What do dancers want from a swing band? I know what I think dancers want from their band, but who knows if I’m right?

Swing Band Tempos

I run my own Swing Band and most of the clubs I perform in, in and around London, tend to be a mixed ability crowd. I know this how? Well, as soon as we pick the tempo up above 210 beats per minute, the floor thins out. The faster the tempo, the less dancers on the floor. I’ve come to the conclusion that with regards to tempo most swing dancers are happy dancing to two tempos.

The aforementioned  210 bpm or 116 bpm. These two tempos tend to please the majority of swing dancers on the floor and so create the inclusivity you want. After all, no band wants to see dancers leaning against the walls all night!

Styles

Here, again, I spend a lot of time whilst playing looking out at our dancers and seeing how the style of swing we are performing motivates dancers to dance to the band. I know from discussions with Swing Club organisers that some bands specialise in one genre or other. I don’t. In fact, I try to be all things to all men and women!

Some people love Charleston dancing and cutting a rug to a Dixieland band. Others like 1930’s Swing and Lindy Hop to tunes from Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and the like. I always ask if there are any Frank Sinatra fans in the audience and inevitably get an enthusiastic yes! His repertoire is very popular.

Am I right to mix things up? I’m not sure. I will be looking into people’s response to bands that play one style all night and see how that compares to my own swing bands mix of dance styles. More on this when I have done some research because I want to get the right mix.

Song length.

This is a subject I am happy to be a little more dogmatic with! I have the strong opinion that people can and will dance for three and a half to four minutes, then need a short breather before the next number. Changing tempo between songs makes perfect sense to me too. Playing a number of fast tunes, one after the other, does not work! Bands need to remind themselves that, playing for dancers, they are in effect a human juke box!!

Examples of song length

Long solos from talented musicians belong in a jazz club but not on the dance floor. Why? because if anyone took the trouble to listen to classic swing band jazz from the thirties and forties what would they hear and see? So, they would see and hear that most songs are around the three minute mark. Here are a few examples:

Lester Leaps In. 3 mins and 14 seconds. (and played at about 240 bpm…quite a lick! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwXKUrRhPo&ab_channel=Bekoozie  Jive at Five. 2 mins 56 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W-qRk70Jm0&ab_channel=MiltonPage and finally Flying Home 3 mins 11 seconds  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbh8RUfAkA0&ab_channel=The78Prof 

Conclusion

Therefore, I take these examples from the masters of the swing band genre and so keep my performances to a similar length. After all, everybody danced in the 1930’s and 1940’s!! The discipline of the short song really makes you focus on the reason for being where you are. You are there to make people want to dance. So the best way is through tempo, length of song and choosing tunes that everybody likes!

Jeff Williams. I am a Bandleader and a trombonist and a vocalist. Facebook page for the Mississippi Swing Band and Big Jeff and the Tulse Hill Playboys here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088793697731  and my is  Website here: www.lindyhopband.com

1. How to get your swing dancers on the floor

And so, here we go, how to get your swing dancers on the floor. Today I am contemplating the craft and skill in getting people up to dance. There are various methods of which some I find a tad histrionic! I shall discuss this below. But let it be known, this one of the first of the articles on Swing Dance, Swing Bands and Swing History. I hope you enjoy them and come back for more!

The holy trinity!

However, in the meantime, if the main purpose of your swing band is to get people up dancing then it falls back again, as I have mentioned before to three things: Tempo, Length of song and repertoire. Add to this the experience and ability at reading an audience. But I refer you to this page to discuss Tempo and such. In the meantime, lets get back to reading the audience.

What do I mean by this? Well, years of experience in playing for dancers in a swing environment give one the ability to judge what type of song will work next and how to programme a set of music that keeps the majority of dancers on the floor.

Success or failure depends on this ability. Too many fast or too many slow swing numbers will begin to have an effect on the dancers. Variation is the key. I tend to play two medium tempo numbers for every quickstep/up tempo song. Each set I will throw in a Prima Shuffle (feel free to ask me what these are on 07747 801471) and a “Sing, Sing, Sing” style song. this usually features the drums and tends to be a floor filler!

Back to Histrionics! Well so lets just remind ourselves what we are here for. To get people up to dance right? Crazy outfits and stage routines are for performance bands. We must remind ourselves that we are a human jukebox. Dancers love the live experience of a live swing band to dance to, and they don’t want it distracted by too much “look at us” They are there to dance. Don’t let your ego get in the way!

I’m Jeff Williams. I’ve been running Swing Bands and playing for Swing Dancers for many years now. Here are a few links: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088793697731

This is a link to my five piece band Mississippi Swing recorded live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ0Jh6FqNTE&ab_channel=JeffWilliams

And here is a link to my budget concious trio. The big sound from the small band! Big Jeff and the Tulse Hill Playboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxYWdBH80_c&ab_channel=JeffWilliams