This tune? https://youtu.be/eVvYjXtutT0
Seems like it feels quite laid back, even if you're taking it quite quick. You'd probably want to use it as the first of a set of dances if you want to build (1 or 2 before the interval or end say). Maybe something with leading or promenading and maybe more of a chestnut feel? Bob On Sun, 19 Mar 2023, 21:54 Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers, < [email protected]> wrote: > Hello from Halifax! > > I will preface this by saying that I consider myself a relatively > "beginner" caller. I have been working on it for about 15 years now and I > think I've become somewhat proficient at calling a very beginner-friendly > sequence of dances at our monthly beginner-friendly dances here in Halifax > - but that is about the extent of what I do. > And we rarely ever dance anything as involved as a Hey, here :) > > One area where I definitely lack skill is communicating to our bands (we > have 4-5 groups who play for us regularly), in a succinct manner that > doesn't ruffle their feathers, about what sort of a tune I want for each > dance. > > This task is made more difficult by the fact that I write (or heavily > modify) pretty much all our dances, so I can't look online to find > recommendations or videos of tunes that fit. > > As far as I know, I am a polite and caring human who never sets out to put > anyone down or show them that I know better. I try to be humble about the > fact that i'm just learning and doing the best I can. For example, last > month, with apologies, I asked the band if they would mind quickly going > through their planned tunes for the evening, so I could run through my > dance program and try to assign a dance to each tune. > > Because I lack the vocabulary and experience to tell a band "for this > dance, I need a tune with characteristics X and Y" - having them play the > tune one time through (sometimes even just half of it!) is so far the most > effective method i've found to get a tune that works for each dance. It's > also worth mentioning that our bands are not experienced contra bands - > since we are the only contra group they work with - and most have limited > sets to offer us - for example the last band came with 8 sets of tunes, to > match up with the 8 dances I had planned.... so when I found one or two > that weren't an ideal fit for anything, I did have to work quite hard > rearrange things a few times to slot everything in! > > Anyhow it took about 7 minutes to do this, and I thanked them profusely, > and the dance-tune meld went well! I thanked them again after. But still, > the lead musician told me after the event that she "didn't really > appreciate being told which tune to play when" . And that deflated me for > sure :( > > Anyhow, I welcome any grains of wisdom on this process generally (and/or a > link if one exists to this amazing cdss online workshop I took years ago on > matching tunes to dances/communicating with bands).... > > but my specific question is this: > > A *different* band - the one whose feathers I most often seem to ruffle > haha - has always played a tune set somewhere in the evening, the past few > times they've played for us, that no matter which dance I called to it, I > felt it was always a really bad fit. > > I never said anything bad about it, to be clear!! But after a few dances > where it bummed me out every single time, I finally asked the lead musician > via email (as politely as I could, putting all the blame on myself: "I just > can't seem to find a dance that i'm able to call to this tune, would you > mind leaving it out in the future?" ). > > I got this response: > "The Queteux Pomerleau set that you are quoting can be removed - the speed > of the dancers never gets up to a level to make that set effective. They > are Quebecois tunes that we learned from Sue, but in Quebec they are danced > to quite fast." > > (This refers to Sue Songer who came as part of an amazing week-long > workshop CDSS blessed us with about 8 years ago.) > > Anyhow I was curious if anyone knows of this set, and could suggest some > simple contra dances that would go well with it. > > I confess I am not a fan of the feel of the tune for the context in which > I call - most of the east-coasty jigs and reels that this band and our > other bands play really get all the dancers cheering and stomping their > feet, and this one never does.... > > But I want to be open minded about it :) > > thanks! > Kat K in Halifax > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >
_______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
