Hi fellow dance musicians,

What creative ways are you finding to play dance music these days? Are you working on any music-related projects?

The pandemic has certainly slowed me down. However, there's a few projects that I'm really enjoying...

-The open band that I lead is still meeting once a month. We gather through zoom, spending about about 1/3 of the time visiting and the rest playing music.  Only one mic can be on for the music playing but that seems to be working well.  At first, it was either the lead fiddler or myself (piano).  The last two sessions have involved the fiddler and I playing together while physically distanced outside.

-I've been wanting to get better at playing fiddle and a friend in the US has been interested in learning how to play Cape Breton style piano so we've recently started swapping weekly lessons.  We each teach for 15 minutes which gives the other person just enough to work on for the next week. (We both have kids so there isn't much practice time!)

-I'm working my way through a new tune book: Honeywood by Emilyn Stam and John Williams.  It's full of absolutely gorgeous European dance tunes...https://www.emilynandjohn.com/

-Finally, one of our local contra dancers organized a physically-distant picnic that was open to all last week.  Ontario is currently allowing a maximum of 100 people to gather outside in groups as long as they maintain distance. 20-30 people showed up and everyone respected distance. I organized a few musicians to attend and we played in the background.  There was no dancing but the dancers appreciated the music.

I'm curious as to what you are up to!

:) Emily in Ottawa