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Thread: Playing for dancing at a friend's birthday party

  1. #1
    flyfishermandolinist
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Southern Colorado
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    199

    Default Playing for dancing at a friend's birthday party

    Greetings!

    My wife and I have been asked to put together a set of live music to accompany dancing. She'll be on fiddle and I'll be backing with chords on bouzouki (well, my Pono octave mandolin tuned GDAD to be precise).

    We're more general folk players but know some session tunes in the Celtic tradition (and in some cases have come up our own arrangements for some tunes).

    I'm hoping to use some of the tunes we already know for this setting. I've been told it will be "highland dancing" but I'm not sure how precise that language is. I've been asked to do reels or jigs of the 8 or 16 bar variation. I know the difference between a jig and a reel but I'm not familiar with exactly what the 8 or 16 bar variation means. I'm guessing it is the number of bars in the melody before it repeats or goes to the next section?

    I'll get more information but I'm assuming this means someone will be teaching a crew of newby dancers a few steps as we provide the music.

    Just wondering, before I return with more precise questions for you, what those of you who play for dance might like to share with someone who has never accompanied dance before? Well we have accompanied more of a festivarian hula hoop dance style before, but that's different!

    If anyone can suggest some essential dance tunes to learn, we'd be open to that as well!

    Thanks in advance!
    Weber Bitterroot mandolin
    Harmony CBOM Conversion

  2. #2

    Default Re: Playing for dancing at a friend's birthday party

    Time. Is everything. Whatever tunes you pick, make sure that you can play them with precise and steady time - which may be a bit faster than you're accustomed to playing them.

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  4. #3
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Oct 2009
    Location
    Ardnadam, Argyll, Scotland
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    2,277

    Default Re: Playing for dancing at a friend's birthday party

    As someone who has played for many years for Ceilidh dances I would say that steady timing is one of the essentials. The dancers will not be happy if you have them stumbling along to an irregular beat. Jigs and reels form the backbone of this kind of dancing along with hornpipes and in Scotland we use pipe marches for dances such as The Gay Gordons. The sort of tunes the dancers might expect will include the Eightsome Reel, Strip The Willow, Virginia Reel, Boston Twostep Canadian Barndance, St Bernard's Waltz to name a few and there are generally tunes which go with those dances, though if your dancers are new to the dances then you will have more freedom in what you choose. We often play hornpipes for dancing a Canadian Barndance and sometimes combine it with a 2/4 pipe march such as Crossing The Minch. It is a huge bonus if you can do the dances yourself as you then have an idea of the timing and the length of the dance. Get a list of the suggested dances from the organiser well in advance so that you can select suitable tunes.

    Good luck, and above all, enjoy yourselves.
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores

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