PG Music Home
Posted By: BryMusic Contradance Styles - 01/02/21 01:51 PM
I originally had this in the wrong forum:

Would love to see some contradance styles in BIAB. The styles that currently exist in BIAB that are related just don't quite capture the feel of modern contradance music. The styles I'd like to see are:

For reels: Almost always written cut-time, with two "boom-chucks" per measure. Sometimes the boom-chuck like rhythm is more implied than anything. They tend not to be the boom-chucka train styles that seem prevalent in BIAB. Songs range from Irish, French-Canadian, Appalachian Old-timey, and a bit of bluegrass. Fiddle, guitar, piano, banjo, flute are generally the instruments, but that's not exclusive at all. Contradance tends to blend these styles together.

For jigs: It's not so much the bouncy jig styles that seem prevalent in BIAB. The feel is often more like the 4/4 swing styles but written in 6/8 time.

Examples are: Any of Rodney Miller's "Airdance" albums, then band Wild Asparagus, also Groove Mongers (which tend to mix other styles in as well), anything with the French Canadian foot stomp rhythm, just to name a few.

There is plenty of contradance music in the geographic region where BIAB is developed. I'm surprised to not see any of its style directly reflected in BIAB.
Posted By: Tobin - PG Music Inc. Re: Contradance Styles - 01/18/21 01:20 PM
Hi Verne,

Thanks for the suggestion, and the specific example of Rodney Miller is very useful. Is something like this what you had in mind for the guitar part for the reel? https://youtu.be/YUhR-NvGHuk?t=53

And something along these lines for the jig?
https://youtu.be/5mQ0CsTBYDc?t=52
Posted By: Tobin - PG Music Inc. Re: Contradance Styles - 01/09/23 10:06 PM
Hi BryMusic,

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I wanted to let you know that we added a bunch of contradance styles in Band-in-a-Box 2023. Here's an example: https://demos.pgmusic.com/audio/allstyledemos2/_light.m4a
© PG Music Forums