Music Editing Tips and Tricks: Always Leave Them Wanting More
Are you constantly paying fees for your songs being too long? Are you struggling to choreograph enough moves to fill your whole dance? Good music editing can solve these problems. If you're too busy to edit your music yourself, take advantage of our new music editing services!
Why Edit Your Music:
Remember the saying “Always leave them wanting more?” That should be the goal behind every dance performance! No matter how great the dance, if it lasts too long the audience is bored by the end of it. The fact is, almost every unedited song is too long to work as a good dance performance. Dance performances don’t need the repeating choruses or the repetitious bridges. Unless you’re dancing with really young children, repetition is a bad thing. And even if you succeed in not repeating any movements, chances are there are slow parts in your dance that the audience could have done without. Besides, the longer your dance is, the more material the judges have to critique. Cutting your music down has all kinds of benefits and will leave your audiences happy and excited to watch more!
Good Editing Programs:
Here are three of the most common music editing softwares that I have personally used. Choosing which one to use all depends on how serious you want to get with your editing. All of them will work for simple music edits. There are many online tutorials that can teach you the ins and outs of each program.
Audacity – Free and easy program. Great for beginners.
Wavepad – Has a free trial but must be purchased to use the full extent of its services. Also easy to use.
Adobe Audition – Has monthly fee. The most complex of the three and good for more intense music editing.
Steps to Edit Music:
1. Decide about how long your dance should be. A good rule of thumb is the more dancers you have onstage, the longer your dance can be. Solos should be around 1:45 and large group numbers around 2:30.
2. Listen to your song multiple times and decide which parts are your favorite. Mark those with bookmarks so you can keep track of them.
3. Start cutting! It’s easy to cut out the sections you don’t need but you have to be sure that you’re keeping eight counts intact, that you’re not cutting off any lyrics, and that one section flows well into the next section. Sometimes the trick is finding the right place to cut. Sometimes you need to use special effects to make the song continue to flow.
Editing music takes lots of time and patience. You’re going to be listening to the same song over and over and over again, working to get it right. It is completely worth it when you get to watch a performance that doesn’t have any slow or repetitious parts. The kind of dance you can watch again and again and not get tired of.
What to do with what you’ve learned:
If we’ve successfully convinced you of the importance of editing your music but scared you away from editing it yourself, don’t worry. We’re offering new services of music editing for anyone that wants it. While there’s plenty of people out there who can edit music for you, most of them will not have dance experience. If you want people who know what judges and audiences are looking for, trust us with your music editing needs. Click here for our music editing services!
