Mr Happy said:

" There's 2 monthly events here in Chester [UK] for folk to practice:

* playing for dancing

*calling

* dancing

One's mainly tunes & dances in the Playford style, the other's French tunes & dances.

I've been regularly attending the playford sesh & the tunes are frequently done so fast that they don't fit the dances.

To my mind, the callers should set the timings, but they all are wannabe dancers & aren't experienced enough yet to do this.

There's a self appointed 'band leader' with a loudish melodeon, who just can't seem to play anything other than at the speed of lightening!

I've also attended the French sesh, where strangely the tunes are slow - I think due to their very nature."


Oh Dear! I'm the person with the 'loudish melodeon' that Mr Happy is so Un-Happy about :-(

One thing I do agree with, John, is that the callers should set the tempo and, if you had been watching, you would have seen me negotiating with each caller before their dance to try to establish the correct speed for that dance. You were probably chatting or whatever so hadn't seen this going on and I can't complain about that but the fact remains that the tempo is set by discussion with the caller and with Mo (the organizer who is a very experienced caller).   

The callers aren't wannabe dancers; as far as I know most of them have been dancing for many years and are quite expert. Some of them are new to calling (not all) but, with the exception of Mo and Peter, who are used to calling with live music, the callers are used to recorded music which means that having to think about tempo and negotiate with a band leader is new to them. Part of their learning experience is how to set a good tempo for each dance and how and when to communicate with the band leader.

Sometimes we get it wrong – if it's a dance I'm not familiar with then I haven't got any previous experience of playing for that dance to draw on and have to make a guess. In those situations the usual feedback has been that it could do with being a bit faster which, to me, says that I tend to set a steady pace perhaps a bit on the slow side.

On the subject of tempo (and please remember we are talking about playing for dancing here) – most often the tempo I set lies in the range of 100 – 120 bpm. For a hornpipe for a step-hop dance (Clopton Bridge for example) then that might be nearer 100 bpm or possibly even as slow as 90 bpm. Step-hop at 90bpm is a bit hard on the knees so not so good for older dancers and it is actually easier to dance at something around 100 bpm or a little above that.

You mustn't forget, too, that the type of tune needs to be taken into account. You can have two tunes, both played at 120 bpm, and one of them will sound much faster than the other yet if you check on a metronome they are actually being played at the same tempo.

I'm not a 'self-appointed' band leader – I was asked to do it by Mo because I lead two ceilidh bands (by that I mean bands that go out and get paid for playing for ceilidhs). Mo sometimes calls with my bands and she knows me and my music really well so, presumably, she was happy enough with what she knows of me to ask me to lead her scratch band for Have-a-Go.

Many of the musicians at Have a Go have never played in a band before; some of them are beginners on their instruments or, if not beginners, then not terribly experienced either. Some have never even played with other musicians before. They need a strong lead from a fairly loud instrument to keep them in time – it's my job in that case to be a bit dominant. At times I have kept the volume of my melodeon down a bit and the band has got seriously out of time with one another – SOMEONE has got to lead and give a very clear and loud lead for both musicians and dancers to follow.

As to me not being able to play anything other that at the speed of lightening – well! I want to laugh, really, because that should be funny except it isn't. You really don't know me very well at all.

One the subject of the French Dance session you say that the tunes are much slower. Some of them are slow, yes, but if you think they all are - well, you could have fooled me! Some of them are too fast for me – I struggle to keep up!