Re: [Callers] What to ask a band before the gig?

I don't know if it's essential to contact a band before a gig to discuss these things, but of course I always like to talk to the band at the gig before it starts just to discuss things like who's in control, who gets the signals, tempo changes, etc.  Usually I'll contact a band ahead of time if I want to see if they play something special, like Chorus Jig or Money Musk.  But if you're doing your programming day-of the dance or if you need to change up your program on the fly (for whatever reason), then you'd have to communicate this to the band anyways on the spot.  Certainly it's good to know if they play only reels, or if they play Southern music, or whatever, beforehand (you might get this info from the dance organizer too) - know what type of band it is and ask them for special requests.  But things like tempo, the feel of the music you want, etc, can be dictated by who's on the floor dancing. I change my programs on the fly quite frequently depending on whether there are more new dancers or more experienced dancers than I anticipated.  Being prepared is an excellent idea but also have some flexibility in your preparations so you can change things when you need to. Perry ________________________________ From: Jeff Kaufman <jeff(a)alum.swarthmore.edu> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 1:01 PM Subject: Re: [Callers] What to ask a band before the gig? On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:34 PM, Ron Blechner <contraron(a)gmail.com> wrote: When trying to choose tunes/sets with the Free Raisins we want to know from the caller what sort of feeling they have in mind for the dance and we like to see the card.  While we can modify most tunes to fit most dances we can do a much better job if we pick a tune specifically for the dance.  Telling us where the balances are is ok, but if you have a card we'd rather see it. If you tend to give us no direction as to how you want the dance to go and just give us the card then we'll try and take on the role of planning this for the evening, but we prefer when the caller takes that role. Jeff _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers