[Callers] What to do?

Tue May 30 16:48:18 PDT 2017

 Reminds me of a moment early in my calling career working with a band (with musicians who should have known better) who played a crooked tune.  

It took me 3 times through to realize what the problem was and I told the band we need to change tunes, NOW.  They did.  I asked them afterwards what happened with that and they said "It was only a little crooked".  

Really??  A little crooked??

Donna Hunt

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Morgan via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Martha Wild <mawild at sbcglobal.net>; callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Tue, May 30, 2017 5:49 pm
Subject: Re: [Callers] What to do?

Ooh tricky - you definitely need to tell the band, maybe point out the odd phrasing and that you'll need to see if you can find a really good specific dance for it to work nicely.  I'm intrigued as to what the tune is now - maybe the list can suggest something useful if you let us know?

Bob

On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 10:43 PM, Martha Wild <mawild at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Next dance was rock solid, and easier, and tune was rock solid. So they did redeem themselves. I have listened to a version on line and it has a WEIRD B part - it is nominally 16 counts but the emphasis is kind of like 6, 6 and 4, and it is weird beyond belief. How do I ask them to never play it for me again?

On May 30, 2017, at 2:38 PM, Bob Morgan <ceilidh.caller.bob at gmail.com> wrote:

In the moment, move right along.  Next dance needs to be rock-solid, next tune needs to be rock solid.  Drop the difficulty through the floor and get your dancers dancing again as quickly as possible. Don't dwell and let the dancers forget it ever happened.  

Afterwards either ask the band to play it for you again if you have time and see if you can work it out collectively or just say something on the lines of "It's a shame I just couldn't seem to get the hang of tune X, is there something unusual about it?" Ideally of course the band will have been paying attention and be suitably annoyed at themselves that they didn't get it right (the absolute optimal response of course would have been for the band to have changed tune).

Bob

On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 10:16 PM, Martha Wild via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

So, a while back I was working with a band and they played a tune that was sort of new for them, and the A part was fine, but the B part was unusual anyway, and hard to know where the count was, in particular because they were unfamiliar with it, and I tried to count and call so the dancers could keep going, and it kept coming back together in the A, but falling apart in the B, until things snowballed and the dance completely fell apart. What is the best thing to do or say in a situation like that so that the band doesn’t feel too much as if it is their fault, and the dancers don’t feel it’s their fault? And yes, it’s always the caller’s fault, since I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the heck was going on with that tune, but the dancers couldn’t find their way in it either. Anyway, back to what to do to make everyone feel a little better after that.
Martha

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