Open Band Night & Musicians' Workshop

[Steven]

Toronto Country Dancers is pleased to offer and open band night for
all aspiring contra dance musicians. We invite you to join us on
Saturday May 29th, 2010 for our open band night. Interested musicians
are asked to be at the hall by 7 pm for the sound check. Not everyone
will be given a mic. You do not have to play for the whole dance, but
musicians are asked to be at the hall by 7 pm if they wish to play in
the first half, and by 8.30 if they wish to play in the 2nd half, to
minimize disruption to the dance.

We welcome anyone who can play even a few tunes up to dance tempo--
somewhere between 100 - 115 bpm--or who can accompany those tunes. The
most popular instruments for contra dances are fiddles, pianos,
guitars and accordions but just about anything has been used,
including, but not limited to, saxophone, vibraphone and dijeridoo!

For those who do not attend the dances regularly and/or have not had a
chance to play for dances before, we are running a free workshop on
the afternoon of May 29th at the home of a dancer who lives near St.
Barnabas Church, the venue for the dance. There is no cost for this
workshop, but you must register in advance (see email address below).
The workshop will run from 3 - 5 pm and is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for
those new to playing for dances. There will be time for dinner before
the dance.

The workshop will be run by Rick Avery, who will be leading the band
in the evening. Rick has been playing for contra dances for nearly 10
years and dancing for longer than that. The workshop will cover topics
peculiar to contra dancing--how to put “lift” into your playing, how
to make the dancers want to dance! Choosing the tunes and putting
medleys together will likely be done in advance of the workshop but he
will be willing to discuss those topics if time and interest permit.

Interested musicians are asked to send an email to
open...@tcdance.org. You are encouraged to submit your favourite
tunes for consideration--sheet music (in pdf format) will be made
available to anyone interested. When you have confirmed your interest
in the workshop you will be sent information on where it is to be held.

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[Steven]

The email address to confirm your interest in either the workshop or
playing for the dance is openband at tcdance dot org.

Cheers,

Steven

> openb...@tcdance.org. You are encouraged to submit your favourite