Where is the Musicality?

For those who don’t know, musicality is a category of freestyle that has really not been touched up on. It is when a freestyler matches the beat, melody or vocal of a song while freestyling, whether in a battle or just practicing. Normally to practice musicality you must first create a set of tricks for killing the beat. Any category you can match the music, you just must find the tricks for it.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I practice music is a must. Same as how music is a must in a show, or even battles while competing. So now why does no one seem to care about musicality, or never do it?

1 Nobody is actually listening to the music.

What I mean by this is that music can be played during a battle, yet nobody is really listening. Most are so concentrated on the freestyle, the music is just like a background white noise. One of the causes of this is the actual music being played. If the audience/players don’t know or enjoy the type of music, they aren’t going to focus in on it. Some might even be annoyed by it. Major competitions around the world all have this problem, of having “DJ’s” that really don’t really DJ or mix anything. If the dj is not actually producing music, then no one is going to listen. And if no one is going to listen, why play the music in the first place?

2 Musicality usually is only present in hip hop orientated freestyle countries.

This means that wherever the hiphop culture is present, it will influence the freestyle/freestylers around it. All hip hop cultures are like an art form (imo freestyle included) and is a way to express meaning through sounds, movement and art. Hiphop dance forms are mostly done to the music, and some fsers have adopted this into their style of play. So the places where hiphop culture isn’t present or not very strong, the freestylers there as well won’t be influenced and musicality is not done or known about.

3 The music being played is not music to kill the beat with

There must be a beat or melody played that freestylers can match the tricks to. If classical music or hardcore rock is being played, chances are no one can even hit the notes in the first place, whether the freestyler practices musicality or not. Therefore it is important as I stated in reason #1 that the DJ’s play an important role in this factor.

4 Freestylers haven’t even tried musicality

Many will say, “well I am not a dancer so no need to freestyle to the music.” That is true, but that kind of statement also applies to other categories of freestyle as well. Areas such as Acrobatics, Breakstyle, and Footbag are also influences used in freestyle today and we have come to accept that they are a part of freestyle now (well some complain/disagree anyway). I say if you are looking to expand your vision in freestyle, try musicality before saying anything about it and you will realize it is much more complex than you think it is.

I see musicality as an advantage over others, its a category that hasn’t been touched upon by many freestylers at all. It is a whole new method of training and free styling, a completely different world than just going out there and doing tricks. You must listen, predict, and match the beat with freestyle, which is a whole new difficulty and creative process. We as freestylers have adopted many cultures and other arts into our own to help it expand to where it is now. Something simple such as what we call “battles” today are not our own format either. So I say we shouldn’t be trying to reason, but we should be more welcoming and accepting for this is what will make us grow even more. If you are bored of the same old routine in your practice sessions, give musicality a try and I guarantee you are going to have fun with the ball in a way you haven’t experienced before.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND!!

Hope you enjoyed this article, dont forget to check out my other controversial topics! Peaceeee ☺