strathspey@strathspey.org:11760

M.J.Norman

Re: Dancing to pipes - or not!

April 23, 1998, 9:02 p.m. (Message 11760, in reply to message 11659)

>On Tue, 21 Apr 98 09:48:36 GMT Norman BETT <xxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx> writes:
>>This talk about pipes and drums raises very deep questions:
>>How do we as dancers (or listeners) discern `the beat' and just as
>>importantly, the end of the phrase?

        Something that struck me when I first started dancing was that,
without  trying, I always knew where I was in a given 8 or 16 bar phrase.
It had to do with the pattern of the tune and the way it varies in the last
half of the musical phrase.  Once I'd heard the tune, I always knew where I
was in the phrase and which foot I _should_ be on :).
        The thing which struck me even more was that there were fellow
beginners in the class who didn't have this understanding.  Once I had a
chance to think about it of course, I realised that not everyone has the
same level of exposure to music.  I took piano and flute lessons from an
early age, but I had not had much exposure to Scottish traditional music
before starting SCD classes in my early 20's.  Yet no matter which "style"
of music one prefers, a long period of careful listening (and perhaps
playing on a musical instrument) will probably give you at least some
understanding of the way various kinds of music is structured.  Scottish
traditional tunes are usually structured in a particular way that can be
very helpful to dancers if they know what to listen for.
        As for the beat, well like Michelle, to me it's just there, it's
instinctive.  Or at least it seems instinctive.  I have a feeling that the
experts would tell us that being able to feel rythym is a learned
behaviour.  Some of us are just given more opportunity to learn rythmic
movement at a young age than others, so it seems more natural to us.  I
once read a fascinating book called "A Soprano on Her Head" that talked
about a music teacher's experiences with her students and their various
problems with learning music, including rythym.  I know Bruce and Jo have a
copy somewhere, I've lost mine.

Monica