Want to learn more about playing for English Country Dancing? Want to up your skills and fun quotient a level? Please join Robbin and Dave for a weekend intensive over Labor Day weekend (8/29 - 9/1) at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Tucked away in a valley in the Western North Carolina mountains, this is a wonderful place to learn, relax, meet people and build relationships, and enjoy yourself. This class is for students who are comfortable playing English Country dance tunes at a moderate tempo. The focus for the class is playing (with others) for dances rather than on learning tunes or on instrumental technique.
We've been on staff at Pinewoods and the Berea Christmas Country Dance School as well as the John Campbell Folk School, and we think this course gives you more ECD learning time than just about any week or weekend we know.
This class will build your confidence as an ECD musician so that you are relaxed and comfortable playing for ECD dances. We’ll use tunes that are both familiar and not difficult. (While we’d like everyone to be able to play these tunes, we expect that not everyone will have learned them all.)
More specifically, you'll learn about:
The class will include five 3-hour sessions, PLUS:
There will also be a community contra dance on Saturday evening.
Questions? Please contact us at [email protected]. We hope to see a lot of fun faces and to have a great time over the weekend.
Click here for a list of the tunes we'll be using in the class, and click here for registration information.
We've been on staff at Pinewoods and the Berea Christmas Country Dance School as well as the John Campbell Folk School, and we think this course gives you more ECD learning time than just about any week or weekend we know.
This class will build your confidence as an ECD musician so that you are relaxed and comfortable playing for ECD dances. We’ll use tunes that are both familiar and not difficult. (While we’d like everyone to be able to play these tunes, we expect that not everyone will have learned them all.)
More specifically, you'll learn about:
- The basics of great ECD playing - playing lead, harmony, and rhythm.
- Playing as a band.
- The spectrum of different things to do within each piece - the wide palette of what is possible and what you can choose to do with each piece - including variations in melody, rhythm, mood, and general sound.
- The mechanics of playing a dance, including managing the caller.
- What to do if you don’t know a tune, or can’t play it to speed.
The class will include five 3-hour sessions, PLUS:
- On Sunday afternoon, there will be an ECD led by Seth Tepfer where everyone will get a chance to be on stage (and playing) for part of the dance.
- On Sunday evening, we’ll have a special session to talk about what playing for the dance felt like - just to talk about the experience and have a free-form conversation about playing for dances. Depending on how much time we spend doing that, there will be time for the class to have a slow English jam.
There will also be a community contra dance on Saturday evening.
Questions? Please contact us at [email protected]. We hope to see a lot of fun faces and to have a great time over the weekend.
Click here for a list of the tunes we'll be using in the class, and click here for registration information.