[Callers] Re: Resources to turn musicians into dance musicians? - and side-topic- range of BPMs?

Thanks Kat for this bpm mention. I try to notated all my cards (as I call/practice) with the type of tune and the practice tune (sometimes I call to recorded so this helps) and the best bpm. Sometimes I note a start at and increase to as well. I attended a workshop once where I was instructed to stomp out the bpm instead of telling the band. Very difficult for me for a variety of reasons but I was told bands don't know bpm which I (on behalf of musicians everywhere) took exception to. My response was, "well, the bands I work with, do." Good information re: beats vs measures too. I have tried for years to explain to a dancer that more notes does not = more beats and more steps.  Loving all the comments! Mary Collins On Thu, Sep 5, 2024, 8:17 AM Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > I'm loving this discussion too! > > It took me a while when I started calling, to realize how the dancers and the musicians count differently-- > In our group we always listen to a full added-on A1 as an intro- ie 16 beats of music-- and that's what I tell our beginner dancers: "We're going to listen to 16 beats of music and then start dancing" . > > But what the musicians seem to need to hear, if they are new to our group, is "We need you to play 8 *bars* of extra music as an intro" . > Until I figured this out, I was asking the musicians for 16 beats, and they were playing 16 bars, and everything got messy! > > But Rich's comment below has got me interested in hearing from more people about their typical range of tempos- it's something I've recently started thinking more deeply about-- > > Now when I do my dance outline, I set a target tempo in bpm for each dance, to help our musicians select an appropriate tune for each (I went to a great workshop last summer where I learned that some tunes, like irish reels, sound fast but actually tend to be among the slower-tempo'd tunes -- and most of our musicians struggle to play them faster than 110bpm- making them a poor choice for a lot of the simple, high-energy dances that our group does.) > > Rich Goss wrote: > "The sweet spot for most dances is 116bpm (beats per minute).  The range is generally 108-120.  For a one night stand, I would shoot for the low end." > > So I've been keeping track over the last year, -- asking my bands to report to me after each dance, whether we danced at the target tempo I had set, or something faster or slower than it... > > I would say in our group, our typical easy dances run with a tempo of 112-120 - even for total beginners.. > > and some dances in the middle of the evening get up to 125+, with all the high energy in the hall. > > It's actually our more challenging dances towards the end of the evening, (which are not very challenging for most of y'all, but we are a basic-level group!) that end up going slower- when we put in heys and other flowy moves, then we get into more groovy-feeling tunes in the 105-110bpm range. > > Would love to hear about other groups' tempo ranges! > > Kat K in Halifax, NS, Canada > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net