Chris and Seth, you guys rock. I'm impressed at what you have done so far. I have one suggestion. When you go to a dance for fun, record the entire dance. This way you don't have to interrupt your dancing enjoyment. AND you'll have the walk through and music as well (what was that tune that worked so well with that dance?). You could listen to the dance while driving to work etc. Be sure to get permission from the band and caller before doing any recording. Recording directly works infinitely better than putting a recording out in the hall. The sound person might even give you a separate mix of your choice (example- caller is louder in your mix than in the main hall mix). This depends on the equipment. I have also heard of recorders that clip to the speaker wire and pick up the music and calling through induction. I was really impressed with the quality. Tom
eperate wrote: > Send Callers mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Callers digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. callers: what are you guys up to? (Lisa Greenleaf) > 2. Re: callers: what are you guys up to? (Seth Seeger) > 3. Re: callers: what are you guys up to? (Chris Weiler) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 12:05:18 -0400 > From: Lisa Greenleaf <[email protected]> > Subject: [Callers] callers: what are you guys up to? > To: <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <bd901ea8.16c20%[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" > > So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now you're asking questions and > going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been calling? Got > any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted you? > What surprised you? Keep us posted! > > Lisa > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:48:25 -0400 > From: Seth Seeger <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Callers] callers: what are you guys up to? > To: <[email protected]> <[email protected]> > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed > > A couple things have happened to my dancing: > > I now pay more attention to the dances themselves and what in > particular I may not like about a dance. I'm also listening very > closely to the caller's walk through, looking for things I would have > done differently or nice ways of explaining something that I may want > to remember. > > During a dance however, I'm still able to get into my "zone" where I'm > not thinking about the dance - just letting my body move with the > music. If it's a dance that I want to write down, I have to really > work at coming out of that zone so I can remember the dance. (If I > just let my muscle memory handle it, I have a hard time recalling the > details afterwards.) > > Writing down dances is an interesting task: If it's a dance I like, > I'll repeat the moves to myself as I'm dancing it. In hopes that will > help me write it down afterwards. (I've been carrying pen and paper in > my pocket.) I usually have trouble remembering the name and author. > I've emailed the callers afterwards asking for clarifications on ones > I'm not sure about. > > As for calling, I've got a gig on Nov 20th in East Sandwich. I've very > excited (and nervous) about it. I'm going down to East Sandwich this > weekend to see what the dancing is like and to get a feel for the > dancers. > > I also tried calling a square to a small group of friends recently - it > was MUCH harder than I thought it would be. The hardest parts were > keeping up with the music, remembering when to come in after a swing, > and the transition between the square and the break. (I hadn't > practiced to the music that I ended up using.) > > I'm going to try to go to the Nelson NH dance every now and then (it's > an open mic), but it's 1.5 hours away. > > Seth > > On Oct 11, 2004, at 12:05 PM, Lisa Greenleaf wrote: > > > So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now you're asking questions > > and > > going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been calling? > > Got > > any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted > > you? > > What surprised you? Keep us posted! > > > > Lisa > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Callers mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 23:00:22 -0400 > From: Chris Weiler <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Callers] callers: what are you guys up to? > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > I, too, am paying more attention at dances. I notice what I like and > don't like about particular dances. I bought a cheap digital voice > recorder to keep in my pocket (I sweat too much to keep paper in my > pocket). If I like the dance I dictate the dance into the recorder > before the next dance starts (along with who called it what night and > what they said about the name/author). > > I find that I'm only taking mental notes about wording/teaching, etc. > with callers that I enjoy instead of critiquing callers that I don't. > > I have been doing some work on figuring out how I am going to organize > my dances. Being a geek working in a digital environment, I am working > on a system where my dances are formatted on my computer and I print > them on colored card stock and cut them to index card size. (The data > has a backup!) 8^) I plan on using the colored card system that Bob > Issacs (and Nathaniel Jack) use. Bob sent me a basic library of 50 > dances that he uses as part of the callers workshop that he teaches and > that I plan on using as the seed of my collection. > > A friend has helped organize a new callers dance on December 4th from > 2-5pm in Arlington (Park Ave. Church). Seth, Nathaniel and I are each > doing 1/3 of the program. I have been doing some thinking about my > program (I'm calling the first 4 dances) and the feeling that I am going > to try for, but haven't picked out the dances yet. I will probably do > that once I have my dances organized on cards. I have also talked to > another caller about doing an entire evening at another dance. I'm also > going to try and get to the Milford, NH dance this month. A (different) > friend told me that the organizer might be open to allowing a new caller > to call half or all of an evening and I want to go there and see what > it's like and meet him. > > Once I have some calling experiences to share, I will definitely share > them with the list! > > Chris > > Seth Seeger wrote: > > > A couple things have happened to my dancing: > > > > I now pay more attention to the dances themselves and what in > > particular I may not like about a dance. I'm also listening very > > closely to the caller's walk through, looking for things I would have > > done differently or nice ways of explaining something that I may want > > to remember. > > > > During a dance however, I'm still able to get into my "zone" where I'm > > not thinking about the dance - just letting my body move with the > > music. If it's a dance that I want to write down, I have to really > > work at coming out of that zone so I can remember the dance. (If I > > just let my muscle memory handle it, I have a hard time recalling the > > details afterwards.) > > > > Writing down dances is an interesting task: If it's a dance I like, > > I'll repeat the moves to myself as I'm dancing it. In hopes that will > > help me write it down afterwards. (I've been carrying pen and paper > > in my pocket.) I usually have trouble remembering the name and > > author. I've emailed the callers afterwards asking for clarifications > > on ones I'm not sure about. > > > > As for calling, I've got a gig on Nov 20th in East Sandwich. I've > > very excited (and nervous) about it. I'm going down to East Sandwich > > this weekend to see what the dancing is like and to get a feel for the > > dancers. > > > > I also tried calling a square to a small group of friends recently - > > it was MUCH harder than I thought it would be. The hardest parts were > > keeping up with the music, remembering when to come in after a swing, > > and the transition between the square and the break. (I hadn't > > practiced to the music that I ended up using.) > > > > I'm going to try to go to the Nelson NH dance every now and then (it's > > an open mic), but it's 1.5 hours away. > > > > Seth > > > > > > > > On Oct 11, 2004, at 12:05 PM, Lisa Greenleaf wrote: > > > >> So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now you're asking questions > >> and > >> going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been > >> calling? Got > >> any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted you? > >> What surprised you? Keep us posted! > >> > >> Lisa > >> > >> > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > > End of Callers Digest, Vol 2, Issue 7 > *************************************
