Wednesday C1 square dance workshop

[bjarvis]

I was very close to begging off last night's workshop in favour of getting some sleep. It was a close call but ultimately decided to attend --our numbers are sometimes borderline for a square-- and I'm really quite glad I did.

Caller Doran was in good form last night... he had some fun choreo and his delivery & timing was flawless. We spent more time in blocks and butterfly formations than we have in prior weeks, all good stuff. Beth made lemon squares in honour of my birthday; Larry brought a small stack of Coffee Crisp bars to share.

Despite my worry about attendance, we actually had 11 dancers last night, a much more comfortable number in that it allowed folks than usual to sit out more tips if desired.

One of my little delights of the evening was made possible by kent4str. I carry a pocket tape recorder with which I record various callers onto microcassettes then transcribe the figures for study of flow and sequencing, sometimes as good examples and occasionally as counter-examples. The recorder has been a good soldier for nearly 15 years but I have to carry a lot of microcassettes to get much of a fly-in, especially if one is looking to study multiple levels of calling (Mainstream, Plus, A1/A2 and now C1). I can reuse old cassettes but I often lose track of which tapes I haven't transcribed yet, which I wanted to keep permanently, etc..

In a highly unusual stroke of genious, kent4str got me this little wonder as a birthday present. With 256 MB of RAM, it records up to 68 hours of WMA audio using a single AA battery, and the recorded files can be transferred directly to a computer via the built-in USB port. And it's lighter than, say, a donut.

I recorded seven tips from last night's workshop which I'll transcribe today. Yay!

Comments

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

All evidence suggests that I should get one of those for myself, since I could then record accompaniments (and such) for people to practice with, download them at home, and email them as needed. I have a microphone for my iPod, but the whole process is a tad less user-friendly.

Am I right that the sound quality is at least a little better than the pocket tape recorder has been?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yes, the sound quality is significantly better than my pocket recorder. The digital unit also has stereo mics, a port for an external mic & earphones and can record in stereo or mono & at different sampling rates so you can adjust it to taste, recording for time or quality.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Next time I'm close to the J&R store I'll have to drop in and check it out.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

There - now I'm done thinking for the year.

Glad you liked it.

[bam80209.livejournal.com]

I am taking C1 classes right now! 3 weeks to go before I graduate.......I will never remember everything! We have 14 in our class, so I will have lots of peers to lean on! Are you going to be able to attend the convention here in Denver over Memorial Day?

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Oh, my...look who's there! ;-)

C1 should be an interesting experience in Denver now!

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yup, we're pre-registered and our hotel room booked for Denver! We'll be attending the GCA caller school prior to the convention, Wicked and the convention itself! Whee! Now I just need to book our flights...

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

Purty!