Info about me:

I'm a rock-and-roll keyboard player and lover of folk styles. I am a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. Since 1979 I have accompanied ballet and modern classes, usually full-time.

1971-now: Rock bands.

1979-86: Fort Worth Ballet and TCU dance dept., Jubilee Theatre and Hip Pocket Theatre.

1986-89: Boston studios.

1987-now: American Dance Festival.

1992-now: University of North Carolina School of the Arts school of dance.

Info about the recordings:

The high-quality recordings are by John Wilson at Spot On Studios.

The out-of tune selections were made using a laptop inside the piano during class. Sorry.

Some of the newest additions will be MIDI sequences driving a piano sample.

Info about this website:

I just built this Info page on 1 january 2012. The reason my entire website looks so crummy is that I built it myself and I'm just a piano player.

You may use any of this music for class or performance, including my own tunes.

Aside from my own tunes, which you have permission to use, I have STRICTLY limited this website to music in the public domain. All copyright issues are nonexistent.

All music composed by "Dalby" is copyright 2010 and 2011. Use it if you like.

If you know how to spread the word about this website, help!

Info about the Comments section:

If you do give me your email address (so I can respond, which I will) I won't keep it or share it with anybody. I have no use for it.

If you don't send your email address, and just send the form, I only know you as p24l3blc. But that's okay. I HATE giving my email address or any other info to websites. Here, you don't have to. When you send a comment, the only information I get about you is p24l3blc. The sender is always p24l3blc. This is how I know all of you who haven't sent their email address to me: as p24l3blc.

And so, Ms. or Mr. p24l3blc, I say: Thanks for writing! I have no idea who most of you are but it really helps to know somebody's out there.

Ideas about meters:

What's the difference between Plie music and Rond de Jambe music? Well, they're different but interchangeable. The same is true for 4/4 adagios and ballads.

Some dance teachers use Tempo, Meter, and Rhythm interchangeably. This can confuse a musician who knows the meanings of these very different words, unless the musician understands that the teacher is simply referring to Time.

Tempo is the speed of the music. Meter is the number of beats that are grouped together into units for counting (usually 2, 3, or 4), and Rhythm is the emphasis of certain beats and subdivisions. A Rhythm exists within a specific Meter, and a Tempo is usually implied. But Rhythm is a musical term and has Names, whereas Tempos and Meters are actually empirical, mathematical descriptions, and only have Numbers.

6/8 is one type (the "triple" type) of 2/4 . Any meter with a 3 (this includes waltzes), a 6, a 9, or a 12 is counted in a COMPLETELY different way than 4/4, 2/4, and other "duple" meters. Each three is a beat, or count. 9/8 is a swinging 3/4, and 12/8 is a swinging 4/4. To use "You Send Me" as an example of 12/8, I would count like this:

"You", 2 and a, 3 and a, 4 and a, "send me", 2 and a, 3 and a, 4 and a.

What to do when your Accompanist is an Idiot:

I'm trying to find an essay with this title that I wrote some years back, rejected by Dancemagazine. But I'm an Idoit so don't hold your breath. Here's a synopsis:

Even though you're not there to "deal with the musician", it will be useful to devote a bit of time to knowing you accompanist, if you're going to be spending much time together. Find out if your accompanist is classically trained or plays by ear. If you have a beginning accompanist, explain 2 or 3 basics; for example: 4-beat intros are the norm, marking time is often more important than musical expressivity, etc.

If you can't get the feel you want, try "singing"; that is, la-la-ing a typical piece in that style, or just vocalizing the tempo and feel, as a teacher often does while demonstrating a combination.

Teachers, don't clap or snap the beat! (Unless your accompanist can't keep a beat, in which case one must ask: what is she or he doing there?) It's okay to clap to adjust or to correct the tempo or to stop the music, but clapping the pulse can be DISASTROUS for a musician who plays by ear. For now, I"ll give just one reason: sound travels very slowly, surprisingly so, and often a teacher will feel confidently in the groove. But by the time their sound waves reach the piano there is an audible lag. When that happens, forget about keeping a steady beat!

If you feel like giving lots of threes, that's okay. You don't have to apologise.

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Info on what I want:

Please write to me! It's really great when you do. And vote!

Jeff Dalby