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

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On Thu, Sep 5, 2024 at 3:13 AM Rich Goss via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Update: I went to the Apple App store to look for LiveBPM. No longer available. There are other similar apps. I notice it’s in the Google store.

Rich

> On Sep 5, 2024, at 3:56 AM, Rich Goss via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>
> It makes more sense if you think of a beat as a step.
> Callers would think of each part (A1, A2, B1, B2) as 16 steps, or beats, each. 64 steps to a dance. Same with the music.
> A reel is 4/4 or 2/4. 2/4 is cut time. A jig is 6/8.
> Professional musicians would know that by looking at the music. Tempo is usually the challenge for a new-to-dance band. There is an app called LiveBPM the band can use to measure their tempo. 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.
>
> If I’m working with a band with tempo issues, I will frequently pull up LiveBPM so they can see it and know what their tempo is. Sometimes they will simply self correct, sometimes not.
>
> My 2 cents at 4am. Good discussion.
>
> Rich Goss
> Vancouver, WA or Austin, TX (depending on the time of year).
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