DANCE TEMPO

[Randy Stein]

Traditional dance music isn't my primary genre but I have really enjoyed the times I  played for a contra or ceilidh dance. Mosty my hot club jazz swing group is hired to perform for swing dances. Like the more traditional dances, we have a vast selection of music from which to choose from within our genre. I also have arranged a couple of traditional pieces to swing and improvise.  

Recently I got into a great discussion about dance tempos vs performance tempos. When playing for a swing dance, you have to really be careful not to play too fast or frenetic for dancers whose dance chops may not be up to speed. It is up to the rhythm player(s) to maintain the proper tempo and make a needed adjustment. At any point the lead of a tune may turn to the rhythm and give a nod to slow or speed the tempo. Good communication is key for sure. And when the rhythm guitars aren't together it is a real mess. I guess it is pretty much the same in a contra and ceilidh. 

 

When performing or playing in a session, tempos tend to be more uptempo. Usually at a speed that really isn't made for dance...or so I thought. At a recent acoustic trad session, we played a tune at "dance speed" and I was amazed at how fast we played it. It was challenging fun for me. 

Just saying...

[wunks]

For contra dancing, you have to be careful starting with jigs and marches, especially if you're going to segway wlth reels or leveled hornpipes.  The 4 beat intro from the fiddler, after a brief discussion with the caller ( hopefully ) sets the tempo.  I imagine the "one and a two and....." from the swing band leader serves the same purpose.

[Leah Velleman]

There isn't really any such thing as "dance speed," because different dance styles need very different tempos.

 

A lot of it has to do with how often you move your feet. Swing dancers move their feet in complicated patterns on the quarter notes and eighth notes. To make swing physically possible, the tempo has to be slow. Contra dancers step just twice per measure, on the half notes. To keep those steps from being unbearably slow, the tempo needs to be faster.

 

And a lot of it has to do with feel. Swing dancers cover a lot of different moods, from "quick and exciting" to "very slow and romantic." So some swing tunes are even slower than they need to be, just to set a romantic or seductive mood. Contra has less of a range, and I say this as someone who loves contra dancing — we go from "quick and exciting" to "catching our breath, but still pretty brisk." (If we want "slow and romantic," we do a waltz instead.) So all the tunes are about as fast as possible.

 

Edited May 31, 2024 by Leah Velleman

[Richard Mellish]

Many years ago, when I played for a north-west morris side, our rule of thumb was that if half the dancers said we were too slow and the other half said we were too fast we must be about right.

 

A few months ago I was at a dance with musicians who play together from time to time but only once a year for dancers. I mostly danced but joined in with a few tunes. When the lead fiddler started one tune I thought "I've never known it go that slowly", but I joined in. After not very long the person leading the dancing came up to us and confirmed that it was too slow. I assume that the lead fiddler had learnt it from the dots and not known how fast it should go. I then played a few bars at what I considered about the normal speed for that tune, we started again at that speed, and the dancers seemed satisfied.

 

That tune happened to be a Byss Kalle slängpolska, a very different genre from any of those mentioned by Rudy or those that we used to play for the morris, but with the same problem that you can't always be sure what will suit the dancers.

[gcoover]

What I really like about the Morris is that you are not playing for generic dancers, and they are not dancing to generic music - there is a synergy between the two that is constantly interacting and changing, sometimes note by note.

 

I love how the music speeds up and slows down depending on the particular dancer, and how the musician is urged to play to that dancer's feet to help them do their best. 

 

Martin Carthy once said a lot of English music is not in 3/4, 4/4, or 6/8 - it is in the time signature of 1!

 

Gary

Edited June 2, 2024 by gcoover

[Dimble]

@Randy Stein, I hope that I'll have the pleasure of dancing to your band some time. Before the pandemic I was a swing dance organizer and DJ in the Midwest. I primarily catered to beginners and intermediate Lindy Hop, Charleston, and Balboa dancers. I can certainly agree with the need for a consistent rhythm section and tempos that suit the dancers and the styles that they know.

[Jim Besser]

On 5/31/2024 at 2:30 PM, gcoover said:

What I really like about the Morris is that you are not playing for generic dancers, and they are not dancing to generic music - there is a synergy between the two that is constantly interacting and changing, sometimes note by note.

 

I love how the music speeds up and slows down depending on the particular dancer, and how the musician is urged to play to that dancer's feet to help them do their best. 

 

Yep. And it's especially challenging when playing for a side of men or women with dramatically disparate athletic abilities.

 

I never take my eyes off feet - of the foreman, when he's in motion, of the best of the others when he's not.

 

Metronomes are the enemies of Morris musicians.

Edited June 2, 2024 by Jim Besser

[Jim Besser]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:25 PM, Richard Mellish said:

Many years ago, when I played for a north-west morris side, our rule of thumb was that if half the dancers said we were too slow and the other half said we were too fast we must be about right.

 

 

Truth.

[Jim Besser]

On 5/31/2024 at 7:40 AM, Randy Stein said:

 

When performing or playing in a session, tempos tend to be more uptempo. Usually at a speed that really isn't made for dance...or so I thought. At a recent acoustic trad session, we played a tune at "dance speed" and I was amazed at how fast we played it. It was challenging fun for me. 

 

 

Many of the tunes at that session were contra dance speed - generally 115-125 BPM.  IMO, that's too fast for most sessions, when some participants are picking the tunes up on the fly.  I was as guilty as anybody there of starting tunes at those speeds - old habits are hard to break.