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[Scallyanglo]

Rees
Brilliant comments and perspective.... more beer and wider roads

I agree on all counts! Also wondering whether it's such a good idea to bike to Bampton on Monday 

This is a really interesting & useful thread for English session newbies. Swing & timing. When practising, I visualise my own personal morris side dancing in the back garden  Better than a metronome - can get a bit distracting though . . . .

[george garside]

[rees]

............................ but not absolutely sure of venue at this stage

george

or do you mean "not absolutely sure of stage at this venue" - some of them can be a bit wobbly.

[Ebor_fiddler]

Hope to see you there George - I'll try not to stab folks in the eye with my fiddle-bow this year. I'm not sure whether my box playing is even up to "gentle" standard yet.

[IanD]

Morepeth Rant needs to be played fast enough to be interesting and just slow enough not to break the dancers' ankles when doing the rant step! 

According to Gordon (Potts) it depends whether you're playing for Northern-style (faster) or Southern-style (slower) ranting at a dance -- we've never been able to agree which way to play it, which is one reason we don't.

Or you can slow it down to around 80bpm and play it as a skanky back-beat dotted hop-step, add a "chang-a" rhythm guitar, get some New Orleans funeral procession horn riffs into it...

I'd say there's no one correct speed to play any tune, it all depends what you want to do with it :-)

Ian

[baz parkes]

[it depends whether you're playing for Northern-style (faster) or Southern-style (slower) ranting at a dance -- we've never been able to agree which way to play it, which is one reason we don't.

Ian

Same here...tho it is a lovely tuhe....

Baz
with his ABU hat on

[Hello]

Absolutely as fast as possible. But make sure you leave enough tempo to be able to accelerate though the tune.

[IanD]

Rees
Brilliant comments and perspective.... more beer and wider roads

I agree on all counts! Also wondering whether it's such a good idea to bike to Bampton on Monday  

This is a really interesting & useful thread for English session newbies. Swing & timing. When practising, I visualise my own personal morris side dancing in the back garden   Better than a metronome - can get a bit distracting though . . . .

Surely that depends on the sex of the imaginary morris side? And what (if anything) they're wearing?

Gives terms like "swing" and "bounce" a whole new meaning...

Ian

[Rob2Hook]

Strange...

When I play for North West Morris, I always play the intro a little on the slow side - the band and dancers always come in faster than whatever I play!  For Border, the band step to keep to a good steady lope.

In sessions, I've always been accused of playing too loud and too fast.  When transcribing a tune and playing back on midi, I've found that most tunes sound best at dance speed which , curiously, is around the speed of your heartbeat.  That probably explains why the adrenalinde rush makes us start off too fast.  Certainly when a nervous newcomer starts a tune in sessions, it can help to join in as smoothly and steadily as possible, maybe even pulling the tempo down a bit.  The clue is the slightly unrythmic start.

Rob.

[Lester]

In sessions, I've always been accused of playing too loud and too fast. 

Rob

You play too loud and too fast in sessions!   

[Rob2Hook]

Thanks, Lester.  I knew you wouldn't let me down!

Rob.

[Malcolm Austen]

How Fast?
I have to go with Lester there, no offence Rob but Rob you could equally say that it should be faster than me.