How to create a 2 minute Footbag Freestyle routine, Part 2... The Music Map

This is Part 2 of my series of articles on "How to create a 2 minute Footbag Freestyle routine."

The Music Map:

A Music Map expresses the chosen song in relation to where the 'sections' of music start based on their relationship to the beginning of the song.  This is necessary for designing a routine, as it allows me to break the song into several pieces so I can create sections of the song in my mind.  It will also be necessary for training, as I will break the song down into these sections so I can train the different sections separately.

This years song is a compilation of two tracks from the Monsters, Inc. soundtrack which I spliced together using GarageBand on a mac as referenced in the previous article Part 1 - Picking your music.

For the past few days I've been listening to the music and watching the clock.  I have broken it into 6 uneven sections, for the purpose of mapping each group of tricks and the transitions between sections.

Here is my map:
0:00 - Intro
0:10 - Frontsides
0:30 - Juggle 1 sequence
0:49 - Shred 5's
1:12 - Flow Section 1 (starting on top of head)
1:35 - Flow Section 2
1:50 - (Starts and ends on freeze?) Finalé
2:12 - End

From this map, I went back into Garageband on my mac and split the song up along these lines.  I had to use multiple tracks, lots of splitting tracks and copying and pasting to get it done.  But my goal of creating musical sections of my song selection is complete.  Specifically, using the time codes and listening, I made 6 separate songs that each have a bit of the 'before' and 'after' of each section so I can also practice the 'bridges' between the sections.

After exporting each song to iTunes and creating some new playlists, I have my song pieces available.  The playlists I will ultimately do my training to will include these specifics...
1) A Playlist that has each section in order, with gaps to create a pause.  So I can hit pause after I do a section, and hit play when ready to go again.  I could also have itunes 'loop' each individual section.
2) A Playlist that has each section in order, but with 1 minute song segments in between, so I can do my 'endurance training' jams with each segment.  Those are so tiring.
3) A Playlist with the first half of the song repeating 5 times with 1 minute 'other songs' interspersed.  I start it and keep going until done.
4) A playlist with the second half of the song repeating 5 times with 1 minute 'other songs' interspersed.  I start it and keep going until done.
5) A playlist with the entire song repeating 5 times with 1 minute 'other songs' interspersed.  I start it and keep going until done.  Very tiring.

So join me in this journey.  My next article will be about my Trick Hit List.  These are the tricks that I would like to incorporate into my routine.

Shred notes from this week:
Published some advanced Eclipse combos to youtube.  Broke 100 youtube subscribers this week.  Had a blast toying with my routine.  Today was day 2298 in a row.  Doing at least 2 run-thru's of my routine for worlds every day. Looking forward to actual spring temperatures.

This is what I published:

How to create a 2 minute Footbag Freestyle routine, Part 1... Picking your Music

In this series of articles, I plan to publicly create my freestyle routine for World Footbag Championships 2013 in Montreal.

Usually, I train in private and come out of nowhere to surprise my competition.  This time, I am publicly sharing my progress through this blog, and occasionally through Vimeo.

Today's lesson:

Picking your Music...

I am always keeping my ears open for good music, but because my library is limited and my taste in music is poor, I rarely come across new music that I like.  Whatever I choose, I will have to listen to it thousands of times, practice to it hundreds of times and perform to it at least 3 times (assuming I make it to Finals).  It has to be near my Beats per Minute speed of about 110bpm, it should not have any lyrics.

One of my favorite performances was the year I emerged victorious against the great Peter "Executioner" Irish.  At East Coast Footbag Championships 2003, Here is that performance...

The other day, I heard a commercial for Monsters, Inc on TV and the music spoke to me.  I have always liked shredding to swing and jazz music and this is great.  I listened to a few songs and I settled on the beginning of one and the end of another.  I used Garageband on a Mac to splice them together the way I need them and I included the track here:

The next thing to do is a Music Map... that will be for tomorrow's lesson.

Shred notes: Day 2260 in a row.

Today, I worked through my routine music a few times to get a feel for it.  Wow, what a great time I had.  It has been a while.  This music really moves me. Let me know what you think.

See ya!
-enlightener

Now over 12% of my life has been spent shredding Footbag freestyle everyday!

I started this blog when I was at 1000 days into my ongoing commitment to shred Footbag freestyle every single day, I am now at 2071 days in a row. When I look at that in context with my life, where I'm 16,681 days old, it means that for the most recent 12% of my life, I've been playing Footbag every day! That is 12.41% to be exact. Find what you love to do and play everyday!

I believe I have proven my hypothesis that as we 'age', we need to continue using our physical assets on a daily basis to keep the mind fresh and the body young. Use it or lose it! I have been fortunate to keep this going for a long time, and I am in the best shape of my life and I have all the energy I need to fully enjoy my life.

I start my jams with a set of 'warm-ups' which are getting a bit repetitive, so I've been mixing them up a bit lately. I feel the need for some direction, as I've been hooked on 'new-trick development' for a while.    Then I tend to get stuck working on a trick category, and new versions of tricks because I've also proven that old dogs can learn new tricks!  I look forward to more structure, so this is what I've come up with...

I've decided to create 1-minute and 2-minute performances set to music, and I want to find the perfect music for each. I'm calling out for song suggestions. If you've always wanted to do a performance to a certain song, but never got it done, let me know what song that is.

I miss the process of Performance Development. I miss 'song selection,' I miss the creative process of finding the right tricks to fit with the song. I miss making playlists of my music segments, and I miss practicing them. It really gives me direction. What is great about this time around is that I don't have to do it in secrecy!

My next blog post will be the official call for music. Please visit my youtube channel to see any of the 170+ footbag videos there, http://www.youtube.com/footbagenlightener.

Shred notes: I've been working alot on juggling. Seamless juggle, from clippers, butterflies, spinning butterflies, working on flipside, also Vortex squared on both sides, and blurry drifters and paradox torques both sides. 2070 days in a row today.

Shred journal update.

Day 2017.
I now have empirical evidence that getting warm on a hot day takes less time than on a cold day. I've always felt that was happening. Now I'm sure. But why?

Today was a lot of juggle work. And not the two bag toe juggle. No. Well, yes there are toe juggles but interspersed with all kinds of crazy Seamless ins and outs so I never stop moving in order to start juggling. I call this technique Seamless, and I take full credit for this Concept.

And I hit Atomic leg over Seamless-in to toe juggle a bunch o times.

I was making a juggle movie but my CPU kernel panics habitually now and I want a really nice piece. Codenamed: advanced Foot Juggling Skool. and no room to film on camera. Argh.

See ya!
-enlightener