bands that play together regularly ought not to take too long to choose
tunes. bands that don't (such as monday night at the scout house) need more
time. everybody has good nights and bad nights.
from my point of view as a teacher/caller, i know that dancers do much
better (especially newer dancers) if the dance starts immediately after the
walk-thru. the longer they stand around, the more they forget about the
dance.
before the dance, i usually try to talk to bands about my thoughts on
timing, and they are almost universally cooperative when i explain my goals
and reasons.
it's my job as a caller to cooperate, too. one thing that i have found
useful is to give the band a list of what i might ask for during the evening
so they have time to think (at least a little) during sound check, etc. the
list might be something like this:
1. well-phrased reel
2. smooth driving reels
3. happy/bouncy jigs
4. smooth/sleazy jigs
5. something for a square dance
etc etc etc.
if i can give them an idea of what order i might want these in (though it
almost always changes!), that's useful, too.
and it's not that the band doesn't know what i want (i mean, really - they
know what's needed for the dance!), but having a list defines the caller's
needs in a way that can be quickly and easily understood and dealt with by
the band. if i just tell them verbally more than one dance ahead, they can
forget what i said just as easily as the dancers who are standing around can
forget the dance. heck, *i* can forget what i said!
sometimes the dancers line up really fast and only want one walk-thru.
sometimes a string breaks. sometimes the band really just can't decide on
the perfect set. for these reasons and others, maintaining the pace of the
dance at a tempo that works for everyone can be a challenge! it's been
interesting hearing everyone's thought on this.
barb
----Original Message Follows----
From: Chris Weiler <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Caller's discussion list <[email protected]>
To: Shared Weight <[email protected]>
Subject: [Callers] slow down...
List-Post: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 06:57:01 -0400
...Before we started the 2nd to last dance
of the first half, and I was waiting for the band to be ready to start
the music, the fiddler snaps at me that I'm teaching too fast and it's
much to stressful for choosing tunes!...
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