cakewalk in music meaning | TheMusicDictionary

A strutting dance which originated with the slaves on the plantations of the old south in the 19th century to imitate the mannerisms of the plantation owner's. Couples improvised high steps, parading, and lively movements all to highly syncopated music. A prize (cake) was often given to the most innovative dancers - hence the name "cakewalk". It became popular in minstrel and vaudeville shows and was a popular social dance at the end of the 19th century. The duple meter (2/4) music is characterized by a short-long-short rhythm and became commonly used in ragtime and marches of the period.

In addition, you can familiarize yourself with the terms:

[English] minstrel show

Popular questions related to cakewalk

The cakewalk is a syncopated march-like piece that originated in the 19th century as a dance performed by black American slaves to parody the behavior of their white owners. Ragtime, a similar musical form, juxtaposed a syncopated melodic line against a straight, march-like bass line.

The participants walk around the path in time to music, which plays for a duration and then stops. A number is drawn at random and called out, and the person standing on that number wins a cake as a prize (hence the name).

The brand Cakewalk by BandLab is now Cakewalk, standing as an independent brand within BandLab Technologies, focused on delivering the next generation of music production software for desktop.

1860s As early as the 1860s, Black slaves recounted how they would promenade around, imitating and parodying the dance forms they saw their owners doing. These were called “cakewalks” because the couple deemed the best dancers were awarded a cake -- which led to the phrase “taking the cake” or winning the prize.

Cakewalk Artists

VGO. For my work with Video Game Orchestra [Falk Au Yeong], I depend on SONAR for its stability, blazing efficiency and power.
Blade.
Brian Hardgroove.
Gareth Coker.
Chris Broderick.
Adventure Club.
Vivek Maddala.
Shawn Clement.

Cakewalk by BandLab is a standalone digital audio workstation (DAW), based on the previous Cakewalk flagship software, SONAR Platinum. BandLab is a music creation and social platform for iOS, Android, and Google Chrome. BandLab's Mix Editor is a multitrack recorder with included MIDI instruments, a Looper, and more.

The cakewalk was a pre-Civil War dance originally performed by slaves on plantation grounds. The uniquely American dance was first known as the “prize walk”; the prize was an elaborately decorated cake. Hence, “prize walk” is the original source for the phrases “takes the cake” and “cakewalk.”

BandLab's Mix Editor is a multitrack recorder with included MIDI instruments, a Looper, and more. While you need a BandLab account to access Cakewalk by BandLab, you do not have to utilize BandLab's social platform or Mix Editor. These are entirely separate from the standalone program Cakewalk by BandLab.

cinch

breeze.
cakewalk.
child's play.
duck soup.
no sweat.
piece of cake.
snap.

Cakewalk Artists

VGO. For my work with Video Game Orchestra [Falk Au Yeong], I depend on SONAR for its stability, blazing efficiency and power.
Blade.
Brian Hardgroove.
Gareth Coker.
Chris Broderick.
Adventure Club.
Vivek Maddala.
Shawn Clement.

Something that's a piece of cake is as easy as eating a delicious piece of cake would be. The Americanism cakewalk, used to mean "something easy," came first, in the 1860's - piece of cake wasn't used until around 1936. Both cake and pie have a long history in the United States as metaphors for things that come easily.