Contra Dance at Jonathan's School

Cambridge Friends School has an annual Contra Dance; it's on our calendar. I hope Jonathan will get a chance to sit in with the band like last year, and like last year, I'm working that night, so I won't get to see him play.

New classical recording up, Jonathan's article published

I've posted a recording of our Beethoven Sonata duo from Jonathan's recital last month, on our Recordings page.

Jonathan's camp journal from Pinewoods was picked up by the newsletter for the Country Dance and Song Society. They reprinted the pictures & his complete text. It's nice to see it in hard print, but that means I can't link to it.

In the Mind of an Active Contra Dance Pianist

Contra dance piano is a very interesting thing to play for two main reasons: one being that you get to supply the beat for the entire band, and the other being that you have a lot of room to fool around since harmony is one of the main parts of your job. Last night at the Medway dance, I realized that depending on which song I was playing and the difficulty of the chord changes, I was thinking about different things, sometimes not even about the music. I thought up this blog article while playing an easy reel, and by the end of the song, I was able to categorize my thoughts into five different contra piano modes:

1) Nervous concentration: “Man, I got to keep up with these changes or else it will sound really bad. How long will this song last? I got to stay on my toes.”

2) Band Chemistry: “Dad’s on fire! Man that’s cool! I should tell him that that thing that he did on the A rocked!”

3) Watching the Dancers: “That couple is really good! That kid is totally into it, and his mom seems to be liking it too. Whoa! Who would want to dance with her!”

4) Boredom: “Dear mom, well here I am at the Medway dance playing a good old one chord reel. I got bored, so I’m writing this letter to you with my nose.”

I have to agree with Peter Barnes when he said that one great thing about playing a contra dance is watching the dancers. Also, while doing this, you don’t have to worry about being caught staring at one hot couple for the whole time. Who would imagine that the pianist was watching you? Impossible! It also doesn’t help to have a nice old church to admire, but a lot of the time my dad’s so involved and active that I just watch him.

More on Duos

Regarding the Contra Dance Duo, Bruce Rosen says -

In fact, my favorite band is the 2-person band ... me and a fiddler ... I think it's the configuration in which I play my best. It's also the easiest in many ways ... easy to pick tunes (I just do what the fiddler wants), easy to hear each other, easy for the sound guy. Two musicians can play with huge energy ... dancers are constantly coming up to the stage and marvelling at how much sound we are creating.

Duo Flying Solo

We're playing the Medway dance this saturday.

This will be our first time at the Medway dance. Thanks to Rob Rudin for hooking us up with the organizers of that dance.

We had a solid rehearsal sunday putting together some arrangements for this gig. Dusted off some of our "standards" and put together some new stuff - like taking Star of Muster into Minor Swing.

The other "first" of this gig is that it's our first dance gig playing just as a duo - no other instruments joining in. When we first started playing contra dances, we were lucky enough to have more experienced dance musicians join us and lend guidance. Flying solo now (or "Flying duo?").

Playing as a duo presents some unique dynamics. First of all, we each have to work harder; there's no sitting back & letting someone else carry the tune. I'm all the melody and Jonathan is all the harmony & rhythm. I expect us each to feel worn out by the end of the night.

Any contra dance band tries to create different moods or textures over the course of the dance. The most common way to do this is by using different combinations of instruments - i.e. "Just fiddles & accordions on this verse..." That device isn't really available in a duo. Either we're both playing, or I can carry the occasional verse solo on vibes. And that's it for instrument combinations. That means that our range of textures has to be more internal, coming from *how* we play. We need to challenge ourselves to create variety within the duo.

The really fun thing about Apple Crisp-with-no-condiments is that we can hit grooves together that just can't happen with other people in the band. Jonathan & I know each others' playing far better than we know anyone else's. We can go at our own speed, speak our own musical shorthand, even predict each others' mistakes, and get each others' musical jokes without having to explain to the other musicians.