|
Don't let your cheerleading music be "Played-out" before your team gets on the mat.
Be wise when picking songs for your competition music. You want to be the "cool" coach and
give your team input on the dance music mixes they want in their routine.
This tactic is both good and bad, so use it wisely.
Asking your team usually makes them excited that they have participated in the song selection
and promotes positive attitudes by keeping them involved in team decisions.
Afterall it is THEIR routine and they should be excited about their performing music.
So lets recap, team picks songs for cheerleading music, and in return are positive attitudes,
team bonding-involvement, and automatic excitement for the floor. What could be bad about this?
Cheerleaders and dancers of all ages but primarily teenagers get very excited about the hot,
new, top-10 music (we all do). So when it comes time to pick your competition songs, those top 10
songs tend to be on the top of the list. However, every other cheerleader across the country, believe it or not, was also
very excited about those same songs (hard to believe, huh?) Not only that, but just as fast as
your team picked those songs, the songs get "played out". We've all been there, you know, when you
notice that every time you change the radio station in your car, you feel like you cannot
escape the same songs played over and over.... and over.
This is a common problem. Have you ever been at a competition and just about two thirds of the
teams competing have one or two common songs within their routine music. Maybe you don't notice because you're
on the other side of the curtain, too nervous to care about the other teams music. But what I can tell you
for sure is that the judges panel and
the crowd in the stands have definitely noticed and it will be hard for them to get excited for your
routine if you, too, have a common song.
Now I'm not saying exclude all popular songs. Maybe you have an awesome transitional stunt sequence that
would go perfect with that new song. By all means, use it and blow away the teams who may have just put
the same song in their routine music, just to have in. So what should you do?
- Start making a list. You still want to poll your team for all the same reasons as we listed above.
And to see what kind of music they're leaning towards, so you can make your "played-out adjustments"
Keep your ears open in the department stores or supermarket, they are known to play obscure retro and
you could hear a song you have forgotten about but would be great for your team.
- Use your list as a base to give you inspiration and build on it. Remove any songs that (we like to
hear on the radio but) are not appropriate for a family attended cheerleading competition.
- Pick songs that accentuate your team's skill level. This is easier said than done. Most of the time
the dance music can be beat-matched to the proper beats per minute or BPM. (if all of this is foreign to you check out the
nifty cheerleadingremixes.com BPM Tool). Keep in mind that some dance music sounds terrible at
higher or lower BPMs
- Check your songs. Most competitions buy a blanket license for music (you'll want to check
with your competition coordinator). Also nonprofit educational institutions are exempt from needing
a license to play songs. You can see if your song is part of ASCAP or BMI by visiting their website
and looking through their database of music.
- Team motto. Maybe your team has a motto for the year. One that really fires them up. Get that
motto put into a voice over and have remixed into a cheerleading song that can be mixed into your
final dance music. This is a nice alternative to one-liner voice-overs. If that is a bit much for your
needs, still consider a one-line voice over, it personalizes your cheerleading music and still motivates
your team.
- Organize your final list. Mix it up to keep it interesting, e.g. new song, retro song,
back-beats and voice-overs then repeat. However, you want to keep in mind what fits your choreography
and especially concentrate on your opening and closing as they
are the two moments that normally click in the judges head when they are completing your score-sheet.
- Talk to the person mixing you music (ah-hem, hopefully us). Usually, they have mixed other
teams and knows what's been over-used and for which areas of the country. You'll also want to let them
know the scope in which you'll be using your music (local or national). They won't be able to tell you
specifically what songs they used for which teams, but if they're nice (like we are) they can hint to you
something like this,"You know that's been a popular one this year!"
|
