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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Surf music is a dancing music?

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There was a topic about "does the crowd dance on you shows" - and the answers were different...

What do YOU think of what you play? Do you play music for dance? What you do for makin' it more "danceable":)

Surf is originally a music for dancing beach parties, if I'm not mistaken, and I somehow like to keep it this way...I like seen' people not just shaking there heads in a usual "rock concert" way - but dancing...that's turned out so inspiring Very Happy

Listening to Bitch Boys right now - their dancing pulse just makes me move even while siiting on the chair Very Happy

Any advice on how to make your music (our your performance) more dance provoking?

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

I know I'm happier when people are dancing. I feel more of the give-and-take thing going when folks get up and move to our music. I get a little self-conscious when they're sitting there watching us like it's a recital or something. (Not to fault them if they're so mesmerized by our performance that they feel they must sit and watch quietly - ha ha Wink )

http://www.aquatudes.com
http://www.facebook.com/theaquatudes

some people dont dance, because they are embarrassed to dance.

I think most surf is danceable, and some is not.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

I never consciously try and write something 'danceable'. I don't really know how. But, I always am super stoked when a crowd is dancing/moving and enjoying the music.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

A good groove, one that you like to move to, is at least as as much about dynamics as it is about timing. If your performances lack the certain dance spark, try increasing dynamics in your playing, like making soft notes really soft and loud notes really loud, and try to not play any medium notes. Compare that to the way you usually play, and you might see a new direction. Also it's like what Sandy Nelson said on YouTube, mix a little swing time with the straight 8s and vice versa. The best way to do it is to have one guy play (a little) swing time (featuring pointed eighths), and another one, with a different instrument play pretty much straight.

The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann

You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.

image

Dancin' means they likes it!

To answer Samurai's question, "Any advice on how to make your music (or your performance) more dance provoking?" We try to alternate between livelier, danceable songs and the popular, but less danceable, classics. Here's an example of one set.

Miserlou
Mr. Moto
Night in the Sahara
Pipeline
Tubo Mexicana
Endless Summer
Midnight
Oahu Luau
Spanish House
Lazy
Last Moped in Schenectady
Hawaii Five-0

If we sense the crowd is feeling the music becoming monotonous we change it up on the fly.

CUTBACK

From our perspective.....we perform mostly for tourists.....it's the old school "hits" that get people up dancing.....or the ballad. Guys don't wanna dance. It's embarrasing to them like BTD said but they will dance to a slow song!! I never knew what was up with that! The girls love to dance and show off and stuff. That's why it took them several hours to "get ready"!! Last night we had two girls up dancing....and they went and got another girl from another table and before you know it there were 20 people dancing!! I think if someone in the band is jumping around or moving around then people feed off of that....but not always. We've done shows where no one danced all night....but they stayed untill the end!! The Resort loves that cause they're drinkin' and eatin' and stuff. We get more little kids jumpin' around than anyone else and for there efforts they get a TakeOffs guitar pick (if it's ok with mom and dad!) and i think we may be the first 'live' band they've ever seen and it's all so loud and exciting that they start jumping around like fish out of water!! It's so darn cute. I know, surf music isn't about being cute but....! As a band...it's way more fun to play for people having a good time and dancing. They dance to "Pipeline" and "Penetration" because they know those tunes.....we get asked to play "Walk Don't Run" at least 4 or 5 times a gig!! We do it maybe 2/3 times a night. We don't care...."give the people what they want".....we SAVE "Hawaii Five-O" for later so we don't have to play it all night!! Imagine going to Hawaii for your vacation and there's a surf band at your Hotel/Resort and they're playing "...Five-O" and you're old enough to remember that TV show.....they ask for it all night so we save it for later. That goes for "Wipe Out" too! Endless requests for it. Dancers RULE!! Groovy

The TakeOffs
"Kauai's Only All-Instrumental Surf Band"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-TakeOffs/312866840587

Dancers are fine and studious head bobbers are fine. I prefer the head bobbers. They are listening to the intricacies of the songs, which is more important to me. That is how i listen to music, I listen for neat little hooks buried in the mix.

We play to a different crowd in Seattle. Seattle is a nortorious shoegazing town with a history of no shoegazing acts, although the JAMC was on a local label for one of their forgotten albums. Here you get people dancing in place, nobody moves in Seattle.

I'm with the dancing crowd, if people are up and dancing and having a good time in front of you, it adds to your experience and the band feeds of it as well, so I'm all for people getting up and having a go.

Beach Blanket Bingo!

image

BTW, the women over here seem to love 'Wipeout', once we play that, we get requests for it 2-3 times a night. Smile

"Imagine going to Hawaii for your vacation and there's a surf band at your Hotel/Resort and they're playing "...Five-O""

I even cannot imagine...just a dream:)

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

Hey surfgitar, cute girl in the middle of the picture, I'm sure she could get you movin'.

www.cutbacksurfband.com

Is that insider knowledge? Wink

I have a question for you blokes, where or what sort of a gig was this as I'm curious about a place that has a back verandah big enough to hold a band and yet still have a ceiling fan.

BTW, it looks like the crowd were having some fun tonight. Smile

Spud -
It's at a private residence in Orlando owned by a couple of environmental engineers who throw an annual Spring Surfling. Their backyard is amazing and the house is a brand new 1940's Prairie Home. Hence the large Veranda. It bigger than most stages we play on. They have a front Veranda runs the length of the house. There were about 125 -150 people in attendance. The insider knowledge is the cute girl Surfer is refering to is his wife. She is cute and one of our favorite dancers.

CUTBACK

Way to go you guys! Very Happy Cool

...the house is a brand new 1940's Prairie Home. Hence the large Veranda.

Interesting, I take it 'Prairie Home' is a style, must be something like one of our 'Queenslander' style homes.

image

image

It looks more like this. This isn't the actual house we played at, but very similiar. Your Queenslander house is similiar to what we'd see in the Florida Keys and on some upscale islands along Florida's West Coast.

CUTBACK

I just like it when people interact with us at shows. In SF, most of our clubs have minimal stages, and the ones that even have them, the stages are usually pretty low to the ground. We always like to get up close and personal with our audience whenever possible - it's a symbiotic relationship: the more they dig what we're doing, the better we play, which in turn makes the music more "lively".

~B~

We got the gang on the beach dancing with no problem! Wink

[image](http://s1.ytimg.com/vi/hMZrNJHuGVg/default.jpg)
(Click to watch video)

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

The Dick Dale crowd invented pogo dancing!

image
(Click to watch video)

T H E ✠ S U R F I T E S

nice one Klas.

The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann

You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.

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