CALLING for MODERN SQUARE DANCING Copyright 1966 - 2019 Jim Mayo First Edition 1966 Reformatted 2019
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JIM & JoANN MAYO SQUARE DANCE CALLER P.O. BOX 367 HAMPSTEAD NH 03841 (603) 329-5492 This book is, I believe, the first "Caller Text" that was written for modern (as different from traditional) square dance callers. The draft was written in 1961 & 62 which was, I believe, the second or third year that I taught callers. As I review this new digital version formatted by Gardner Patton I am struck by how “current” the information in it is today (2019). I had attended Ed Gilmore's school for callers in Glenwood springs, Colorado in 1959 to learn what I could from his teaching. I came away feeling that there was a real need of a text book that would provide detailed information about the basic skills. This set of notes for my 1961/62 classes was my first attempt to provide such a document. At that time my classes for callers ran once a month and had no starting or ending time. Many callers came until they had completed the curriculum and then returned intermittently for several years thereafter. In 1966 I had enough confidence in what I had written that I put it out in a book form and printed 50 copies. At that time there was no document available that attempted to provide the basic information needed to become a modern square dance caller. As I review the book today I believe there are still few other documents available that address the “basic” elements of calling MWSD. Jim Mayo 2019-01-19 Note: There are two calls used in this document that are no longer in use in the MWSD activity. They are Cross Trail and Dixie Chain (used only 5 times.) Cross Trail can often (but not always) be replaced with Couples Half Sashay and Pass Thru. CALLING FOR MODERN SQUARE DANCING J I M M A Y O 1966 CALLING FOR MODERN SQUARE DANCING Copyright 1966 - 2019 Jim Mayo First Edition 1966 Reformatted 2019 Chapter Page Introduction 1 1 The Music and The Call 2 2 Choreography 11 3 Timing 34 4 Programming 41 5 Teaching 49 6 Equipment 57 Square Dance Club 7 65 Administration Original Price $8.00 1/23/2019 Introduction INTRODUCTION This book has been written as a textbook for use in teaching modern square dance callers. It does not pretend to include everything that a caller should know but it does contain a great deal that has never before been available in printed form. When I first began to teach people to call about seven years ago I repeated the search I had made when I learned calling myself. I discovered that there was no book available from which to learn the fundamental elements of calling. So far as I can tell this is still true. There are books that go into choreography extensively and much has been written about music and tradition. You can read about the more advanced aspects of calling in many places but little has been written about the mechanical aspects of calling modern square dancing in terms that have meaning for the beginning caller. No book can be written that will teach you to call. I have tried to include here the detailed information that will make it easier to learn from an experienced caller either in a class or by the apprentice system. I expect that few callers will find anything of importance to disagree with in this book. An attempt has been made to stick to facts or at least to label clearly those opinions that are included. It is my hope that the availability of such a book will free caller-teachers from the routine questions and give them the chance to pass on to students their special knowledge and skill. This is not a complete textbook. It is a first attempt at making information available in book form that has been shared in the past only by word-of-mouth. I would hope that others would also write for the beginning caller and thus, in time, the accumulated knowledge of callers might be recorded. The information printed here has come to me from many teachers as well as from my own experience. Among the many, three stand out for the very specific help and guidance they gave to me personally. With great appreciation I acknowledge the effort expended on my education by Ralph Page, Al Brundage and Ed Gilmore. 1 Chapter 1 – Music And The Call Chapter 1 - MUSIC AND THE CALL Throughout the history of man dancing has involved matching the movement of the dancers to a beat or rhythm. This beat has bean set in different ways, by beating on a hollow log with a stick, by the American Indians with their drums, by the southern mountain square dancers with the clogging of their feet on the floor, whatever way the rhythm is kept, dancers time their actions to match it. Modern square dance music also has a beat. The bass fiddle, drum or sometimes the piano is used to maintain the steady rhythm that makes it possible for the dancers to move together, all taking their steps at the same time. TYPES OF RHYTHM In square dance music there are three basically different kinds of rhythm. The most frequently heard is the "BOOM chuck, BOOM chuck," of the bass fiddle making the "BOOM" and the guitar chord filling the "chuck". Because of the way this beat is written musically, it is called 2/4 (two - four) time. Another common rhythm is 4/4 (four - four) time which is a steady "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM." The third rhythm, used less frequently, is 6/8 (six - eight) time and is perhaps most descriptively written "RA ta ta, RA ta ta, RA ta ta, RA ta ta." You may find it easier to recognize these rhythm patterns from the types of music. The 2/4 time is common in Dixieland jazz while the 4/4 is what you usually hear from a marching band. 6/8 time is found in the Irish jig. The importance of this for the square dance caller is that if your music is loud enough for dancers to hear, most dancers will time their steps to its beat. Your voice should match the beat of the music. If it doesn't, many of your dancers will find the choice between your beat and that of the music an uncomfortable and tiring one. This chart shows the relationship among the three types of rhythm and the dancers' steps. Dancers Step Step Step Step 2/4 Boom chuck Boom Chuck Boom Chuck Boom Chuck 4/4 Boom Boom Boom Boom 6/8 RA Ta Ta RA Ta Ta RA Ta Ta RA Ta Ta PHRASE Each four steps the dancer takes makes up a sub-phrase and two sub-phrases (8 steps) make a phrase in square dance music. The first beat in each phrase is a little bit louder (or heavier) than the other seven and in most recorded square dance music you can hear these heavy beats quite plainly. Your dancers can hear them too. With rare exceptions, all square dance music is made up of 8 beat phrases. Usually, there are 8 of these phrases (64 beats) in a musical pattern and after every 64 beats, the musicians go back to the beginning and play the same pattern again, repeating as many times as necessary. The 64 beat musical unit is called a chorus and is found in both patter and singing call music. MELODY AND HARMONY So far we have spoken only about the rhythm; music also has a melody or tune and it too is important to the caller. The melody is made up of sounds of varying pitch: it is what you hear when a song is sung or played one note at a time. All the sounds that come from an orchestra, other than the one note at a time that is the melody, are either rhythm or accompaniment or both. If the accompaniment does not harmonize (sound pleasant) with the 2 Chapter 1 – Music And The Call melody note, anyone who is not tone-deaf will find it uncomfortable to hear. Therefore, the caller must, at all times, sing or speak either on the same note as the melody or one that harmonizes with the melody note. This is true of both patter and singing calls. Harmonizing with the melody does not mean that you have to change the pitch of your voice every time the melody note changes. In many songs, one note will harmonize with every note in the melody and, while it would be boring to hear, you could speak your patter calls on that one note and still be harmonizing. To avoid the monotonous sound of a single note, find two or three notes and use them all. If you do not find these notes instinctively, you can usually find them in the accompaniment that the orchestra is playing. The bass instruments, the bass fiddle or trombone or the piano player's left hand, are using the notes you want. If you listen carefully to the lowest notes you can hear, you will find a few notes repeated in a regular sequence. This is called the "bass pattern" and if your voice follows the same pattern, it will harmonize with the melody. It may take a bit of practice before you can readily find the base pattern, but once you have found it in any one record you'll recognize it quickly every time you use that record and the pattern will be successively easier to find in other recordings.