New Mexico Folk Music & Dance Society

FolkMADS Calendar and Notes

November - December 2004 Volume 7, Issue 6

P.O. Box 40421, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87196-0421

The FolkMADS Calendar and Notes are published bimonthly by the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society, a nonprofit organization.

FolkMADS sponsors Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos contra dances, concerts, camps, and other special events. "Contra" dances include contras, squares, mixers, and couple dances. Unless noted on the calendar otherwise, admission is $5 for members, $6 for nonmembers. You need not come with a partner. Free instruction for beginners starts at 7:30 p.m. Dances begin at 8 p.m. and are smoke-free and alcohol-free. Children and teens are encouraged to participate if supervised by an adult.

Albuquerque Dances 1st and 3rd Saturdays. Heights Community Center, 823 Buena Vista SE, Albuquerque (or as noted on calendar).

Occasionally dances are held at the Lloyd Shaw Dance Center; watch the calendar for details.
The Lloyd Shaw Dance Center is located at 5506 Coal SE in Albuquerque (2 blocks south of Central and 2 blocks east of San Mateo).

Santa Fe Dances 2nd and 4th Saturday contra dances and 5th Saturday English Country dances. Odd Fellows Hall, 1125 Cerrillos Road (south of Cordova Drive on the western side of Cerrillos).

Taos Dances 3rd Saturdays, Holy Trinity Parish Hall, Arroyo Seco.

Megaband Practices All musicians welcome.

ABQ Megaband Albuquerque Megaband practice is held at the Blue Dragon Coffee House, 1517 Girard NE,Albuquerque, the Tuesday before the 3rd Saturday dance. Bruce Thomson, 268-6003, or email Jane Phillips jphill@NOSPAMunm.edu (remove "NOSPAM" when emailing) for more info or to be added to the listserv.

Acoustic Jam 7 p.m. before the Albuquerque dances. All acoustic musicians are welcome and all types of music are played. Call Jay Cutts for more information, 281-0684.

2004 Officers/Directors

Ongoing Events

Sound Equipment Available

Your membership in New Mexico's folk music and dance society provides several benefits, one of which is the availability of sound equipment for a very small rental fee. Three systems are currently available, one in Albuquerque, one in Santa Fe, and one in Taos. Each system contains all the equipment—microphones, mixing board, speakers and cords—to serve a band of four or five members, and each can deliver enough sound for over a hundred dancers. In addition, we have a 16-channel snake for use in concerts and an eight-track recorder for making demo CDs, etc. No need to spend big bucks for equipment or drain your bank account to satisfy those creative urges. Instead call Bob Ford at 281-7837 (nancford@NOSPAMnmia.com) to schedule your event or session.

FolkMADS Elections

Saturday, November 20, 2004

During the Albuquerque Dance, the Annual General Membership Meeting and Election of the Board of Directors will be held. This is your chance to have a say about how FolkMADS is run, so plan to be there, volunteer to serve, and cast your vote!

Serving on our board provides an opportunity to meet and work with fellow dancers, musicians, and singers. New skills can be learned and old skills can be rejuvenated. Our goal is to recognize all of the talents that members bring to the organization. We especially need volunteers to help with publicity and event booking.

Frequently Asked Election Questions:

Why does FolkMADS do this every November and muck up a good dance?

FolkMADS is a non-profit corporation registered with the state of NM and the IRS. This means that we do not pay sales tax for purchases and those contributions to FolkMADS (other than membership dues) are tax deductible. It also means that we have formal bylaws, hold an annual meeting of the membership, and elect a Board of Directors from whom corporate officers are chosen. As part of our bylaws we have chosen to have the meeting and election at the 3rd Saturday dance in November in Albuquerque.

So what happens at this meeting and election?

Near the check-in table will be an easel with a sign up sheet for the elections. Anyone who wishes to "stand for the Board" can put their name on the sign up sheet. There are 11 slots on the Board but as many people as want to can sign up. Around 9:15 sign ups for the Board will be closed and the General Meeting will be called. The current FolkMADS president will briefly review "the status of FolkMADS" and answer any questions from the floor. Then we will look at the total number of sign ups for Board membership. If fewer than 11 have signed up, they are automatically elected to the Board of Directors. If the number is more than 11, there will be a runoff election.

What if I want to be on the Board and can't attend the dance?

If you want to stand for the Board but will be unable to attend the dance, you must submit your name to the FolkMADS Secretary, no later than Friday, November 19^th. The current Secretary is Regina Jenner and her number is (505) 266-0051 in Albuquerque, or e-mail her at secretary@NOSPAMfolkmads.org. There can be no absentee nominations at the dance itself.

This sounds like a lot of trouble, why should I care about any of this?

The Board controls everything that FolkMADS spends money on during the year. This includes scheduling bands and callers, how much these bands and callers get paid, booking special concerts, running the annual FolkMADS Dance Camps, and a host of other things.

Other Events

Dance in the Desert, November 5-7, in Oracle, Arizona.

Tucson Friends of Traditional Music has space available in their contra dance weekend. The featured band is the Rhythm Rollers with fiddler Cathie Whitesides, Laurie Andres on accordion, Bob McQuillen and his boom-chuck piano, and W.B. "Bruce" Reid on fiddle and guitar. Callers are Cis Hinkle from Atlanta and Brian DeMarcus of Eagle River, Alaska. Camp will be held at the Triangle Y Ranch, located an hour outside Tucson, in a rustic summer camp setting. In addition to great music, dancing, and workshops, you get two night's cabin accommodations and six meals, all for $195. Go to the website at www.tftm.org to see the camp schedule, maps, directions, car pool info, t-shirts, and more! You can also register online. Questions? Email us at dancecamp@NOSPAMtftm.org.

Accompaniment

In most forms of folk music the melody instruments get all of the glory while the accompanying instruments (especially the guitar) seem to be there to maintain the rhythm and move the chords along so the fiddlers don't get lost.  But if you listen closely to some of the exceptional backup musicians you'll be amazed at how much they add to the ensemble.  Three of my favorites are Paul Kotapish (Hillbillies from Mars), Johnny Doyle (Solas), and Sam Bartlett (Jamie Gans' frequent accompanist).  Things to listen for include counterpoint melodies or phrases, rhythmic variations that emphasize different parts of the melody, different strumming patterns, alternate chord fingerings including closed chords played up the neck, use of passing chords, and simple two and three note chords.

While few of us have the technical skills of these guys, they offer ideas we can use to break up the monotony of the boom-chuck boom-chuck 3 chord back up that pounds off the Megaband stage each third Saturday evening.  Try the following:

1.  Use alternate chord fingerings.  Every guitarist ought to know at least three variations of every common chord.  Use 'em.

2.  Learn to use passing chords.  I know, I know - they're not in the old time tradition, but the worst that can happen is you'll be arrested by the old-time music police.  Passing chords (usually 7ths, minors and diminished chords) sound great in some tunes (George Booker) but not in others (Fisher's Hornpipe).

3.  Try accompanying a tune high up on the neck.  If there're two guitars, one played high on the neck with a capo or without, and the other played in first position results in a full and sweet backup sound.

4.  Learn alternate strummings and rhythms.  Examples are: the down-down-up strumming for jigs, leaving out beats to accentuate phrases in tunes like waltzes, and using Texas sock style backup with rags and blues and slower reels.

Above all, pay attention to the tune.  The accompaniment should fit the tune.  Don't use the same strumming pattern on every tune.  An enthusiastic boom-chuck boom-chuck accompaniment works great on a rousing reel, but maybe not so well on a lyrical hornpipe.  And most importantly, watch the tempo.  The Megaband is infamous for letting tempos get out of hand.  This is hard on the caller and the dancers, and often wrecks a good tune.  A reel played at a moderate tempo is a great opportunity to implement variations in your back up style, which makes the tune more interesting for everybody.

The Beaumont Rag is not commonly played in NM but is great for some dances.  You can add interesting passing chords and every fiddler should know the shuffle bowing style in the second part.  The Texas contest fiddlers add lots of variations which also make it interesting.  Because it's in F, guitarists will use closed chords which fits a sock guitar style well.  But if you play it too fast, it sucks.

Beaumont Rag

ABC Notation

X:38

T:Beaumont Rag

R:Rag

M:4/4

L:1/8

N:Transcribed by Bruce Thomson

K:F

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FGAc2AcA|dcAc2dcA|"C"b2b2gbg^d|egec2dec|"F"a2a2fgfc|dcAc2dcA|

"Bb"Bcdef2gf|"F"agfdc2ba|"C"gfed cdeg|"F"f8|]EEcE EdEE|

cEEE dEcE|FFcF FdFF|cFFF dFcF|EEcE EdEE|

cEEE d2fe|f2F2F2cB|Acf2f4|EEcE EdEE|cEEE dEcE|

FFcF FdFF|^dFF=d FFc2|"Bb"Bcde fegf|"F"agfdc2ba|"C"gfed cdeg|"F"f8|]

Editorial note from the web wrangler: Before passing judgment on the Megaband, please remember that it is an all-volunteer army. :)