stations, trying out everything from the alternative rock station, to country music, even jazz and classical.
2. If you can’t find a pulse to step to, don’t stress too much about it. Just try moving in a way that feels good and crazy for a few minutes, then switch tunes. Let yourself get involved with the music at a base level, not worrying about words… but letting the movement of the music inspire you to move your body. Your WHOLE body.
3. Good job. Now join us back in humanity. If you’ve gone too far into ape-ville, perhaps you should go shave.

Day 8: Hone in your music

1. Decide what kind of dancing you would really like to do, and get help finding some popular music for that genre. You may want to have your musical friends help you find appropriate music that still has a pretty good beat, or ask some dance teachers for advice. For example, if you’d like to try swing dancing, Ragtime or New-Orleans Style Jazz may be a good place to start as it usually has an easy to hear beat.
2. Once you have some music that you actually like, repeat the Ape exercises you’ve been going through the past few days. By now you should have moved past some of your physical inhibitions and really explored how far your body can go. Now with music you like, you can let your emotions get involved. Feel the joy that moves your body and just go for it.
3. Great. Do you need to shave again?

Day 9: Isolations

1. Now that you’ve learned to let your whole body go, it’s time to concentrate parts of your body. With the same music you enjoyed and worked with yesterday, let’s make your movements less extreme.
2. Start with just your head. Without actually head-banging, find ways to move only your head around in a way that fits the music.
3. Next, try just your shoulders. First, let your arms be relaxed, so they go where your shoulders want them to when you move them. Then, keep your arms reigned in so ONLY your shoulders move.
4. Now try just your arm. What about just your forearm? Just your wrist? Perhaps just a finger. Explore how subtle you can find the beat in the music with individual body parts, or individual muscles.
5. Do this with just your back.
6. And your legs.
7. Your feet.
8. Get creative. Wiggle your ears. Move your eyebrows. Flair your nostrils. Explore your body and what each part alone can do as thoroughly as you can.

Day 10: Take a break to just Listen

1. Explore the music of your chosen genre on your own, without the aid of your friends and teachers. Find as much music as you can that you want to dance to. Try entering the favorites you’ve already worked with into Pandora, and see what suggestions they come up with. Make note of the best songs so you can add them to your collection later.
2. Now, listen closer. Extract single lines from it, like the drums or piano, and focus on that alone. Can you hear a beat in the instrument? In different songs, different instruments may carry the bulk of the rhythm. Sometimes the drums are so quiet and subtle, or so complex and intense, that it’s hard to hear a simple beat in them. If you can’t easily make out a beat, pick a different part to listen to.
3. From now on, make this a habit whenever you listen to music. Listen to specific parts and sections. Search for patterns and rhythms. If you don’t hear it in the singing, listen to an instrument.

Day 11: Just Dance

1. Pick out your favorite songs from yesterday’s musical exploration.
2. Without worrying about doing anything right, move to the music. You can start with any of the movement you’ve worked on so far; moshing, swaying, moving like and ape, or isolations.
3. Let the music inspire your movements. You’re still in private and have nothing to worry about. Just move move move move, and let the music work its way into your muscles until they will move without your brain getting in the way.

Day 12: Test Drive It

1. Attend your first dance lesson in the style that interests you.
2. Learn one move or basic step and see how your body handles it.
3. If it comes naturally, congratulate yourself and start your new life as a dancer!
4. If it’s still too difficult or stressful, that’s ok. Most people do not pick up on a new dance right away. Just relax, and the more you let yourself move your body, the quicker your body will pick up on this new concept. It will soon break down the barriers between you and the dance floor. Practice doesn’t make perfect, it simply makes prepared.

And there you have it. If you commit yourself to letting your body move, going through these exercises, you will develop rhythm – which is a necessary tool to becoming the dancer you want to be. Good luck!

Oh, and just for fun, you may want to review this.

This post is part of the Tutorials Blog Writing Project at Daily Blog Tips. If you enjoyed it, please head over there and post it as a favorite. Thank you!

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*Photos on flickr, by !SpecialK!, suneko, and Lil’ El respectively.