Mally Band Swing - Pete Mac: Traditional Music Book for Folk Dance Bands

Band Swing is designed to be especially ‘user friendly’ to musicians playing in folk dance bands, and tunes have been written out in a straight forward way. On pages labelled as Reels, Polkas, Jigs, Hornpipes or Waltzes, individual tunes can be played from top to bottom as a sequence of similar tunes. In the Specials section, if more than one tune is shown for a dance, the tunes have been specially chosen to be played in a sequence. Some of the tunes in this book have easier arrangements printed on the opposite page, these make it easier for less experienced musicians to contribute to the sound of the band and to play at normal band tempo._x000D_ Callers and dancers like tunes to be phrased. In a 32 bar tune it is important to have definite phrasing (a pause) after 8 bars, otherwise it is difficult for callers to fit the dance to the tune. In a similar way, I like to give some phrasing, though not so pronounced, at 4 bar intervals too. A tune which is just a series of notes for 32 bars can be great to listen to, but may be difficult to call and dance to. I have therefore, tried to keep the arrangements uncluttered.