How to Develop a Musical Kata

Performing a kata can be a great way to get all of your martial arts movements down pat. A kata is a series of kicks, punches and strikes put together in a sequence. Each belt level has its own individual kata. Each kata gets harder and harder at every belt level. Some of the most fun a martial arts expert can have is to develop his or her own musical kata. A musical kata is just a kata that has music added to it. In this article, I want to give you the steps that you need to develop your own musical kata. Let's begin.

Learn Your Selection

One of the most important things that you need to do when it comes to developing your own musical kata is to learn the music that you have selected. This is a very key part in having a great form(kata). The reason you want to learn you selection is so that you can make sure that each one of your movements are in tune with the music. A lot of people make the mistake of skipping this step and it messes up there whole performance. Your music can make or break your kata performance and if you get off beat to the music then you might as well forget the whole thing. The type of music that you select depends on the type of kata that you want to perform. Slow songs are great for katas that have graceful movements. If you are performing something that is fast, you might want to consider using techno music.

Plan Your Movements

You never want to get up and just freestyle a kata from the top of your head. You want to make sure all of the moves are planned. Planning the moves ahead of time will give you a great advantage. One of the advantages that you will have is that you will be confident in the moves that you are performing because you have practiced the same steps over and over again. Another advantage to planning your steps out is that you can teach it to other individuals who want to learn the kata that you have just performed. Planning is the best way to for your katas to look professional.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Now that you have made your selection and have put the form together, you need to make sure that you practice so that you can the musical kata committed to memory. Practicing will help you determine what you need to keep and what you need to change in your kata.

Developing musical katas is a great way to push your creative envelope. Put to practice the steps that I have outlined and you will be on your way to performing a great musical kata.