12 Jun
2007
12 Jun
'07
2 p.m.
Rickey wrote:
Dear Rickey and the gang,
I have always used a database to keep track of my dances.
I find it to be a powerful, fluid, and practical tool
for calling and memorizing.
The fields I use most are:
Title
author
date entered
learned from:
difficulty
InMyRepertoire? (yes, almost, no) This is very useful for
generating the big list of dances you know to choose from
for an evening or weekend. It is also useful for choosing
dances you DON'T know to work on memorizing.
Temp# (this is a temporary number I use for
printing out an evening program: I number the dances
for that evening 1-12 and export that data into
Word to make the evening's dance list for the musicians.
I number all the OTHER dances I MIGHT call as '20' and
put them on a separate list for me, and leave all the
remaining dances in the database at '0'.)
ForExport (yes, no) (This is an alternative way to choose dances
for export. I use this to generate a list of dances to
print out for memorizing.)
BandSuggestions (this is what kind of music I want: jig or reel,
specific suggestions of tunes, some notes on the dance itself.
A1a (This, and the 7 below, are the dance instructions. I print
out the dance instructions for the dances I have chosen
for the evening as a reference, although usually I teach
and call from memory.)
A1b
A2a
A2b
B1a
B1b
B2a
B2b
Notes (miscellaneous notes on the dance - background/teaching tips)
When I do a dance weekend I print out:
List of dances (titles/author) I might call alphabetically
Separate pages of the instructions to those dances
Same list organized by difficulty. (easy, moderate, challenging)
Memorizing your dances means that all you really need for any
particular evening of dancing is the name and author of your dances.
I find having a database makes it much easier to be proactive
about memorizing, since I can very easily find the dances I
have already memorized, and also easily make a list of dances
that I want to work on memorizing.
The database I use is Provue's Panorama, although if I were starting
over again now I would use Filemaker Pro.
-P
--
Peter Amidon
peter(a)amidonmusic.com
20 Willow Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-257-1006
cell: 917-922-5462
http://www.amidonmusic.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com
Ok, I can't put this off any longer. I have
too many cards, dances in the
computer, dances on scrapes of paper. I need a database! I would like to
be able to enter the dance into it and some other information like author,
or period or difficulty and then be able to ask it to show me all the dances
that have ladies chain to hey transitions, or have a California twirl, God
willing, or half promenade to half right-and-left through's, or that I once
thought might be good for one night stands with mixed crowds by the
seashore. It could also link back to showing me the entire dance. I know
that this is very basic database stuff, but I'm not too database literate.
I have Access and tried to do this there. I'm sure it can be done. Does
anyone have an off the shelf suggestion, or an easy answer. Easy answers do
exist for some things.
Thanks,
Rickey Holt
(Overwhelmed-in-New-Hampshire)
> P.S. I have a pc running Windows XP and megagigas of ram and storage.