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 Page 2 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 Page 2 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. Page 4 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.
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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
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
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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
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A Tunes
Page 23 George Booker
Page 24 Hunt the Buffalo
Page 25 Little Dutch Girl
Page 26 Waterbound
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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)
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)
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C Tunes
Page 36 Billy in the Lowground
Page 37 Katydid
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