strathspey@strathspey.org:1114

Mcgarrity

Re: tempos, etc

Feb. 27, 1995, 6:57 p.m. (Message 1114, in reply to message 1102)

Etienne writes:
"When I worked in Toronto, we always had scads of experienced,  
knowledgeable teachers on the dance floors.  Of course, every one had  
their own opinion on what the proper tempo was.  We (Scottish Accent)  
quickly learned to develop our own sense of proper tempo.

I would say that, eventually, you develop your  own sense of what an  
appropriate tempo is for a given dance at a given time.  You begin to  
realize that people's (including your own) sense of tempo has a lot  
to do with age and mood (and other complicated things like hormone  
levels, adrenalin...who knows!).  Some groups I play for have more  
beginners, others have more advanced dancers who might prefer, for  
example, slower strathspeys.  I guess the key is flexibility and a  
keen awareness on what feels right at the time, given the variables  
involved  (and not just keying on one or two people within a group).
If it does indeed feel right, it will also be easier to maintain the  
tempo, especially for a 8 1/2 minute strathspey!

I should add that developing your own sense of tempo is easier if you  
are a dancer as well, as you depend as much on your dance sense as  
your musical sense.  I'll be the first to admit that, if I haven't  
danced much recently, my bias will be to take the reels and jigs a  
tad fast.

Hope this is useful to you.

Etienne Ozorak

Regarding Etienne's remarks:
I speak as an experienced dancer and teacher, who has a "tempo sense" humming
away inside me.  My perspective, however, is that a musician who prefers to
follow his/her *own* sense of tempo  in preference to that of people
*actually on that floor, that night, actually dancing* is at risk of
sacrificing the dancers pleasure for their own (egotistical?) sense of
I-always-know-better.  Although this may not have worked for the particular
situation I mention, I can't understand how a musician not on the floor could
possibly think they can judge how the dancing actually *feels* to a good,
experienced dancer who *is* out there on THAT floor, doing THAT dance, on
THAT particular evening, with THOSE particular fellow-dancers.  Of COURSE
everyone has their own personal opinions about tempo.  The thing is that if
I'm playing I'm obviously NOT dancing, and as long as someone else whose
dancing I *respect* IS, I'd prefer going with the  DANCER's opinion rather
than my own, no matter how acute my own tempo sense might be (or, more to the
point, how acute I'd like to THINK it is).  If I were out there on the floor,
dancing to musicians whose tempo I thought was inappropriate, I sure wouldn't
appreciate hearing that they thought they were "right", more "right" than the
people on the floor, or the MC, or the branch teachers.  Please....
One complaint I've heard about a band which shall be nameless is their
refusal to adjust their tempos when asked to by the MC.  Who does a dance
belong to, anyway?  I think it belongs to the dancers, not the band -- the
band is there to serve the dancers.
Kim McGarrity
Palo Alto, CA