Re: [Musicians] Balance tunes & Programming

programming - what you describe is exactly how i started out, too. but i have been a caller much longer than a dance musician (but a musician longer than a dancer), and so i've thought a lot about what bands have done that really seemed to work for me and for other dancers over the years. balances - there are balances everywhere in every dance. i almost never worry about "balances in B1" or similar comments. with very few exceptions, all the tunes i have played over the last couple of years are probably fine - clear phrasing is the key. instead, i think about the mood that i would like to set (either as a caller or musician) and work from that direction. "smooth" or "percussive" seem much more relevant. sometimes it really seems that one or the other may make more sense than anything else, but a "smooth" dance may be wonderful with a punctuated tune, or vice versa. i have been amazed how well some dances i consider "smooth" work with really beat-heavy tunes, so i don't really worry about that anymore. setting a mood with each set, carrying that through in a satisfying manner - that's how i pick tunes when creating sets and when picking sets during the dance. and then changing that mood in a coherent direction so that at the end of the evening people feel like they have had a "good" experience. for example, no matter what dance is caller first in an evening, it's a good idea to play a nice straight-forward clearly-phrased set just to get everybody on the same page. great tunes for this are things like round the horn, snake river reel, johnny cope, far from home, redwing, arkansas traveller, etc. if there are new dancers, these tunes SOUND familiar even if they really aren't. they are easy to listen to, no complicated melodies or chord progressions or syncopation, no confusion between A and B, etc., etc. on the other hand, the last dance in the set, after everybody's warmed up and comfortable, should be accompanied by your most show-offy (but still seriously driving and danceable) set - i love to end with stuff like growling old man, bus stop reel, tuba city truckstop, i think it's also important to have a range of styles, beyond smooth/percussive/etc. i like to have an oldtimey (well, my version of oldtimey) set, a quebecois set, some irish jigs, a "happy" set (swinging on a gate, farewell to whiskey, maison de glace), a "wild" set (ie - trip to sofia, carpathian tune, stop press, mr. danger), an ECD-type set (the wren), a march set (st. tim, belknap's, rocks of brae, even scotland the brave!), etc. over the years, i've heard some great bands. things that have stuck with me are either really interesting tunes (liberty bell march, secret agent man) and interesting arrangements. and i've listened to the dancers when i've called, trying to figure out what they do or do not like about the music they're listening to. and the most important thing i've learned as a CALLER is that the BAND is more important! a really good band can make a mediocre caller have a great evening, but no caller can overcome a bad band! cheers - barb