5 Sep
2024
5 Sep
'24
11:53 a.m.
I think Rich's point about the tempo signals is worth highlighting!!
Before I realized that I needed to specifically discuss this with the
band in advance, I had a few mishaps where my enthusiastic
raising-and-re-raising of my hands was taken to mean that I wanted to
the band to play LOUDER, and my calming-lowering-of-my-hands gestures
were taken to mean I wanted them to play quieter :)
And-- Just for anyone else who wasn't in the know, I wrote to Rich and
he explained to me that "piece count" means the number of figures in the
dance. I did not know that :)
Kat K Hfx
Rich Goss <mailto:rich@richgoss.com>
Thursday, September 5, 2024 10:02 AM
Just to add a couple of thoughts Katherine triggered. The piece
count of a dance has a bearing on the tempo. Higher the piece count,
generally the slower the tempo and vice versa. Also, I like to make
clear up front my signals for speeding up or slowing down.
Rich
Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Thursday, September 5, 2024 9:43 AM
Hi John (and everyone), just catching up on the listserv and went to
your "Callers and Music" page--
very helpful info there!
I wish I had found it last year when I was looking for resources for
this caller-and-musician workshop that we did.
In particular, I had searched all over the internet last year for some
clue as to how many times through a typical improper duple contra
dance would run, and had a real hard time finding that info.
I had concluded that with 5 duples in a set (our usual), we might
dance through up to 17 times, which would take about 9 minutes at
117bpm..... so that those who started at the top would get back to the
top.
Do you think that's too long?
I was under the impression that in the US the lines are often longer
than 5 duples, and that the convention was to dance long enough to let
everyone travel up and down the line the whole way....so I was
thinking that in a seasoned contra dance group the dance might go on
15 minutes or more?
Very curious about this now!
Kat Kitching in Halifax NS
Sep 4, 2024 3:16:24 PM John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>et>:
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