Re: [Callers] cueing the band

Thanks Alan! Sounds like a lot to learn. I'm really grateful that there are so many callers willing to mentor new callers and help with these things. When I called at camp last week, I was listening for the 3rd song and even my experienced caller helper was not sure on the transition....... but knew when to ask. Must be an amazing thing when really good callers like George Marshall can get out on the floor and dance for a bit, or Nils Fredland can join the band...... Thanks for all the help! claire Message: 3 Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:31:54 -0700 From: Alan Winston via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: Re: [Callers] Thanks Message-ID: <559F74EA.4010603(a)slac.stanford.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"; format=flowed On 7/9/15 11:58 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote: Basically, mostly. And you have to stay with them because sometimes they'll catch the 3, know it's happening, and then look to you for confirmation of the last one and if you're thinking about the next dance or glazing over and can't confirm it, confusion may ensue. So it doesn't hurt to be ready to show them 1 finger (not that one) before the last time. Usually a full 3-2-1 is more than they need and actually unhelpful because your coming over with the "2" makes them think this is new information and they need to process it. Complications: Some dances have a couple out at the top in B1 who are going to be brought back in B2, so you have to know the end effects of the dance. Talk to the band. Rarely (in the Bay Area, anyway) you get an old-timey band that's just going to pound one tune all the way through, and they just want to know when to go out. I've mostly been used to bands that are playing three-tune medleys. They're going to play like 6-6-7 or 6-6-5. The last tune is probably climactic so you don't want to cut it short. You ideally will keep track of which tune they're on (which can be surprisingly hard to do from the stage with your attention on the floor and no monitors pointing at you and the tune sounding different every time they play it because of variations and dynamics - you might not realize they've changed) and know when they're in the third tune and give them the 3-more at B1 of tune 2 or 4. If you give 'em 3 when they're about to change tunes they might wave you off and play 5. But the band might want to play a two-tune medley, and then they want to know when you're (about) halfway through the dance so they know when to switch, and for that you have to decide how many times you want to run the dance, keep count of how many times it's been run by the time you said it was halfway, and count down to your "3", remembering to do it when there's a couple out at the top, if that's possible. "If that's possible" because sometimes you're trying to manage all this and some couple drops out of one set or tries and fails to trade or some other damn thing and the sets get out of synch. (For some reason that's happened to me most often calling Lake City.) Then it's not possible to finish after a couple has come in at the top in all sets. People who care about that care about that, most won't notice, and a lot of dancers will just say "huh" and move on if they do notice it. You can set up a voice recorder and transcribe later. (Polite to ask if it's okay first.) If you're friends with the sound man you might the caller mic feed ... -- Alan