[Callers] Need musical advice

Tue Jun 7 07:55:46 PDT 2016

Kalia, good morning. After thinking about this more and reading others' comments, and realizing you now have only one day.. here's what I think.. 

my original answer to you (below) just responded to what you were asking for, i.e... jigs and reels, sheet music, pretty easy, etc..

Unless the band is really good at reading music and has some basic understanding of the genre, you might want to go with something they know.. I think keeping with 32 bar tunes is still a good idea, why do this at all if you're not going to demonstrate 'what we do' right? and the band has indicated a willingness.. Maybe they do know Turkey in the Straw or other old-time tunes like that.. They certainly know the Chicken Dance (we call it "Danse de Canard" [duck dance] here in Maine). That tune actually IS 32 bars (of course dancers will probably not be able to resist flapping their arms, etc - not necessarily a bad thing I guess).. 

Of course if it looks like the band can do it (actually read the music, keep a good tempo, etc) then pick out a few tunes, print up the sheet music, and give it a go.. what the heck.. I agree to ditch the jigs.. Just simple reels.. I still think the Maine Fiddle Camp archive might be of use because there are *simple* tunes on there and you can listen to the MP3 (to see if it works with dance you have in mind) and print out sheet music which has the chords as well as the "fly specks".. As I said before, a LOT of this depends on the band.. but.. they may surprise you.. not every aspiring garage band just plays rock and roll..

I realize "communications" hasn't been all that great with the band, so I suppose all this may get put together *at the gig*... whew.. anyway good luck with that!! (and as several have already said, let us know how this goes!!)

bill

From: callbill at hotmail.com
To: kalia.kliban at gmail.com; callers at sharedweight.net
Subject: RE: [Callers] Need musical advice
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2016 00:51:31 +0000

Kalia, Go to the Maine Fiddle Camp web site www.mainefiddlecamp.org click on tunes.. There's an archive of dance tunes from the last 7 or 8 year's camps.. Take a look then take a listen to the MP3.. maybe select some "beginner" or intermediate tunes. there's sheet music here too with chords..  just a few possibilities: out on the ocean, jig 2008old favorite, jig 2013 spotted pony, reel 2011soldiers joy, reel 2011joys of quebec, reel 2010 lot of this will depend on the band.. there's a million to choose from good luck bill

> To: callers at sharedweight.net; trad-dance-callers at yahoogroups.com; ECD at bacds.org
> Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2016 17:19:52 -0700
> Subject: [Callers] Need musical advice
> From: callers at lists.sharedweight.net
> 
> Hi all
> 
> I'm posting this to several different callers' lists (ECD, 
> trad-dance-callers and shared weight) in hopes of some speedy advice. 
> I'm heading off shortly (Weds. evening, 6/8) for an event that is not a 
> dance event, but at which I've been asked to lead a short community 
> dance session on "honky tonk night."  The band for this is _not_ a 
> traditional dance band.  They're more of a garage band with bar-band 
> aspirations.  I wrote to them several weeks ago to check in about music, 
> and when I didn't hear back, wrote again about a week ago.  Then again, 
> and finally heard back right as I was getting ready to leave for the 
> airport for a weekend gig, from which I've just returned.
> 
> Their contact person tells me that sheet music would be useful, which 
> puts me in the position of trying to figure out a very small assortment 
> of tunes to send them.  We're doing about 1/2 hour of dancing, so at the 
> most it'll be 3 dances.  With 2 jigs and 2 reels I can make this work. 
> The question is "which ones?"  And that's where you all come in.  I'm 
> looking for recommendations for a small assortment of simple, enjoyable 
> tunes for community dancing.  As a non-musican, I have no idea which 
> tunes are easy to pick up quickly and which aren't, so I'm hoping some 
> of you can help me out.
> 
> Kalia Kliban
> 
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