We think that live music is important for the atmosphere of a dance club so the use of CDs is indeed a rarity for our club! We have always played acoustically because we had quite a small venue. We may, however, need to be amplified in our new venue, Rainford Village Hall.
It is not expected that musicians pay subs to the club, even if you dance sometimes as well!
The Dots
I normally have all the tunes in Dropbox which is then emailed to you ready in time for the Wednesday LLDC. Callers are on a rota and email their choice to me. The choice of tunes is dictated by the choice of dances. We have three main types of dances: Playford, American contras and Contemporary Barndance style. Playford dances have their own set tune, but otherwise there is a note saying 32 / 48 bar reels, jigs, hornpipes or polkas. American reels (occasionally jigs) are needed for Contras. (Maureen and Martin often like to choose particular tunes for their dances.) LLDC has been going for almost 4 years now so we have built up quite a repertoire! New musicians can be surprised at the tempo of some of the tunes; but we are a lively club! If you are not familiar with the style of music you may also feel it is quite fast!
We are a lively band but no more so than you would find at a good dance in Chippenham or Whitby. The tunes can be demanding and at the top end of the range. Hopefully musicians will have time to practise but this of course is time consuming and not expected. However it is normal etiquette not to play whilst the caller is explaining a dance! Feel free of course to dance if you’d rather not play! In fact I think it is helpful if musicians can be dancers as well! I do feel it useful occasionally to play softly if the dance is a waltz or if it is unusually difficult in order to help dancers whilst the caller is explaining the moves, but a phrase at a time!
Finally I may update Dropbox prior to a dance as some things may change.
Thanks for playing in our band,
Frank