Delaware Valley RSCDS: Musicians' Pages

October, 2005

Dave Wiesler's Quick and Dirty Guide to Playing for Scottish Country Dancing

Disclaimer: This is really my view on things and should not be taken as any more than that.

Types of dances

Scottish country dances (SCD) come in five flavors: Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Strathspeys, and Medleys. The first three of these are collectively called quick-time dances. Medleys are dances that switch between a strathspey and a quick-time dance.

Quick-time dances usually lie in a narrow band of tempos, roughly 108-116 bpm. Strathspeys have more latitude, roughly 108-132 bpm. Since strathspeys have four beats per measure, they're about twice as long as a reel or jig.

• Jigs include regular jigs and 6/8 pipe marches (speeded up to dance tempo).
• Reels include regular reels, marches, Scots measures (marchy reels), and polkas.
• Hornpipes in SCD are played in straight rhythm, not dotted as for Irish style.
• Strathspeys are danced to either regular strathspeys, 4/4 airs or songs (also known as song strathspeys or pastorale strathspeys), or highland-style strathspeys (also known as Schottisches).
• Medleys usually go between a strathspey and reel. The ones I like do the dance once in slow-time, then again in quick-time. The ones I don't like keep hopping back and forth between strathspey and reel.

Progression of dances

The most common formation is a four-couple triple-minor longways set. In this configuration, the first couple dances once through with the 2s and 3s (4s standing out at the bottom), then progresses to second place. The second iteration is done with new 2s and 3s (with a couple standing out at the top). After this iteration, the active couple drops to the bottom, and the couple that had been standing out starts their two iterations of the dance. This pattern repeats until all four couples have gotten two turns at being active. Hence, the music runs through 8 iterations.

A lot of older dances involve two couples in a minor set, instead of three. These are usually done also in four-couple sets, with music running 8 iterations. Occasionally, they will be requested to be 3-couple sets, with music running 6 iterations. Sometimes in small groups there may be a 5-couple set, and ten iterations may be requested.

Other formations include: 3-, 4-, or 5-couple set dances, usually running so that each couple is active once; square formation dances; round-the-room dances; etc.

Music Sets

Most dances run 32 bars in length per iteration. A few run 40 bars, 48 bars, or 24 bars. Some have specified total lengths like 88 bars or 128 bars and last one iteration only. Typical tunes are in a format of two eight-bar sections, called A and B. Unless there's special music of the right bar length,

• 24 bar dances are usually played ABB.
• 32 bar dances are usually played ABAB (most strathspeys fall here) or AABB.
• 40 bar dances are usually played ABABB.
• 48 bar dances are usually played AABBAB or ABABAB.

Most dances are affiliated with a specific tune, called the name tune (or title tune or signature tune). It is customary to have the first and last iterations of the dance be done to this name tune, but to use other tunes (called alternates) for some or all of the other iterations. The tradition for the last fifty years or so has been to change tunes at every new iteration of the dance or every time a new couple becomes active. This, of course, makes for a lot of mental bookkeeping. For example,

• For an 8-iteration dance, sets of three tunes are usually played in order 1 2 3 1 2 3 2 1 (or sometimes 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 1).
• For an 8-iteration dance, sets of four tunes are usually played in order 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1
• For a 4-couple set dance, three tunes would often be played in order 1 2 3 1

Dances begin and end with a chord for a bow and curtsy. A very small number of dances begin with two chords - one for a bow and curtsy and a second one for the dancers to shift position to a non-standard starting position.

Scottish Musical Styling

1. Jigs tend to be played with lilt. Music notated as three equal eighth notes would be played as [long, short, medium], closer to [dotted-eighth, sixteenth, eighth] but not so severe.
2. Reels, especially the notey ones, tend to use short bow strokes with a lot of backbeat.
3. Hornpipes and some reels are sometimes played with a little lilt (or slight swing), but this is idiosyncratic to the player.
4. In strathspeys, a snap (sixteenth, dotted eighth) is sometimes notated also with a slur mark. This does not mean to slur the notes - it's just for ease in reading.
5. In strathspeys, notes in a triplet are often uneven. They can be somewhere between equal and [sixteenth, sixteenth, eighth]. In other words, it often feels like the triplets are "snapped."
6. Strathspeys are very heavily ornamented. It's way beyond the scope of this to get into much, but I often hear that for notes with heavy emphasis (like beats 1 and 3) there's a grace note beginning each one. The grace note tends to be the same as the note played just before.

Playing for Class (as opposed to dances)

1. A march for warming up. Slow walking speed (104-108) is good. It can be either a 6/8 march or a 2/4 march.
2. A waltz or air for stretching.
3. For step practice, lots of little pieces of music (jigs, reels, strathspeys), e.g. 8 bars at a time. These should have strong, clear phrasing.
4. Music for whatever dances are being taught.
5. Maybe a final waltz.

Whenever less than a whole dance is being done, the teacher should cue you. It's customary to announce a "Ready - AND" to cue the music. Some teachers prefer to count "5 6 7 8," but this is rare. The "READY- AND" should be done rhythmically to set the tempo:

In practice, many of the teachers don't have such good rhythm, so you have to swallow hard and use your best judgment.

Further Information

The best teacher is experience in this regard. Practice playing tunes at a strict tempo, come to jam sessions, talk with other musicians, and jump into playing for a class. And if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.