Tag Archives: funk

Congratulations to Connecticut Miss Outstanding Teen 2015

Is it possible to fuse funk with Irish Dance? The answer is yes, as proved beautifully by Tara Shaye Lynch. Tara’s mother asked me to create a 90-second custom clean edit of Uptown Funk last year, and congratulations to Tara for winning Ms. Cheshire Outstanding Teen of 2015 with it! Enjoy this fun 90-second routine:

Squirrel Trench Audio’s clean versions of Uptown Funk remain one of our best selling tracks on Legitmix, and prices have been reduced to $4.99 for any version that you may need.

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Uptown Funk – Super squeaky clean version

uptown white carResponse to Squirrel Trench Audio’s clean versions of Uptown Funk has been overwhelming. It’s wonderful to know that dance teachers, fitness teachers, school recitals, hip hop classes, and more, will all be enjoying a clean, school-age appropriate version of this instant classic hit. Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars have come up with an amazingly fun, funky, and catchy tune.

In addition to the full-length clean version, we now also offer a super-squeaky clean version of Uptown Funk, with the words “sexy” also removed in addition to all of the other objectionable lyric content removed. This version also has the exciting intro as played in the band’s Saturday Night Live performance from the fall of 2014. Take a listen to the super-squeaky clean version:

This version now complements the many other clean versions Squirrel Trench Audio has created for you. Here are links to all the other versions and lengths:

4:28 (Full length, regular clean)2:582:46 • 2:322:151:59

If you know you need a shortened version, but aren’t sure which one to get, you can get every version in this clean Uptown Funk collection here:

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In addition to having just about every clean version of Uptown Funk you might need, we have also done customized versions as well. If you need a clean Uptown Funk, but with something modified, we can get that done for you. Just use this Request Form, and we’ll make it happen.

Uptown Funk Clean Lyric Sheet

bruno-mars-snlAs the creator of the popular clean edit of Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson, featuring Bruno Mars, I was recently asked to supply a lyric sheet of this cleaned version.

Here is a link to the PDF of Uptown Funk (Squirrel Trench Clean Version) lyric sheet.

The full-length clean version of Uptown Funk is available here on Legitmix for only $4.99. This clean version features the exciting intro as performed on Saturday Night Live, as well as being sped up slightly for maximum excitement while retaining the fantastic groove.

In some cases, the words “sexy” and “flaunt it” need to be taken out as well. For those instances, we have the super squeaky version where that has been eliminated also:

In addition, there are five edited versions available for just about any dance routine you might need; 2:58, 2:46, 2:32, 2:16, and 1:59. They are available individually for $9.99, or you can buy every length for $11.99:

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Lyrics that have been eliminated from these clean versions include “damn” “bitch” and “put some liquor in it”. “Sexy” and “Flaunt it” have also been removed from the super squeaky clean version and the shortened versions. Click on the above PDF link to see the full lyric contents. Words that have been eliminated are shown with a strike-through.

We also do custom editing, so if you need a version of Uptown Funk, but didn’t find exactly what you need here, use the online Request Form here.

Uptown Funk (Clean version) – album now available

uptown funk jazz handsDue to the runaway popularity of our clean version of Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk, we’ve created an album containing every length (six) of this song, that we’ve created to date. Our clean version of Uptown Funk is super-smooth – no awkward hiccups to interrupt the song’s funktastic groove! Most of our clean versions also include the exciting intro as performed on Saturday Night Live – an intro which is not heard on the iTunes release of the song.

This album contains six different lengths of the song, and is a terrific bargain at $11.99, a savings of 78% compared to buying each version of the song individually!

The six versions of the songs are: 4:28 (full length), 2:58, 2:45, 2:32, 2:15, and 1:59. One of the lengths is sure to be perfect for your jazz, tap, or hip hop competition or recital dance routine.

Grab your complete Bruno Mars Uptown Funk Clean Version album now! Or just purchase the length you need for your dance routine!

If you know what length you need, click these links below to get it. Each edited version is $9.99; or the full-length version is $4.99:
4:28 (full length)2:582:452:322:151:59

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CLEAN, full-length Uptown Funk now available


uptown funk happy happy
Due to popular demand, Squirrel Trench Audio is pleased to announce a clean, full-length version of Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars’ groovetastic Uptown Funk. This version has several unique twists, including the spicy intro as performed Saturday Night Live. This intro is only available here at Squirrel Trench Audio! Potentially objectionable lyrics have been removed with NO disruption to the funktastic groove. Removed lyrics include “hot damn” “bi*ch” and “put some liquor in it”.

This clean version sounds even better than the original!

Best of all, due to this song’s amazing popularity, this version is now available for only $4.99. NOW GO GET YOUR GROOVE ON!

Take a listen: 
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In addition to the full length version above, we also offer five pre-cut lengths, perfect for competition or recital routines:

Uptown Funk 2:58 • Uptown Funk 2:45 • Uptown Funk 2:32

Uptown Funk 2:16 • Uptown Funk 1:59

Hot Hot Hot New Dance Music – Uptown Funk!

markronsonbrunomarsvideograb600Bruno Mars is the lead singer on Mark Ronson’s new, ultra-funky song, Uptown Funk. The groove is MASSIVE, and will get you up and dancing with its infectious beat. The only problem with this song, from a dance teacher’s point of view, is that it’s long (4:30), and there are lyrics inappropriate for dance students throughout. (As example, the background singers sing “hot damn” through the verses.) There are some other inappropriate lyrics sprinkled throughout as well.

Good news for dance teachers, Squirrel Trench Audio has been hard at work, editing the song into FOUR different lengths to get you exactly the right length for your students! The four timings are 2:45, 2:32, 2:16, and 1:59. And in all four versions, the lyrics have been CLEANED, so that there is no objectionable content in it.

This song is SO hot, it should come with a warning label:
Warning: Uptown Funk is so hot that multiple playbacks on your stereo system could cause dancers to lose control and overheat.

What are you waiting for? Click on one of the players below to get your clean copy of Uptown Funk to use in your next dance routine!

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Feet Don’t Fail Shaun Now

Shaunessey Tap ChampionI am beaming proud of Shaunessey for her best performance to date… which garned her being awarded the Number One tap routine in her age category, as well as the First Place soloist in the 9-11 age category at this weekend’s StarPower regional competition in Springfield MA. I could not be more proud! Choreography by Lesley Weber. Music by Rhythmic Circus; much love to them for sending me the Minus-Taps mix from their amazingly tapalicious FDFMN song!

National Tap Dance Day – Rhythmic Circus rocking the house

Today, May 25, is National Tap Dance Day, and not much embodies all the wonderful qualities of tap quite like Rhythmic Circus. This group of Minneapolis-based musicians and tappers has a fun show, filled with dance, music, funk, beatboxing, and most of all, a lot of humor. Our whole family got to see the show a couple of weekends ago, and it was truly a delight.

To cap off the evening, all the performers came out and signed autographs. These are genuinely a really nice bunch of people who are performing their hearts out. Be sure to catch them in New York City starting in October of this year! (2012)

Top 5 song editing mistakes

I just got back from a spectacular regional dance competition, where my original remix Pixie Hollow premiered. The dancers were truly spectacular and brought a tear to my eye. I can’t wait to see them perform it again in two weeks.

It was truly a pleasure to watch so many fantastic dances, and hear the wonderful music that the dance teachers had chosen for their students. I could see how much hard work had gone into each number to bring it to fruition on stage.

Being a musician and not a dancer, I paid special attention to the music, and how the dance and music worked together in the performances. I was very happy to hear no major squirrel trenches in any of the songs I heard. However, I couldn’t also help but notice that there were minor glitches in the music editing of many songs. So in my quest to help eliminate bad music edits from all dance competitions, I present to you the top 5 music editing mistakes I hear in songs played at competition. In subsequent posts, I will explain in detail how you can avoid each one. While most judges won’t deduct points for these mistakes, any one of them takes away from the musicality of the dance that you are striving for. Any of these mistakes takes attention away from the dancer and makes the performance less enjoyable to watch.

1. Awkward fade out

2. Mis-matched phrase edit

3. Abrupt cut

4. Drop-out edit

5. Frozen statue intro

Let’s discuss the first two in a bit more detail. Again, future blog posts will explain more about each one of these pitfalls, and more importantly, exactly how to avoid them in your own music editing.

The awkward fade out (and its cousin, the abrupt ending) is by far the most common music editing mistake I hear in dance competitions. It’s easy to understand why it happens. You find a great song, and virtually all popular songs are too long for competition. So what is the easiest thing for a time-pressed dance teacher to do? Fade it out at the proper length for competition. But while it’s easy to do this, it’s very much worth the time to avoid this practice. With the awkward fade out, your dancer is usually left either holding their ending pose or begins to exit the stage, while the auditorium falls into silence. The audience doesn’t start applauding and cheering because they aren’t sure that the performance has actually ended. There’s nothing worse for your performers’ self-confidence than the nervous silence, followed by the too-late applause created by the awkward fade out. Often these strange fade-outs occur in middle of a verse or some other equally unexpected point in the song. As I’ve said in an earlier blog post, if your song has a clear ending, use it. [Update: Here’s exactly how to do it.]

The mis-matched phrase edit is another common song editing mistake, and one which can be quite problematic from a dance point of view. Most dancers love a strong groove, a catchy or funky beat, that propels them to dance. And most dance music (though certainly not all) is in 4/4 time. Dancers learn to count in 8s, which corresponds very nicely to most musical phrasing, which usually occurs in groups of 4-beat measures. While musicians learn to count in 4s, these groups of measures often occur in even multiples, such as 8 and 16, and these patterns usually can also be lumped together in groups of 24 and even 32. How strange then, when the editing of music occurs in mid-measure, and sometimes even in mid-beat. Here is what this pattern looks like in written form, from a dancer’s point of view:

8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 11.3, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8.

No wonder your dancers are having a hard time with this section of their song- it not only has an odd number of beats, it also has a partial beat! OUCH! It’s nearly impossible to get your dancers’ moves clean when the music itself is not clean in this way. Inevitably, this type of editing flub kills the groove and pulse of the music.

Well, that’s all for this blog post. In future posts, I will give you some very specific guidance on how to avoid these most-common song editing mistakes in your competition routines. In the meantime, if you have a song that has one of these mistakes in it, and you want it fixed in time for your next regional or nation competition, send me an email.