How do I make my riffles in tap dance better?

Question

I do Al Gilbert syllabus. A riffle is a forward two tap riff and a back brush. If that makes sense. I try, but I can't get my heel in the air after the riff, and bring it back fast enough the do the back brush. My riffles sound like c**p, and so do my riffle heels. Lol! Advice?

Answer 1

Hi there,

I'm a tap dance instructor and saw your post.  I like to think of these as 'shuffles with a heel stuck in the middle'.  It seems to help students relate to them and get all 3 sounds easier.  Another pointer I can offer is to make sure your ankle is SUPER relaxed.  When it is done properly it feels like a shuffle, but a little lower to the floor so that your heel is hitting (as you mentioned above, the 'riff' part of it.).  I cover riffles on my Vol 2 Instructional DVD, I recommend you check it out if you aren't able to get them on your own.  Best of luck with these, you WILL get them!

http://www.tapdancemadeeasy.com

Eli Newsom

Owner/Instructor

Answer 2

haha thats weird, I live in Australia and we call them ripples ;)

You need to brake down each individual beat and step. Go over it and over it and over it. The thing with riffles is that you need to keep the momentem going, once its gone its hard to pick it up again.Once you are confident in doing it slowly then you can go faster and faster. Bending your knees is really important too. Practise makes perfect.

Ask your teacher for some tips as well.

I hope this helps :)

Answer 3

Yes your right, it's not a shuffle it's a riffle.

The only advice I can give you is to keep working on it til it makes you blue in the face!  I used to have trouble with my riffles too.  My teacher used to ride me so hard that I'd cry!!!

You may also be thinking to hard about it.  Sometimes if you just do it and stop thinking, you'll get it without even realizing it!

I wouldn't be able to help more unless I was able to actually see you try to do it unfortunately.

Just keep at it!

Answer 4

I think you mean shuffle, hahah! Just be confident you can do it! Brush forward then back just hold onto a chair and to keep your stirdy and just keep practicing. Good luck! Hope I helped! :)