Advice for song choice

farasharaks

New member
hello, I have a question regarding song choice for an upcoming performance I have in 2 weeks. I will be performing at a local hafla, it is a very warm and casual event, family oriented and lot of my friends from the BD community will be there as well, to watch and to perform. I have a song that I love and was feeling a lot, and have been practicing to it, a beautiful accordian baladi piece, but it turns out that the organizer of the show feels it's too long, approx. 4:33 minutes. She wanted me to shorten it to 4:00. I've spent hours trying to cut the song to the 4 minutes, but so far have only gotten to 4:10 without ruining the sound of the song, or making it sound "cut off". I was wondering, I found another song that is also a baladi, but it's 2:57 minutes. So far I have been trying to practice to both songs to find how I feel about them both. I don't know, is it too late at this point to change songs for the show? Or should I just go with my original song and just explain my situation? What would you do? Both are great songs! I just don't know what to do! I have to send my song choice asap, and I thought I would avoid the hassle and just do a shorter piece. What do you think? Btw, this has happened before, the song is always too long, and I spend hours and hours trying to fix the situation, and I was just trying to avoid the frustration! ;)
 

Shanazel

Moderator
People are going to take me to task here but I'd send it in at 4:10 and be done with it. Even if every one of 30 acts goes over 10 seconds that only lengthens the entire show by 5 minutes. You've done all you can to accommodate the organizer's wishes; I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect her to compromise as well since the integrity of your music is at issue.
 

Sirène

New member
Is there a chance that we can hear your edit of the song? I think as dancers we sometimes get comfortable with certain arrangements of songs and cutting them down is very difficult, but someone with fresh ears might be able to get you under the 4:00 mark.

I don't think 4:10 is horrible, but a part of me reasons that the event organizer asked you to keep it to 4:00 for a reason, and out of respect for her I would take off 10 seconds even if what you're left with is not a perfectly smooth edit.
 

Aniseteph

New member
I agree with Shanazel - you've made the effort to keep to time, so see if she's OK with that. I would be - you're obviously not trying to hog stage time.
 

Yame

New member
You are being more considerate by going 10 seconds overtime but keeping the music cuts pleasant to the audience's ears than you would be by cutting at some random, abrupt point to stay under 4 minutes.

Cutting music in a way that doesn't totally ruin it is very hard, and there aren't always a lot of spots in the music that will allow you to transition the cuts seamlessly. Nothing irks me more than badly edited music.

10 seconds is a negligible amount. Also, 4 minutes is a very short amount of time to begin with. Usually time limits for solos are 5 to 7 minutes. It's very hard to find a song under 5 minutes, and it can be hard to cut a 5-10 minute song down to under 4 minutes.

If she was so concerned about the timing, she should have let all the performers know ahead of time--prior to them picking their music-- that the limit was 4 minutes so that they could have chosen a workable song to begin with, and not have to change it at the last minute.

In the past when I've encountered this sort of situation and there just wasn't any way to make the song fit the time limit exactly, what I've done is cut as much as I could cut while keeping the transitions seamless and the song mostly intact, and then warned the organizer that I was about 18 seconds overtime, that there was no way I could edit this song down any further, so they could feel free to fade my music out at the time limit while I am dancing, OR they could just let me dance the extra 18 seconds. Their call.
 
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Sophia Maria

New member
I think Yame has a nice compromise. In general, on the inside I get annoyed about time limits especially when it comes to bellydance. How many Middle Eastern songs come in a nice, sweet 4 minutes? More often that they're 6 minutes, if not 15...or 30...I've had to trim songs before, and you're right it is difficult. If you're lucky, it's a drum solo--those are actually easy to cut. I couldn't imagine cutting a beledi progression! Good luck!
 

AndreaSTL

New member
Offering the fade as Yame suggested is a good compromise. When I was organizing events I hated when dancers would go over by more than a minute, but I wouldn't have thought twice about ten seconds.
 

Yame

New member
Offering the fade as Yame suggested is a good compromise. When I was organizing events I hated when dancers would go over by more than a minute, but I wouldn't have thought twice about ten seconds.

Yup. Don't get me wrong, I'm a stickler for staying within time limits. I hate it when there's, say, a 5-minute limit, and then a dancer hogs the stage for 10 minutes, or multiple dancers dance an extra 1-2 minutes. But considering the fact that you're so close to the limit AND the fact that you weren't told about the minute until after you selected your song, I think it's a totally different situation.
 

farasharaks

New member
Song choice issues

Ok, so I'm having another dilemma with song choice for my next 2 shows; One is a fundraiser for cancer research, the other is a performer's showcase at a local theater. I have two songs I absolutely love! A beautiful beledi song, which is very uptempo and fun, and Oum Kalthoum's "Al Atlal". I've been waiting to do a beautiful oriental piece to Al Atlal for a long time, but got a foot injury and haven't been able to perform for 3 months. So now I'm really looking forward to performing again, at these two great events, but I can't make up my mind which song to do for which show. Anybody have this dilemma before? How do you choose your songs for your shows? Please help I'm running out of time, I need to start practicing soon. How do you deal with 2 songs you love and can't make up your mind which one to choose?
 

farasharaks

New member
I was thinking of doing that, but how do you choose which song for each show? Which one would you do first? That is my dilemma lol
 

Amulya

Moderator
I have heard a lot of dancers use a fade out to make a song shorter, it works, but it's not as nice as a proper ending of course.
 

Roshanna

New member
I'd go for the upbeat beladi for the general public audience (assuming the fundraiser is for the GP not a dance community event), and Al Atlal for the audience of dancers ;)
 
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