THIS IS MAJOR

Finding new music that you absolutely love for a piece that you’re working on is tough stuff. I don’t know about you, but it takes me FOR-EV-ER to figure things out; I either find a song I love, and then realize that it’s either…

1. Not long enough.
2. It doesn’t actually inspire quality movement.
3. It inspires movement, but just won’t work for the performance.

Womp Womp. This is my life…

I have a friend who makes her final decision the week before the performance. I have another friend that literally just puts a random song on the speakers every time her dancers perform, they have to listen and figure it out as they go. (Cray-zay)

Music is one of those things that can either lift a piece above and beyond its potential, or sink it deep into the land of no return. You do not mess around with sloppy music.

I got an email from an old friend last week who has recently gone back to dance at the studio she grew up taking classes at. Now a proud member of the *adult class*, she’s taken it upon herself to choreograph a piece for their annual recital. This Spartan-Dyva wants to push beyond the *Jazzercise quality* of the adult class (my words, not hers…but I’ve seen it. My mom AND my grandma used to work it back in the day), and actually create something inspired, but she can’t find any music that’s going to work, especially for the venue in which it will be seen.

I’m really struggling to find music. I have movement, and I know what direction I want to go it, but I’m struggling to find “just the right music”. I know from the great Sher-Bear, I don’t need music for movement, but to be in the recital, I need music.

I’ve googled, I’ve listened to tons on stuff on iTunes and YouTube, and nothing seems to feel quite right. OR, the stuff I like has been soooooooooooo done already, I’m not sure if I even want to use it for fear of being compared to others.

Recital or not, we’ve all felt this pressure. Yes, everything has already been done before and I get that, but nobody actually wants to intentionally create work that has already been…created! So I have a compiled a short-list of ways to find new music. Sometimes it’s borderline stalking…similar to facebook stalking, but with program notes and iTunes…

Shake it Suzy!

First of all, I save every program from every show I’ve ever attended…ever. Nine times out of ten (if the performance is…not looking for a lawsuit) they’ll include music information. If I find something I like, I either…

1.  iTunes the shit out of the song to find similar music either from the same artist, or something within the same genre. Oftentimes I have to buy a few songs in the process, but if I stay patient, I can usually come out with some glossy gems. The Genius option is also a fabulous route to take on iTunes; you select a song you like, they create a playlist off of it.
2. Spotify: Just sign up and go…really…. The possibilities on this website are endless. You can sign up for a free membership and then search any artist imaginable, and have access to all of their music: their hits, their albums in full, and playlists based off of their music. You can generate a playlist using the moodagent that is based off of your mood, etc. Go check it out…now! You sign in using your facebook account, so you can share and steal music from all of your friends, mwahahahha!
3. Stereomood.com: You select an adjective from their list to describe your mood, and then they make a playlist for you to enjoy. I found “ambient” to have some cool (no-words) music. …I also just love this website for when I’m reading, cooking, cleaning…just living in general…
4. Pandora…duh. Sometimes I get frustrated when I want to skip through 83 songs in a row, and they give me the stiff-arm, but this is the O.G. Niche-new-music-finder…
5. Grooveshark: Another great option to stream music live from the Internet; you can build playlists and then share them all of your with friends via social media.

Basically, the name of this music game is patience. Give yourself plenty of time, like a weekend, to do absolutely nothing but eat, pee and stalk the musical possibilities out there in the internet-land. When you’re ready to make a solid commitment (most of these sites don’t give you the option to burn the music onto a cd, or synching it to your iPod), go ahead a throw down the $0.99 it takes to purchase the song.

Hope this helps!