hi my name is Robert Royston I'm a
five-time world champion of country
dance working with artists like Taylor
Swift Carrie Underwood Brad Paisley I
really hope that you learn how to line
dance and experience what it's like to
move to America's music and that's
country
so this is all about some line dance
terminology when it comes to phrasing or
music we're going to talk about three
specific things here we're going to talk
about being out of phrase what a tag is
and what a restart is so in a perfect
world the song that we're dancing to
will be perfectly phrased what does that
mean that means that it happens in 32
beats and then starts over having them
32 beats and then starts over or if
we're dancing the blues music that
happens in 48 counts so a 12 bar blues
rhythm right which would be six measures
for a dancer would go a one two three
four five six seven eight two two three
four five six seven eight three two
three four five six seven eight four two
three four five six seven eight five two
three four five six seven eight six two
three four five and a six and a seven
and eight one two three four and start
over so we would just draw 6/8 and then
it starts over but we do have things
that called tags and off phrase music
and a lot of the music that we danced to
his off phrase what would that look like
so if I took something like doe a deer
right so if I went doe a deer a female
deer ray a drop of Golden Sun into this
you know need a name and I go through
this whole thing right now if we counted
this doe a deer a female deer ray a drop
of Golden Sun there's another eight
write me a name I call myself far a long
long way to run six seven eight so a
needle pulling thread here we go
la a note to follow so tea I drink with
jam and bread towards the end that'll
bring us back to doe doe doe doe doe and
we start back over
that's perfectly phrased yes so I have
32 32 and then it starts over but what
if somebody did a club remix of doe a
deer and they went that'll bring us back
to doe doe doe doe doe doe doe doe doe a
deer and then started over they added
four beats they went five six seven
eight five six seven eight before the
restart that would be out of phrase the
song is not out of place because you
have 32 and now we have 36
we have a four we have four extra beats
there that will bring us back to though
dodo dodo dodo
don't go a deer next that sounds okay
it's okay to then do that for beat tag
it doesn't feel ultimately weird
somebody might be just want to stretch
that out give it a little bit more build
two then restart the next phrase so out
a phrase this would be out of phrase but
it would also be a four beat tag that
would mean that we've added four we've
added four beats to the end of that
eight so being out of phrase and having
a tag can be very much the same thing
not always the same thing but similar
because you can also have a song that
would go one two three four five six
seven eight one two three four then one
two three four five six seven eight one
two three four five six seven eight
right and that instance it's out of
phrase but there's nothing that's added
to the 32 counts we've actually taken
four beats away so that's out of phrase
but it's not a tag so sometimes they can
be the same thing and sometimes they're
completely different a tag would be
adding beats to a perfectly Fraser
perfect 32 counts we had four beats
that's a tag that's out a phrase in this
instance we took away four beats out of
phrase but we've tagged nothing
what is the restart the restart is when
we start the line dance back over so we
might take this and do one big line
dance so we do four eights we do three
eights and in this instance we do a 12
count pattern right at the end of it and
then restart the dance
what's the restart the restart would be
duh though is the tonic or the key note
all songs are written in the key each
verse begins on the same note that's
called the tonic or the key note
that's your restart so whether you go
doe doe doe doe doe a deer that being
your restart or doe doe doe doe doe doe
doe doe doe your restart is the same
after the tag or if there's no tag at
the last 8 so we understand what it
means to have an out of phrase dance we
understand that a tag is adding beats to
a phrase and the restart is where does
that music resolve
what's the tonic what's the key know
what's go that's will restart the dance
and the whole thing goes over again and
usually facing another wall so we
understand a little bit about some
musical terms that you're going to hear
as you start to learn in line dancing
and sometimes what choreographers will
do is they'll call this a and they'll
call this B so you do a and then you do
B and they might be the exact same dance
but what we do is in a here we go bah
bah bah bah and then start the dance
over again whatever the dance is and
when you get to be you have to go bump
bump bump bump bump bump ah and then
start the dance over again so a lot of
times you'll get that happening
throughout one of the consistent things
about an off phrase dance is if there's
a four beat tag somewhere in the song
chances are there's going to be a four
beat tag everywhere in that same place
what does that mean if I have one two
three four one two three four plus four
I'm probably going to go one two three
four one two three four plus four again
it's probably gonna happen wherever it
happens in this in and this part of the
of the phrase it's gonna happen again
and again and again and again music is
consistent it's even consistent when
it's off phrase or when there are tags
so as you choreograph a dance
you would have a B a B and you could
keep going with that so I hope this
makes a little bit of sense for you as
you start to chart your own songs for
your own choreography or start to learn
line dances and understand when a dance
teacher says this dance has an A and B
this dance has a tag this dance is all
phrase you'll now know what that means