Common Skating Music Editing Mistakes
Figure skating music editing is one of those things that often looks much easier than it actually is.
Many people assume that if they can operate basic audio software, they can build a strong skating program. I have lost count of the number of skater-parents who say they want to cut music themselves to save money and ask me which free cutting software would be the best? My honest answer is any program you can find that includes a professional musican's ears and experience will work great :) And while modern editing programs certainly make cutting music more accessible than it once was (some of us remember the days of slicing cassette tape), there is a very big difference between shortening a song and creating a successful competition-ready skating edit. Basically, inexperienced or bad music editing costs a skater a lot more than a professional music cut ever does.
Check pricing - you'll be surprised that it's one of the cheapest areas of any skating career!
Certain problems appear again and again in amateur skating music edits. Some are technical. Others are musical. Let's explore the dirty realities of bad music editing.
1. Abrupt or Awkward Transitions
One of the most common editing mistakes is creating transitions that
1) ignore phrasing (this is a sin!)
2) forget musical structure ( this is a bad sin!)
3) ignore tempos (almost unforgivable)
4) miss the changes of key, or any glorious opportunity offered by a genuine key change (if you do this I'm sending you to musical jail.)
A transition may technically connect two sections of music, but if the rhythm suddenly stumbles, the key changes awkwardly or the phrasing feels unnatural, people notice because the oddity of it takes their attention from the skating. And judges are also people.
Even non-musicians can usually sense when something feels wrong and in skating, where timing and flow matter enormously, those problems become especially noticeable.
2. Fade-Out Endings
Another very common issue is the fade ending.
In ordinary recorded music, fades are perfectly acceptable. In figure skating, however, they often weaken the performance dramatically. A skating program needs a finish - and the skater needs their 'ta-dah' moment where they signal to the audience that their program is complete (and deserves thunderous applause :)
When a skater has worked hard through their performance, fighting for every point, the music should support that final moment with clarity and intention, not simply drift away into silence. So strong endings and punctuation are obligatory for every skater needs a real final pose and a clear sense of arrival.
I once noticed a home-club skater with a parent-edited music cut that had a seventeen second fade (yes, 17 sec!) The kid only had 1:30 in total and the final 17 precious seconds were sliding out from under her, leaving her to skulk off the ice. I couldn’t leave her in that situation, so I re-cut the song and quietly gave it to her coach with a whispered “don’t say anything to her dad, but she needs this…”
If the skater's chosen music includes a fade ending, you have your work cut out, but don't shirk it. Be imaginative and create an ending - pull it out of thin air if you have to, but don't leave any skating performance to fade away.
3. Choosing Music That Does Not Support Skating
Sometimes a song is chosen simply because someone loves listening to it. Unfortunately, music that works beautifully on a Spotify channel does not always work well for skating. Some songs lack structure. Others do not provide enough dynamic variation. Some are rhythmically difficult to skate to, while others contain long sections that become repetitive or emotionally flat when translated onto the ice. This may not be a popular piece of advice but because skating music needs to support movement, storytelling and technical pacing simultaneously, you don't have to skate to your fave music. Listening favorites and skating favoites can be very different things.
Sometimes music is definitely overused and much as you may love it, it's wise to think about the effect it could have on judges. Is there a famously incredible performance to that music? Maybe don't choose Bolero if you don't want the immediate comparison of you v. Torvill and Dean. Carmen is another - definitely a fave, but overused. Do yourself a favor and try and find similar music that feels new and fresh, and doesn't make people think of other skaters.
You do need your figure skating music to ignite joy for you, but also be something you can listen to incessently for a year or more without going crazy. You need music you are prepared to get thoroughly sick of, and which you are prepared to 'lose' because you never want to hear it again.
4. Ignoring the Chorus or the Build
Another surprisingly common problem is edits that never actually reach the big “payoff” of the music. This used to be a bigger problem when parents used apple devices that let them choose one chunk of the music as their 'cut'. But to this day, we hear countless programs showing the cutter didn't know how to condense the intro, put too much time in verses, and left little or no room for the musical climax audiences were expecting to hear and see the skater perform to.
The chorus often contains the strongest emotional hook of a song. It is usually the section audiences connect with most instinctively.
But not all choruses are created equal and if the program relies on the first version, or worse, rushes immediately to the biggest chorus version, the program loses the benefit of the build.
5. Forgetting About Rink Sound Systems
Music that sounds good through headphones at home does not always behave well in an ice arena.
Many rinks, especially older ones, use mono sound systems rather than stereo because, well, they are geared up for hockey. While everyone understands that stereo means music is coming out of two channels, they don't all know that what left channel plays can be different to what right plays, creating a '3D' experience by letting individual elements to be positioned left or right, panning instruments (moving across the spectrum) or hearing vocals in the center. They are often high-powered audio systems designed specially to deliver impactful sound over intense crowd noise (which can often reach over 100 dB!)
What does this mean for skaters? It means musical details may disappear entirely when played at a competition. For example, if half the vocal of the song is on the left and half on the right, when one channel is missing, so can be half the vocals. Quiet intros can become difficult for skaters and officials to hear clearly, and over-compressed tracks may distort badly in large arenas.
This is one reason skating music often requires specialized equalization and volume balancing. The goal is not simply to make the music sound impressive in a studio setting . . . that is easy to do. Your cut needs to function reliably under real competition conditions, and that can be much harder.
Treating Skating Music Like Ordinary Audio Editing
Perhaps the biggest mistake of all is assuming that figure skating music editing is simply ordinary audio editing with shorter time limits. It is not.
To be a successful music cutter requires a combination of technical editing skill, musical understanding and real familiarity with how skating performances actually work, because at its best, great skating music feels effortless. But as with everything worth doing well, your cutter/editor is like the proverbial duck on a smooth pond, calm demeanor but paddling furiously, thinking hard, structuring like crazy and delivering a precision musical product that works with skaters to inspire great performances of their programs.