[Callers] Musical styles for a Barn Dance question

JD Erskine iDance via Callers callers at lists.sharedweight.net
Sun Oct 18 01:12:55 PDT 2015


On 2015-10-17 2002, Leslie Gotfrit via Callers wrote:
snip

> In any case, I’d be grateful for advice
> Leslie Gotfrit

Try it. Maybe. <grin>

I worked a Contra series dance with my first (advertised as such) old 
time band tonight. The No Jigs thing initially felt a bit unsettling, 
however the musicianship and music was great. No medleys, which I'm fine 
with, and a bit of joint effort looking for variety had it work out 
well. I'd mentioned all the basic parameters and communications points 
prior to the event and tonight we went over them before the intro 
session this series hosts.

This past summer I worked with my first Bluegrass band. I'd been 
concerned a bit with that as well. A "Contra", really a barn dance/ONS 
on "grass" (beaten down by the sheep for a few years), worked out well.

I covered off the points John Rogers made about tempo, length with both 
of them. Also starts and endings, who to talk to about what, how to 
speed up/slow down (if possible.) All the usual things.

A few weeks ago I attended a free, intro night of MWSD. The point I took 
away from that was that someone could really use any music if it met the 
basic criteria. There were Beatles tunes/songs, pop "standards" and 
such. Not much in the way of tune as many of us might generally expect 
or appreciate.

A number of callers I've experienced have offered the old saw that a 
dancers need for rhythm might just as easily be met by a drum stick 
attached to a car wiper as a band.

If the band is not an established one, or don't have a recording, some 
practises/time with several of them playing prior to the event might 
prove useful. It might also be a chance to introduce some of the key points.

A friend was working with a "Celtic" band a winter ago and had to work 
mostly on -- endurance, even tempo, how to start and end. Doing so 
seemed to suck up quite a bit of energy and take several sessions.

So, it appears it is also good to know when to bail on an idea in some 
fashion if it appears bleak. For any of these one may require more lead 
time/contact time that might be expected.

Cheers, John
-- 
J.D. Erskine
Victoria, BC

Island Dance - Folk & Country
Vancouver Island & BC islands
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http://members.shaw.ca/island.dance/


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