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Home/Move Glossary/Brass
Instrument

Brass

Also called: the brass, brass section, horns, horn section

Definition

Usually the brass have three instruments: the trumpets, the saxophones and the trombones.

Taught in

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From the module notes

What This Module Trains 🎯

Hearing the call and response in the brass and hitting its accents, with a song from Willie Colón.

The Idea 🧠

  • Brass. Usually the brass have three instruments: the trumpets, the saxophones and the trombones.
  • Call and response. You're gonna hear a certain phrase and then you're gonna have a response from another brass section.
  • 3 and a break. You have a call and response three times, and the fourth time you have a call and a different response.
  • Shim-sham. You do three times a certain rhythm or step and the fourth time you break it.
  • Closure. At the end of the first two eights, you have the bam bam, the closure, and that's where you have your accents.
  • The footwork. We repeat the same footwork three times, and the last time we change it up.

How the Drill Runs 🔁

  1. Start on 5 6: Suzy Q, Suzy Q, Suzy Q, cross, Mambo Jazz and turn.
  2. Dance it to the song in the lesson.
  3. Faster: the trumpet freestyles, so do you.

Technique Cues 💡

  • Remember the 3 and a break.
  • Accents go on the closure.
  • On the floor, just freestyle.

💡 Drill it: three the same, then break it.

🎯 Community

Practice without judging yourself. Every dancer started exactly where you are. Be patient. This lands in the body over months, not days. Record yourself. You will see things you cannot feel. Post it in the community tab, or on Instagram tagging the page.

Related moves

  • Clave
  • Conga
  • Tumbadora
  • Bass
  • Bongo
  • Batá
  • Timbales
  • Cencerro

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Every definition is quoted word for word from the written Summary Notes of the module that teaches the move. Nothing is paraphrased.

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