This past Saturday I played in my first contra dance as part of an open band. The core group that was miked consisted of two fiddles, a piano, and electric bass. I was among about ten other pick-up musicians on stage who weren't plugged in but were still taking part in the playing. The stakes weren't that high but it was a lot of fun. I have some tidbits and obersvations below.
Here's my description of what contra dancing is: it's kind of like square dancing and céilí dancing. I'm not a dancer myself so I don't know the specifics. The tunes are either played as reels or as jigs at pretty fast tempos, and are drawn from Irish, Scottish, and English traditions, as well as from Québécois, American old-time, New England, and more. Many of the tunes in the contra dance repertoire were composed in the last 50 years and were written specifically with this in mind. If you're looking for sheet music tunebooks, the three volumes of The Portland Collection are the place to start. It doesn't stop there though; being a living tradition, new tunes are always being introduced.
-It was Halloween so all the dancers had on crazy costumes. From what I could see it was non-stop smiles!
-Being Halloween, instrumental versions of This Is Halloween (from Nightmare Before Christmas), The Addams Family theme, Ghostbusters, Funeral March of a Marionette, and other spooky tunes were worked into the medleys.
-Participants got the music list about two weeks prior. I knew about a dozen of them already, including personal favorites such as Road to Boston, Over the Waterfall, Out on the Ocean, and Maison de Glace which made me excited about being able to take part. I was able to practice some of the other 30+ tunes on the list but mostly just winged it in the moment.
-Some of the ones I didn't know beforehand that I'd like to learn include Bottom of the Punchbowl, Round the Horn, Money in Both Pockets, and Mouse in the Kitchen.
-The speeds weren't that bad. Maybe it was being in the moment, maybe it was having the sheet music in front of me, but for the most part I was able to keep up. It was only on the really note-filled reels that the 110bpm became a struggle.
-Each dance goes on for about ten to twelve minutes by my estimate, so I can see why they do a medley of three tunes so that you're not stuck playing one thing over and over the entire time. The lead fiddler as well as the caller did a great job notifying us of when the tunes were going to be changing. Super smooth transitions. Hup!
-The piano player in the band was great! Very consistent timing and lively, energetic playing. I love the style of piano used in contra dance music.
-We played for over 3 hours with just a small ten minute break in between. Each 90 minutes of playing concluded with a waltz, which I assume is per tradition. When we resumed playing after the ten minute break, we started with a polka (Walls of St. Malo!), which must also be customary.
-I had the sheet music - which I had converted to mandolin tab - for every piece of music on the list, organized into sets of three. So I had that as backup for anything I didn't know at all, which was a lot of them! However, for the ones that I did know I tried not to look at the music and watch the dancers instead.
-When you're focused on reading the music in front of you, you're not really listening, per se. You don't hear as much. I noticed this because for the tunes that I did know well, where I could relax a little bit and just play from long-term memory, it was a night and day difference...I could hear everything that was going on.
-The very first tune of the night was June Apple. Somehow I printed the wrong sheet music for a completely different version of June Apple. I noticed this as soon as the music started playing so I had to fake it by trying to play by ear. It was a good way to start!
-I would definitely do it again!
***
