I won't argue they're also really good musicians, but they all play something. Kris Kermiet plays washboard, Lisa Harris plays banjo, Pat Tognoni plays bass. I've watched Ed Hall graduate from cajon to hammered dulcimer. Kathy Anderson plays banjo, Eleanor Fahrney plays fiddle, Spider Vetter plays banjo. I could go on.
Some are formidable musicians -- Larry Edelman plays terrific guitar, mandolin, and fiddle, for example -- but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying they all play something.
Playing even a little gets you to do the work to understand something about the music. You learn to tell the A's from the B's. You learn where the parts go. You learn how to talk to the band and what the band needs from you. You learn, when a tune falls apart, that it's happening. You feel less mystified.
I've had a caller, in preparation for introducing the band, ask, "What's the instrument you play called?"
All this makes perfect sense and you're nodding but you're not a caller? Why should this be any less true of musicians? I dance often, and I can count the other dance musicians in the lines on one hand. Joel Hayes is there. Ellen Rosenberg, Lucia Thomas, Vicki Lawrence, who else? ... um, uh, ....
If someone searching for a hambo partner asks me, I say, "No thanks, I don't hambo," and I apologize now to every partner who's ever suffered through a hambo with me. Nevertheless, I've taken hambo workshops and given it a try, so I understand the difference between a hambo rhythm and a waltz rhythm. I also now understand why dancers complain that most local, clueless bands play hambos far too fast.
I've also danced the first half of a dance to a hot band that got us all excited, grabbed a partner for the first waltz, and then suffered through a waltz that was lyrical, expressive, highly ornamented, and too slow to be danceable.
I've heard a fiddler announce he was going to play a beautiful, slow tune for the waltz that made the guitar player and me both look up, quickly shake our heads, and say, almost in unison, "That's not a waltz. It's in 4/4."
I've told a band of otherwise-good musicians, "Look, I know that's a hot tune but no, you can't play it for a contra. It has to be 32 bars." And then, I've had them argue with me about it.
Whether you want to start playing dances, or start playing them better, put down your instrument and go to some.
You need a modest amount of exposure on the receiving end. It ain't rocket science.
And try calling. Remember, I'm not saying you have to be good, but have you ever called a dance? Even one? Give it a shot. You will come away with a whole new appreciation for why some of your sets work and some don't, what innocent band behaviors are inadvertently annoying, and how you, as a dance musician, can help make callers look good.
You'll get more gigs.
