10-10-2015, 02:58 AM
In small bands the musicians will confer among themselves to choose the tunes for the upcoming set. In a large band like ours, that would be too unwieldy. Instead, we have a band leader who talks it over with the caller and then tells the rest of us what we're going to play. But she doesn't name the tunes for us. She tells us what number set to refer to in our band's book of sheet music.
In other words, we have pre-arranged printed sets, each of which is assigned a number and arranged numerically. So when the band leader calls out the number of the next set, we thumb through our books to find the sheet music for the tunes we will be playing. But with all the noise in the hall not all of us hear her, and more often then not, several people will turn to their neighbors and ask, "What set are we playing?" or even "Do we have a set number yet.?"
To summarize, a set is the 3 or 4 tunes chosen on the spur of the moment for the next tune. A set list, if we had one, would look like "100, 96, 117, 84..." and so on. Actually, there is a set list but it doesn't exist until after the dance is over. Our secretary sends around the set lists for every rehearsal and dance we played twice a month.
In other words, we have pre-arranged printed sets, each of which is assigned a number and arranged numerically. So when the band leader calls out the number of the next set, we thumb through our books to find the sheet music for the tunes we will be playing. But with all the noise in the hall not all of us hear her, and more often then not, several people will turn to their neighbors and ask, "What set are we playing?" or even "Do we have a set number yet.?"
To summarize, a set is the 3 or 4 tunes chosen on the spur of the moment for the next tune. A set list, if we had one, would look like "100, 96, 117, 84..." and so on. Actually, there is a set list but it doesn't exist until after the dance is over. Our secretary sends around the set lists for every rehearsal and dance we played twice a month.