All The Right Notes !

All the Right Notes (previously known as Good Parking) is the resident band for Leeds Contra Dance, where we play on 2nd and 4th Tuesdays (except in high summer). Line-up of fiddles, flute, piano, guitar, and squeeze-boxes. Depends who comes.

Have a look at their website here.

Al Green is a regular caller with the band and also at Leeds Contra club nights. You can find his website here.

Want to join?

Do you play a suitable instrument? got a bit of facility on it? Yes? come along one evning and talk to the band, arrange a try-out.

(If you're not sure, trying playing along with one or two of the midi files to make sure you can keep up.)

Want to see/hear the music?

Our set of tunes changes as band members come and go, as we get fed up with tunes we've played too often, or as we realise that they're too hard and we'll never manage to play them properly. Currently (March 2005) we're using the tunes below. A few of the versions may not be what you're used to.

Contra dance uses jigs and reels, from various traditions (English, French-Canadian, old-time US, modern New England, Scottish and Irish). They're played at about 116-120 beats/minute (where 1 bar = 2 beats). At the end of the evening we often play a waltz and a polka or two.

Here are the tunes we're currently using:

pdf format:
jigs
reels
waltzes & polkas
abc format:
jigs
reels
waltzes & polkas
midi examples:
midi page
 

The pdf files can be opened with Acrobat Reader (a free commercial program - download it from here).

The abc files contain the same tunes, but in a useful pure text format, very compact. If you have the right software you can get the computer to play them.

'abc' is great. Humans can read and write it, but there are good free programs for all platforms, whether PC, Mac or Unix, to turn it into staff notation or to play it as MIDI. Read about abc and get pointers to software at the abc home page.

The midi files should be automatically playable through your computer.

And this is what we sound like!

Live recordings of us playing - full of atmosphere - the caller is shouting, the dancers are whirling and stamping. MP3 files, about 800 kB.

Up jumped the devil

Aunt Mary's

Old Grey Cat / Tralee Jane

Belltable Waltz

 

 

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