playing for square & contra dances - bluegrass & old-time ... · pdf filepage 6 d...

Playing for Square & Contra Dances

Fiddlin’ Bill Hensley, 1937, by B. Shahn

Walker Creek 2017 Erik Hoffman

Table of Contents

Page 1 A Bit of History

The differences

Page 3 Other Squares

Page 3 Musical Differences

Page 4 Musical Styles

Page 6 D Tunes

Page 7 Arkansas Traveler

Page 8 Big Liza Jane

Page 9 Sally Ann—from the Crook Brothers

Page 10 Flopping Chicken

Page 11 Hog Keepers

Page 12 Julie Ann Johnson

Page 13 Mississippi Sawyers

Page 14 Needlecase

Page 15 G Tunes

Page 16 Leather Britches

Page 17 Nail That Catfish to a Tree

Page 18 Redwing

Page 19 Seneca Square Dance

Page 20 Shoes & Stockings

Page 21 Shove That Pig’s Foot a Little Further in the Fire

Page 22 A Tunes

Page 23 George Booker

Page 24 Hunt the Buffalo

Page 25 Little Dutch Girl

Page 26 Waterbound

Page 27 Liza Jane

Page 28 A Modal Tunes

Page 29 Benton’s Dream (Mixolydian)

Page 30 Cold Frosty Morning (Dorian)

Page 31 Half Past Four (Mixolydian)

Page 32 June Apple (Mixolydian)

Page 33 Mr. Banjo (Mixolydian)

Page 34 Tater Patch (Mixolydian)

Page 35 C Tunes

Page 36 Billy in the Lowground

Page 37 Katydid

Playing for Dances A Bit of History

I learned about dances by falling in love with the dance, the music, and

the calling of Traditional American dance. In 1980, when I discovered “Contra

Dancing,” an evening of contras included:

• Longways sets (contras)

• Southern Squares (called to the beat)

• New England Squares (called to the phrase)

• Mixers (usually called to the phrase)

• At least two waltzes

• An occasional schottishe

• Usually one hambo (a Swedish couple dance)

• An occasional Sicilian Circle

• And other interesting and fun dances.

During that time, the contra dance scene blossomed. As it did, squares

lost favor, dancers didn’t want to do those mixers, and other forms fell out of

fashion.

In other parts of the world, the traditional square dance found favor, and

contras fell out of fashion. People who loved the traditional square dance, with

its southern music organized festivals and taught callers. Many names come

to mind: Larry Edelman, Kathy Anderson, Sylvia Miskoe all come to mind. And

there are many more.

In my limited knowledge, besides those listed above, there are two people

who I know have worked hard to keep the tradition alive and growing: Phil

Jameson and the late “Bubba” Bill Martin. These lovers of the tradition spread

the joy of the dance, encouraged callers and musicians, and organized many

events to pass the tradition along.

These days there is a divide between the contra and square dance

traditions. At least in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are few who go to

both the local contra dances and the local traditional square dances. And

there seem to be quite a few people who go to one and avoid the other. I

Playing for Dances Erik Hoffman suppose I sort of understand this, as we live in a fast-paced world with

precious little free time for feeding our fancies.

The Dance Differences Traditional Squares and Contras share a number features. They both

have callers, are taught—walked through prior to the dance, share many

figures, and are almost always done to live music. But there are also

significant differences.

Squares are done in, well, squares of eight people, four couples or, as in

what’s called Kentucky Running Sets, squares of two couples—four people.

Contras are done in a line of couples, originally (and still) called, “A Longways

Set for as Many as Will.” Contras have a repeating set of figures. Squares are

more flexible.

Traditional squares are often phrased to the beat of the music. Yes, we

callers like 8-beat phrases, but we don’t really care where a figure falls in the

phrase. We callers will often watch the dancers. One square might finish a

figure faster than another, so we’ll wait until everyone is ready. Thus timing is

flexible and fluid.

A typical Square dance includes a “break figure,” and a “main figure.”

When these occur in the dance is up to the caller. Also, a caller can vary the

figures—thus dancers must keep their attention on the caller. We’ll come back

to this later.

Contra dances and New England type squares almost always consist of

figures set to work within the phrase of a “straight” fiddle tune. A “straight”

fiddle tune has two 8-bar (16-beat) main phrases. The first is generally called

the A part. The second, the B part. These tunes are played AABB. Each of

these parts have palpable phrases of 4 bars, and these shorter phrases are

broken into 2-bar bits.

Contra dances and New England squares take advantage of these

phrases, and are composed to fit tunes of this 32-bar AABB type. One time

through the tune is one time through the dance.

Erik Hoffman Playing for Dances Page 3

Other Squares Before leaving this subject, I should mention that there are many square

dance styles. New England, French-Canadian, and what’s dubbed Modern

Western Square Dance.

The New England tradition is closely tied to the contra tradition, as

mentioned above. One time through a 32-bar tune is one time though the

dance. However, when called, it’s traditional to do a 32-bar “opening figure,”

twice through a 32-bar “main figure,” a 32-bar “break figure,” two more times

through the 32-bar “main figure,” and end with a 32-bar “ending figure.” The

opening, break, and ending figures might all be the same thing, or they might

all be different.

The tempo for these squares is more akin to contra dance tempo: 120.

And callers welcome jigs as well as reels for these dances.

Many of us are vaguely familiar with the Modern Western Square

Dancers. We’ve seen folk, usually older, going to the square dance in their

crinoline skirts and gabardine shirts. Prior to going to these square dance

events, these dancers take classes, so they know all the figures. At the event,

dancers are expected to know what level of figures they’ve mastered, and stick

to dances at their level or below. No walk-throughs, just form a square and

you’re off!

To up their level, dancers keep taking classes. Some of the levels are:

basic, mainstream, plus, and challenge. These callers learn strict definitions of

calls through an organization called “Callerlab.” And, they predominantly use

prerecorded music.

We’re only scratching the surface here, but it’s a start.

Musical Differences Finally, let’s get to playing for dances. Here I’ll write about playing for

contras, for traditional squares, and for other dances—the Virginia Reel, and

what we call “one-night stand” dances (ONSD). These are dances for weddings

and parties where no one knows how to dance, but want to have a good time.

Tempo:

Contras: 112 to 120 BPM. 116 BPM is a good guide.

Playing for Dances Erik Hoffman Squares:120 to 140 BPM. Fast!

ONSD: varies, but 116 to 120. These tempos will work for ONS squares,

but sometimes we like fast, too. The caller should set the tempo.

Music:

Contras: can be orchestrated: the band provides variety

Squares: better un-orchestrated: the caller provides variety

ONSD: The caller provides the variety, but, often, here, the band can too.

Musical Styles What makes that good-old Southern music so good for calling squares?

It’s driving, it’s got an insistent beat, it’s mezmerizing. As the baseball hat

says, “Old-Time Music, Better Than it Sounds.”

Traditional square dance bands favor the fiddle, banjo, guitar

combination. A bass is a welcome addition, as well as the mandolin. It’s not

uncommon for traditional “Old-Time” bands to sit in a formation as close to a

circle as possible. Their idea is to get into the groove and stay there. It’s much

like a meditation, and it is exhilarating! That tight-knit music, watching

dancers out of the corner of your eye, and letting the tune take you away.

Chorally, the boom-chuck of open chords, with simple bass runs rule

here. Fancy swing chords can work, but the tradition is to get into the groove

with those big, ringing open chords.

Modern contra bands feature a wide variety of instruments, thought

they are usually fiddle/piano based or fiddle/guitar based. But you’ll see

bombardes, saxophones, gadulkas, bodhrans, dumbeks, and more.

The world’s most well-known contra band, Wild Asparagus, started as a

trio: George Marshall called and played bodhran and concertina, Ann Percival

played on piano, and David Cantieni played oboe and flute. No fiddle. Yes, as

they’ve evolved, they’ve worked and now work with numerous fiddlers, now

calling the fabulous Becky Tracy their fiddle, as well as bass players,

percussionists, and more. But in their early years they traveled across the

country as a trio, and worked hard to make their well-deserved name.

Chording for contras permits a wide variety of choices. One can start

with boom-chuck, go to other rhythms, move from open chords to swing

Erik Hoffman Playing for Dances Page 5 chords to DADGAD with fancy bass runs. Mainly, Don’t Lose the Tempo! And

Don’t lose the phrase! Also, try to fit the music to the dance.

For the One Night Stand Dance, it’s often whatever you get. A bluegrass

band that only knows how to take solos, not really playing together as a dance

band, a cousin’s band that sort of knows what to do, or a band that the caller

has worked with and knows all the ins and outs of that callers dances.

Some of us square dance callers like doing singing squares. These are

square dance figures set to a song. It’s an old tradition: make up a dance that

fits the music of a song, and sing the calls. Old tunes, like Golden Slippers, or

relatively newer tunes like Just Because, and The Trail of the Lonesome Pine

have been used. The Modern Western Square Dance movement has put calls

to everything from Merle Travis to Madonna songs…

Thus, a caller might ask the band to switch into “Be my backup band.”

This makes the caller the main melody instrument. Fiddles and mandolins get

to do chords and fills. It’s yet another art that’s worth learning.

Playing for Dances Erik Hoffman

D Tunes

First, I write these tunes in 2/4. I have my reasons. Ask me if you want

to know. What you should know is many people write these tunes in cut-time,

or 2/2, or (mistakenly) 4/4.

What you should know is: the 16th notes here are usually what others

write as 8th notes.

Page 7 Arkansas Traveler

Big Liza Jane

Page 9 Sally Ann—from the Crook Brothers

Page 10 Flopping Chicken

Page 11 Hog Keepers

Page 12 Julie Ann Johnson

Page 13 Mississippi Sawyers

Page 14 Needlecase


G Tunes

Page 16 Leather Britches

Nail That Catfish to a Tree

Page 18 Redwing

Page 19 Seneca Square Dance

Page 20 Shoes & Stockings

Page 21 Shove That Pig’s Foot a Little Further in the Fire


A Tunes

Page 23 George Booker

Hunt the Buffalo

Page 25 Little Dutch Girl

Page 26 Waterbound

Page 27 Liza Jane


A Modal Tunes

“Modal” in the folk world means either:

• Mixolydian Mode—the root chord is major—but includes that

flattened 7th

• Dorian Mode—the root chord is minor, which naturally has a

flattened 7th, but has a major 6th

Page 29 Benton’s Dream (Mixolydian)

Cold Frosty Morning (Dorian)

Page 31 Half Past Four (Mixolydian)

Page 32 June Apple (Mixolydian)

Page 33 Mr. Banjo (Mixolydian)

Page 34 Tater Patch (Mixolydian)


C Tunes

Page 36 Billy in the Lowground

Katydid

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