The music business is a cruel and shallow
money trench,a long plastic hallway where thieves and
pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side. Hunter S. Thompson
In the round dance community,immediate
access to music is a life savior.With
the decline of vinyl pressings and the high cost of compact discs, the
advantages are self-explanatory.In the
United States several legal downloading sites have emerged:they operate on a downloading fee basis and
their interest is obvious:for around
US $.99 you may download a piece of music which would cost at least three times
as much on an old-fashioned vinyl.Two
immediate drawbacks:most of these sites
are only available to US citizens and
the music selection is limited (no Casa Musica or other ballroom albums).
Thanks to a few dedicated
individuals,we, in the R/D community,
have kept up with the times and organized ourselves pretty well:we can find almost any cue-sheet that we need
on the web, ROUNDALAB members have access to the RAL manual and other info on
the web, same with URDC now renamed ICBDA, our subscriptions to newsletters and magazinescan be done in a jiffy on internet.We are doing well … except for music. We have tried to be of assistance in that field
by taking it upon ourselves to share our own music files, on our own computer, with
those interested.
THE FOLDERS
We
have created several music foldersthat we are offering to share with round dance leaders (as a
priority) or round dancers (on a space-available basis). The first folder was in
response to the need, that quite a few dancers expressed, to train at
home.Quite a few don't have the luck to
live close to a R/D club and can dance only sporadically to live cuers.The demand seemed to concern more
specifically rounds above the easy level.So, concentrating on the IV to VI levels (but
there are also a few II's and III's), we opened a folder containing cued rounds,
each file identified as “Asperule” followed by the title of the round. There are presently over
1200 cued rounds in the folder (see our “Asperule
List”, which is updated every other month or so).“Asperule”, by the way, is the
French name for Sweet Woodruff, the little white flower featured on our home
page.
Then through discussions in the
Weavers forum, it appeared that quite a few young cuers could not use the
golden classics because the music was not available any longer.So our second folder contains the music for
the current 143 Golden Classics for which standard cues exist. The files are identified with “Golden Classic” followed by
the title.This is just music, no cues
(see the “Classic
Rounds” list which does not need much updating as changes only
occur once a year).
And
then there is the NARDEM folders,
the acronym standing for “Non Available Round Dance Music”.The "non available" is not a strict principle, a better term
might be "hard to find".As I
have no wish to harm the production of STAR records or round dance labels
(Grenn, Roper, etc.), the music pressed on such labels does not appear in the
folder (Rexl records excepted, with Richard Lamberty's permission), nor recent
music that choreographers offer on special pressings that they have financed
themselves.On the other hand, we'll include music offered
on minidiscs by choreographers, because it is a real ordeal for them to mail
all these minidisks out when, unlike special pressings, they have no cost to
recover. We’ll also include music offered on CDs, pop or ballroom, because
purchasing the whole album to use only one track results in an investment that
is prohibitive for many.Most of the music (90%) in
the NARDEM folders has been found somewhere else on the net and was therefore
already available but finding it required a certain amount of research.I also own the originals of 90% of all the
music that I share, duly purchased whenever possible. There are some 4000 files
in the NARDEM folders at the present time (see our NARDEM Lists
divided inA-H,
I-R,
S-Z and Xmas).
Another music folder has been added recently, titled
Line Dancing, in recognition of the fact that we can do better
nowadays than play Amos Moses or the Bingo Waltz when the need arises to
entertain non-round-dancing club visitors. The folder contains some 50
line dances (music and step-sheets) that have been chosen to be
quick-to-teach, easy-level dances appropriate to many occasions and
attractive both to the young and less young. See our
Line Dancing Page
for details.
In addition
to the music folders,there are
also two folders dedicated to cue-sheets.One, simply named “Cue-Sheets” contains currently popular
cue-sheets, including brand new dances that are not posted anywhere else.At the moment, we have about 8000 full
cue-sheets in that folder.The other one
is named “Old Cue-Sheets” and contains exactly that: over 5000 vintage
cue-sheets dating from the cavern times of round dancing until more or less
1993.There is also a small folder
titled “Cue Cards” for the occasional popular dances for which no
full cue-sheet has been written.
Three other interesting folders reside in the
FTP. (1) The“Videos” folder contains over 650 demonstrations of popular
dances (see Video List) . (2) The “Documents” folder contains
miscellaneous write-ups on subjects of interest, many related to round dancing
but others less serious.The sub-folders have pretty self-explanatory
names, like “FTP”, "Smart Corners"
(educational articles), “Jokes”, “BeautifulPicture Shows” etc.. (3) The third, labeled “Incoming”, is an
empty folder at the disposal of those of youwho wish to contribute to the database.This is the folder into which youmay upload music or cue-sheets, a simple drag-and-drop operation.We particularly appreciate, for example, the
music and cue-sheets used at the latest week-end event that you attended.
HOW TO GAIN ACCESS TO THE
FOLDERS:USING OUR FTP!!
“FTP” is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol, a
client/server application that allows the transfer of files between computers. On
request and according to available space* we will give you the magic formula
that authorizes you to accede to our music and cue-sheet folders. You
will need to download a “FTP Client Program” that will act as an interface
between your computer and ours. If you have a web site, you already have such a
program.If not, you'll find quite a choice of downloadable ones by
googling "FTP client programs". Examples of free ones: http://www.rbrowser.com/ (for Mac
users) or
http://www.coreFTP.com (for Windows). These
programs are small and unobtrusive and are well worth the trouble to learn how
they work. Remember, the pot of gold awaits you
at the end of the yellow brick road or maybe at the bottom end the rainbow,
whichever comes first.
It is always
better to connect to the FTP with an idea of what you want. So have a
look, here on this site, at the lists of contents of the various folders
(updated monthly or as necessary) and make a note of the goodies you wish to
have. Then go to the FTP with your magic formula. Open the
folder that you are interested in, browse until you find the file that you
want and download by double clicking or dragging and dropping. Depending on your system
and on the type of connection to the internet that you are using, downloading a
song can take between 2 minutes (ADSL or cable) and 20 minutes (modem).
*No space available at the moment
The last
requirement to fully adhere to the system is to join our communication
tool.Ever since anti-spam programs have
become another (necessary) obstacle to free communication (after our
indispensable anti-virus programs and our increasingly vigilant firewalls), it
has been very difficult to send emails to multi-addressees.So we have established a Google group called
RoundMusic that we use for regular announcements concerning the FTP and the ever-changing contents of the shared folders. At the same time, the list doubles up as a
discussion forum and your questions or contributions of any kind on round
dancing subjects are very welcome. We encourage free talk with no taboos as long
as courtesy is maintained. Another interest of the list is the prompt
announcement/review of dances that have just been taught at various R/D events
world-wide and members have been very cooperative in reporting on the weekend
dances they just attended.They often
send videos, music and cue-sheets that are brand new, much to our delight. Please note that subscription to that list is
mandatory to be granted FTP access. On the other hand you are very welcome to join the“Google RoundMusic Group” even if you
have no intention of using the FTP.Submit your request to join at
http://groups.google.com/group/RoundMusic.We’ll contact you promptly to get your
particulars so we can evaluate your need in view of the available space. Be
aware that there are more requests than space so you may be put on a waiting
list. Once you are registered,
you’ll receive the RoundMusic mail in your own mailbox, like all your other
messages and, if you have a Google account (https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount),you’ll also have the opportunity to read, on
line, the messages that were exchanged in the past. There are no anonymous
members in the RoundMusic list and an up-to-date membership list is
available to the members in the shared folders under "Documents".
We
have created several music folders
And
