Editing Your Music For Performances
When editing music for a solo performance to a single song remember to "KISS" (Keep It Short and Sweet). I tell all of my clients to edit their music down to 1.5 to 2 minutes- at most. You will be surprised at how long that seems when all eyes are on you. When you watch professional ballroom dancers competing on television, do you notice how they fade their music out after about a minute and a half? Five minutes of the same song gets boring to watch even when you are watching professional dancers. The last thing you want is for everyone watching to be grinning politely through their teeth thinking, “Is this song ever going to end?"
Before I begin editing a song, I always print out the lyrics. This gives me a better understanding of the structure of the song and alerts me to repeated words that I can splice together to make a cut mid phrase. When possible, I like to use the real beginning of the song and the real ending. Usually I cut out a big middle chunk so there is only one cut in the song. Most often I tack on the ending mid word, towards the end of the second phrase. For example, if the song is written in an
form, I will usually edit it so that it's goes 
. I'm going to put a lot more up here about using free programs like audacity and music for all differnt dances, but I've got to run to teach a class right now:) In the meantime, check out this site! http://ballroomdancemusic.info/Rhythm/index.php