Roger ... that is an interesting perspective .. re: speed and all, depending on the type of audience.

I see how that ties very well... I mean the differances in a dancing crowd and that of just a listenging crowd.

I too have noticed that when you have a predominate listening audience (festival) they snap too when the music starts hopping (two step or driving zydeco beat). Especially an audience that has very little knowledge of this genre. But dancers are a form of the the total entertainment for many.

When I finally placed a dance floor at a festival, a big transformation occured, whereby any speed seemed to be attractive to the audience by virtue of the dancers that simply wanted to dance..they likewise were part of the entertainment for the sitter-downers.... it was the best $600 I ever spent on tounge and groove and a gob of 2x4's and screws! Just about every band that played could feel the audience for what they wanted and mixed it up very well crossing many speeds, it was cool... To me, that is the upper level of band experience, reading the audience and knowing how to get the juices flowing (so to speak) enough to have folks (that want to dance) mark their territory on the floor.

Dave

I must have it good. No dancers and no one to jam with. Thankfully the accordion is a band rolled into one box! It all sounds good to me.

Hi...interested in reading the postings on "speed at sessions" (Don't use it myself have enough problems playing !!)

Here in UK there is a real mentality around which can be very destructive to new players. It's the smirking comments..."this is the RIGHT way to play this tune/etc"

Some people appear to want to hold music in a time warp (usually Morris players)...I wonder how music evolved if these people had been around !!

Of course there are correct speeds for specific dances and it is good discipline to play them BUT lets remember that American Old time/etc came from a pooling of many older English/Irish/etc tunes which were either half remembered and redesigned for local tastes and dancing.

We can still keep the "traditional tunes" BUT we must experiment surely.

Geoff

You didn't sound too fast to me when I heard you this fall at the jam at Half Moon. Good luck with your gig!

The gig went fantastic. We were a little shakey at first but people danced and enjoyed it. I'm happy. Got a good chunk of change out of it too.

Anticipating our second gig TBA!