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. Location as noted on calendar.

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, call for details, 776-1580.

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 (remove "NOSPAM" when emailing) for more info or to be added to the listserv.

Santa Fe Jam Sessions First and third Thursdays, 7:00 p.m., at Katherine Bueler and Gary Schiffmiller's, 924 Osage Ave. 995-1125, for details.

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.

2005 Officers/Directors

Ongoing Events

Learning New Tunes

There are three ways of learning new tunes that I use: 1) get somebody to show it to you, 2) learn it up from a recording, or 3) learn it from sheet music.  You can also pick tunes up in a jam, but if you're like me, the tune you learned flawlessly moments ago flies out of your head the second you leave the jam, which is why some folks take tune suckers (i.e., recording devices) to jams.  That's one of the nice things about ABC notation - writing down just a couple of bars of music will usually help recall the full tune later.

Regardless of the method, when I'm learning a new tune the first thing I do is fix it in my mind so that I can whistle or hum it perfectly.  If I'm learning from a recording I'll play the recording over and over 'til I've got it.  If it's a simple little 16 bar dance tune it may take 3 or 4 times through, but if it's complicated, crooked, or fast I may have to listen to it a lot.  In the old days they had these round plastic things called records, and I'd pick up the phono needle, move it back to the part I couldn't hear, set it down, and repeat.  Though now I've got some records with amazing pops in them.  With the advent of CDs, things got easier as you can just use the backup arrow to go back a few seconds and not damage the medium.  As soon as I pick up the CD remote and my fiddle, the wife, kids, and critters all flee in terror.

I've recently discovered some shareware called "Amazing Slow Downer" (http://www.ronimusic.com/) that is perfect for learning hard tunes from CDs, MP3, Wave, or other digital file formats.  It will stretch files up to 400% (i.e., slow a 1 minute passage down to 4 minutes, thus playing it one-fourth as fast), adjust pitch so you can play in other keys, create loops to repeat a short passage forever, and remove vocals to create karaoke backups.  I used to slow LPs & tape recordings to half speed to get the same effect, but it lowers the pitch an octave, so it was like learning fiddle tunes played on a cello.  But with ASD, the musicians play at half speed, in pitch and with crystal clarity.  Amazing!  And highly recommended.

Here's a simple tune from Rayna Gellert, a superb young fiddler from back east.  It's a very nice and very different version of "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss."  You don't need ASD for this one!

ABC Notation

X:44

T:Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

M:4/4

L:1/8

R:Reel

N:Rayna Gellert, Ways of the World

N:Yodel-Ay-Hee 032

N:Transcribed by Bruce Thomson

K:G

|:"G"[B2G2]A2"C"E4|EFED"G"B,4|D2D2EDEG|[B3G3][BG][B2G2][BG]-|[B2G2]A2"C"E4|EFED "G"B,4|

"D"D2D2EDEF|"G"[G3G,3][GG,][G4G,4]:||:"D"dBdB dBdB|AF3D4|d2d3BA2|"G"[B3D3][BD][B4D4]|

"D"dBdB dBdB|AF3D4|D2D2EDEF|"G"[G3G,3][GG,][G4G,4]:|

Out-of-Town Events   Traveling to Moab? Wanna Dance? The folks up in slick-rock land send word of the new Moab Contra Dance on the First Friday of each month at the Moab Arts & Recreation Center (MARC).  Dances start at 7:30 pm. and feature the Moab Community Dance Band and local callers.   Centralia Old-Time Music Campout - Centralia, Washington August 13-21, 2005 in Centralia, WA The Centralia Old-Time Music Campout is in a pleasant setting in a pasture on the banks of the Skookumchuck River in Centralia, WA. There are no stages, schedules, contests or performers. It's simply a jamming and camping event for musicians. There's plenty of room for your tent or RV. For more information, go to: http://www.centraliacampout.com Mark your calendar and bring your friends! For pictures of the 2004 campout, click here:

Albuquerque Dance Location Cheat Sheet

July 2 - Contra: Albuquerque Square Dance Center July 16 - Contra: Albuquerque Square Dance Center August 6 - Second Sunday Dance: Dance Studio -- 7:00 - 9:30 p.m. August 14 - Contra: Dance Studio August 20 - Contra: Dance Studio

Albuquerque Square Dance Center 4909-15 Hawkins NE, one full block west of I-25 and 1/2 block north of Ellison. Take the Ellison/San Antonio exit, go west (away from Sandia mountains), turn north (right) at the first intersection past the motels. Dance Studio 4217 San Mateo NE, 1 block south of Montgomery on the west side of the street. Gated parking area behind the studio. For security reasons, do not park behind Auto Zone.   NOTE: Bring clean dance shoes that don't leave black marks.