I guess the tempo question will depend to a large extent on who you're playing for, the nature of the event, your own taste and preference (and your ability to play at speed, of course). If you're playing for Cape Breton solo or square dances then the reel tempo seems to be somewhere around 108 - 112 (echoing Alastair Hardie's suggestion), while strathspey tempos can be anywhere from 88 to not far short of reel tempo. For country dancing these strathspey tempos would be way too fast, while the reel tempos would be too slow.
In concert there are no rules, of course. Aly Bain, Johnny and Phil Cunningham, and any number of young desperados delight in fast tempos, while someone like Buddy MacMaster doesn't stray too far on the concert stage from the tempos he would use for playing a dance. Jimmy Shand was renowned for his ability to hit the right tempo and keep it ticking along, leading to the often heard assertion that you could dance all night to his music without tiring. Beware the early Shand recordings though. They go at an unbelievable lick. One theory is that this was to accommodate the limited recording space available on the old shellac records. Or maybe it was the wildness of youth.... David Francis [EMAIL PROTECTED] Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
