[Callers] Re: Resources to turn musicians into dance musicians?

Hi All, I think everything they need to know is in "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire https://youtu.be/Gs069dndIYk?si=Nn4OCiYYZv_kKcr1 Also, maybe listen to an interview of Verdine White, the EWF bassist. It may help convey how long and diligently dance musicians work at their craft and, therefore, help them appreciate the music form. All musicians I recruit and audition, I ask that they study and understand everything going on in "September." If they have a year, I recommend the Dance Musicians class at the John C Campbell Folk School, created by David Kaynor, and, in the year I took it, was taught by Betsy Branch, Susan Songer, Peter Siegel and Andy Davis. https://www.folkschool.org/calendar/ They might also study recordings of the New England Dancing Masters on YouTube. In my approach, the key element of dance music is a sense of inner pulse and performance with a strong pulse or "groove." However, like pitch and intonation, pulse and groove are subtle abilities that only a small percentage of musicians have or can develop. Unfortunately, I have found that few musicians have a ready sense of pulse, though I believe it can be developed. For our dance, I play solo, with live overdubbing and, usually, a drum machine, because, for the time being, I gave up on trying to develop dance musicians. (Background: ours is an all-new, all-beginner dance community. This clip is from our first dance of this school year which was a small group, but we doubled our number at last night's dance.) https://youtu.be/LFSnfpyeS9o?si=jg8zqKNcwc3TpkrU I hope this helps your musicians. Rob Matson Conway, Arkansas - - - - - - - - - - - - On Thu, Sep 5, 2024 at 3:13 AM Rich Goss via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: