ooo, this is a fun one. My most immediate thoughts -- -- consider flying an experienced musician over from, say, Vermont, to teach/coach for a few weeks, inbetween hiking those pristine mountains we saw in the Lord of the Rings movies. My phone number's 802-387-2359.... :) -- when you're listening to a CD by a known contra band, keep in mind that bands *often* do things on their cd's that they *don't* do at dances -- mess with tempos, drop out beats or add in extras, go off into flights of fancy that might work well with an experienced dance-weekend crowd but not with a beginner "starter culture" . Cd's are where musicians let loose and do all of the things they've thought of but can't get away with live - it's where they get to be uber cool and ignore the rules. Live tunes are often much less dense -- the coolness is spread out over 12 times through the tune, not 3, and leaves more mental room for the dancers' interaction with each other instead of claiming complete attention. There's a difference between playing a tune so that it fits a particular dance - punching balances, smoothing heys - and playing in a way that is universally "danceable". The second is IMHO much more important. (I'm sticking my neck out here, go ahead and take a whack, fellow callers). If you want cd's of top players being danceable above all -- not cool, not hot, not hip (which they also are, but that's not their priority) go to the New England Dancing Masters website. (run, don't walk) So what's "universally danceable?" That's the next email, gotta go teach a lesson. There's a good list of "Ten things that classical players get wrong when they first try to play dance music that makes them sound dorky and makes the dance feel leaden" in my library somewhere. I'll try and dig it out (and I learned every item on that list the hard way back in 1986, so I'm not just being judgemental!) Cheers, Amy

Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net> writes: I'm in the midst of packing/moving right now and somewhat up to the eyeballs... but I havn't forgotten.

I lead the All-Comers band at our (very humble! very local!) contradance -- we have a VERY good time bashing away at both the Good Old Chestnuts and the Top Hot Pop Hits. We've got a dance coming up on Aug 28, maybe we should You-Tube it for your edification ... or amusement .. whichever one it turns out to be good for! (we'll include a shot of a trip to the loo, which is that little building out back -- the flashlight and toiletpaper roll are next to the door -- and don't leave the roll out there or the mice will nest in it!) (and for this I got a college degree in strings/pedagogy!) *grin* -Amy

Hi Amy, Yes please! I'll video our all-comers band and we can have a virtual jam. Cheers, Bill PS - we have NZ possums http://www.taiko.org.nz/Possum02.jpg