Which Comes First: Music or Choreography?
It’s time to start thinking about cheerleading music again. You have been working this summer on new stunts, you’ve put time in the gym improving your tumbling, and you’ve got one of the hottest new choreographers coming to help your team learn a new routine. Obviously, you want an epic cheer mix that will put your routine over the top. But there are several questions you need to ask before picking the perfect track. Should you and your team do the choreography first and then hire a music producer to create a custom mix based on your routine? Should you pick an existing music track like one of the ones found at CheerleadingMix.com and choreograph your routine to that music?
The Choreographer’s Preference
There are several important factors to consider to figure out whether music or choreography should come first for your squad. One of them is the tastes of your choreographer. If you have an outside choreographer that you’ve hired, they will often want to create their choreography first and then have you create custom music to their choreography. That is the preference for the majority of choreographers. However not every choreographer prefers this; some will ask for the music in advance, especially when they are creating the dance. Knowing what music you want before choreography starts can really help smooth out the process, even for those who would ask you to have custom music made after their choreography is over.
What is your Budget?
Another very important consideration is budget. Having custom music made can be expensive, often costing thousands of dollars for a two and a half minute song. However, the music at Cheerleading Mix is significantly less expensive, costing only a few hundred dollars. The interface at their site makes it simple for anyone to find the perfect cheerleading mix. The hundreds of songs on the Cheerleading Mix catalog and the customization tools available make it easy for you and your squad to find the perfect mix that’s going to really take your routine to the next level. You can also add custom voice overs and sound effects for even more personalization.
There are some real challenges to figuring out what is best for your squad every year. Having the music first is definitely a more financially viable option, so if you and your squad are in a situation where money is a little bit tight, then that is likely the better option. If money is no object and your gym will easily be able to hire a choreographer and have custom music made, that would be a better option. For a custom track, consider using New Level Music. Its stable of highly qualified music producers have created the best cheerleading mixes in the country and have more 2022 Cheerleading World Champions than any other music production company.
Want to hear some of the epic cheer mixes from New Level Music last year? Check out the music for Navarro, the team featured in Netflix’ CHEER documentary:
This amazing cheer track was produced by Cheer Music Pro, aka Patrick Avard, just one of the amazing artists who work to create pioneering music for New Level Music.