What sort of bands play for Barn Dances & Ceilidhs?
These bands are very diverse – most have between three and six musicians plus a dance instructor (known as the ‘caller’). Sometimes the ‘caller’ is also a musician, sometimes not. The music played is mostly based on English folk tunes, but will very often include Irish and Scottish tunes and sometimes other European folk tunes. Some bands play largely acoustic instruments, some have an electric rhythm section, some have drums. The most common instruments are probably fiddle, accordion, melodeon, concertina, whistles, guitar, bass and drums. A quick listing of the other instruments our bands play includes bagpipes, saxophone, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, trombone, trumpet, oboe, flute, pan pipes, occarina, cello, viola, hammer dulcimer, Appalacian dulcimer, and tuba. If it adds to the sound, they’ll play it.
