The piano or voice for dances?

[Harrytulipan]

Is the piano not a good instrument for playing at dances? Or is it difficult to play dance music on it?
I mean, it is not that common to see or hear a piano at a dance.
I know that many piano pieces are based on dances but that might be something else than performing for real dancing.
Why is the piano not a dance instrument?

I play the piano and find that dance music on the piano can sound more "classical".

But then again I seldom see or hear people singing at dances. I mean, all you need for a polska (aka pols) or polka is a person singing the melody.
Why is that uncommon?

 

[Dingo40]

The piano (and accordion also voice) are first class components for dance music and one or the other ( sometimes all three) formed part of most dance bands prior to the sixties, when the guitar, saxophone, drums and bass kind of took over .
Fashions change: the music was different then. So were the dances.
But, look up some pre-1960s groups!
See here:

And here:

foxtrot music 1950s - Google Search

And here:

 

[TomBR]

I think it's more about pianists than the piano.

Lots of dances would have been held in small communities with just a piano for the music, but the piano would have usually been played by a clasically educated pianist playing from music - therefore "classical" or "popular" music rather than "folk" or "traditional."

In the folk/traditional music genres that I know anything about there is not much of a tradition of solo piano. Where there is a melody instrument such as fiddle, concertina, accordion, melodeon, then a piano would play accompaniment "vamping" or "boom-ching" style as found in Scottish, Shetland and Cape Breton music, and in Irish to a lesser extent. That makes a wonderful combination for dance music!

 

[TomBR]

Why is that uncommon?
Perhaps the voices vanish when there is money for instruments?

Nice examples sure enough, but I wonder how many here have ever been to a dance where the music was voices only?

 

[JerryPH]

Why is the piano not a dance instrument?

Because the average piano is too heavy to lug from dance hall to dance hall... lol

Who is saying that a piano OR singing is not good for playing at dances??

 

[TomBR]

Most community halls in England would have had a piano in the past, certainly when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. Not so many now from my more recent experience of many different halls with a barn dance band.

You don't say where you are in Scandinavia Harrytulipan but I've read that in Finland many community halls had a harmonium rather than a piano? I think playing for dancing on a harmonium might be more difficult than on a piano, but the player would get more exercise!

 

[Valski]

Is the piano not a good instrument for playing at dances? Or is it difficult to play dance music on it?
I mean, it is not that common to see or hear a piano at a dance.
I know that many piano pieces are based on dances but that might be something else than performing for real dancing.
Why is the piano not a dance instrument?

I play the piano and find that dance music on the piano can sound more "classical".

But then again I seldom see or hear people singing at dances. I mean, all you need for a polska (aka pols) or polka is a person singing the melody.
Why is that uncommon?

Hello Harry,

Community halls used to have pianos for the use of various events. These halls have changed and many of them no longer furnish those instruments because they need to be tuned and maintained and since this was done infrequently the old acoustic pianos fell out of favour. Approximately 40 years ago keyboards started becoming more popular and they started to replace the old pianos which were then not replaced.

In the 19th century dance music was often played on fiddles and other stringed instruments, and this trend was replaced by pianos, accordions and brass instruments. Eventually guitars displaced those instruments also. Musical trends change with time and nothing remains the same over the long term.

Midi accordions allow the player to generate different sounds and even rhythms so they are a version of keyboards and are suitable for dance music. I play my Roland Fr8x at various club events and invariably get requests to play music that can be danced to and this instrument allows me to incorporate many sounds including piano and accordion. Some songs sound great with piano and it's possible to generate this sound with my Roland, and when combined with the rhythms it can be ideal.

Perhaps you expect certain songs to be played on specific instruments and this makes you uneasy. Just feel free to enjoy the music and make the best of any situation.

 

[Harrytulipan]

There are recordings of peole singing like a fiddle:

He makes it sound so easy.

We also have this guy:
I just love the lyrics. Surströmming is fermented herring. I just love tunes about food.

 

[Harrytulipan]

I think it's more about pianists than the piano.

Lots of dances would have been held in small communities with just a piano for the music, but the piano would have usually been played by a clasically educated pianist playing from music - therefore "classical" or "popular" music rather than "folk" or "traditional."

In the folk/traditional music genres that I know anything about there is not much of a tradition of solo piano. Where there is a melody instrument such as fiddle, concertina, accordion, melodeon, then a piano would play accompaniment "vamping" or "boom-ching" style as found in Scottish, Shetland and Cape Breton music, and in Irish to a lesser extent. That makes a wonderful combination for dance music!

I think trad or gammeldans is not played on piano that often. I think trad is more about fiddle playing. Accordions is mostly associated with old time schlager and gammeldans. Pol or polska is not something that accordionists usually focus on.
I am not in Finland at all. I am in the Nordic countries.

 

[Dingo40]

Here's Calle (Carl) Jularbo playing one of his popular dance pieces:
See here:

(Read the accompanying notes)

 

[Dingo40]

Here's a traditional dance band with an upright piano, accordions, violins, upright bass and drums!
Toe tapping stuff!

 

[Harrytulipan]

Here's a traditional dance band with an upright piano, accordions, violins, upright bass and drums!
Toe tapping stuff!

What's with the sound of the accordions?
It sounds a bit strange to me.
They like it over there I think.
I prefer this sound:

 

[Dingo40]

"What's with the sound of the accordions?
It sounds a bit strange to me.
They like it over there I think.
I prefer this sound:"
It's Scottish musette.
Like I said: music is an acquired taste!
I like the Edgar Henriksen track
Here he is again!

 

[Dingo40]

He reminds me of Leif "Pepparn" Pettersson.

 

[boxplayer4000]

When the Italian company, Crumar, started making keyboard/pianos it was revolutionary. Hitherto, bands that had a pianist had had to rely on there being a playable piano at their venues and many of those pianos were barely playable through poor storage, lack of tuning etc. Being able to do an instant transpose of half a tone was often required. The highly portable Crumar was the answer. The early models weren’t even touch sensitive but they did have a very good ‘upright double bass’ on the two lowest octaves. In that ‘pre-midi’ era I fitted contacts in my bass end, connected it to a Crumar which I carried to gigs. The downside was that there wasn’t a pianist to take his turn at the bar (yes it was bit like that in those days).

 

[TomBR]

When the Italian company, Crumar, started making keyboard/pianos it was revolutionary. Hitherto, bands that had a pianist had had to rely on there being a playable piano at their venues and many of those pianos were barely playable through poor storage, lack of tuning etc. Being able to do an instant transpose of half a tone was often required. The highly portable Crumar was the answer. The early models weren’t even touch sensitive but they did have a very good ‘upright double bass’ on the two lowest octaves. In that ‘pre-midi’ era I fitted contacts in my bass end, connected it to a Crumar which I carried to gigs. The downside was that there wasn’t a pianist to take his turn at the bar (yes it was bit like that in those days).

I hdn't heard of Crumar - interestingly it "appears to have grown out of the Crucianelli accordion company and also continued to manufacture accordions under both names."

 

[hais1273]

IMHO it all depends on the style and maybe the pianist, personally I'm not a great fan of piano's plonking away at dances. However, they work well enough in Scottish and Quebecois music. Here is a fine example of Kan ha Diskan from Brittany, not an instrument of any sort in sight. As a dancer I love dancing to singing, it adds something. Intimacy, personality, feeling, a combination . I don't really know. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcAV5_UPvo. I really enjoy dancing to this sort of thing