Vamping, according to my small Oxford dictionary, means either improvising a simple musical accompaniment or being a woman who seduces men. Granted, both of these activities take place at dances, but as I'm struggling to keep this book a reasonable size I'll only address the first part of this definition, leaving the latter for a later and more exhaustively researched work.*

This book will give you the runs - yes, the bass runs, chord patterns, syncopations and other vamping techniques used in accompanying traditional dance music on that paragon of instruments, the piano. I've been playing the piano for New England contra-dancing for over twenty years, probably about 4000 dances worth (a conservative estimate). Yikes! I've probably played the tune 'Chorus Jig' 12,000 times! Ach! If I hadn't learned something by now I'd be a blooming idiot. You can judge that for yourself, after reading the book.

Every year for the past ten years or so I've given a workshop at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) on dance piano backup styles and techniques. My approach at these workshops is almost completely improvisatory (read unplanned). I go in with the sketchiest of ideas and frantically hope that people will start asking questions about things. Once this happens, I'm home free. But in compensation for this rather erratic and desultory style, I also prepare ahead of time a small handout which covers some specific topic of interest, with notated examples and detailed explanations. It is these handouts, written over my busiest years as a pianist, that make up the core of this book.

A fair amount of editing was needed in these handouts. In their original, raw state they reflect not only my musical concerns at the time but the ever-changing state of desktop publishing from one year to the next. I went from a borrowed Selectric typewriter and handwritten examples to a computer printer that seemed to fabricate each letter with ink-tipped spikes, each dot the size of a golf ball. Finally I got a laser-printer. (I left the cover off of the printer by mistake one day and now all of the 1989 handout is burned into my ceiling. Looks good though - nice, crisp characters.) Armed with these financially draining tools, I set to work.

Whenever I work on a book (I have published two others, a collection of English country dance music and a collection of waltzes, polkas and other couple dance music), I am haunted throughout the project by the feeling that I'm leaving out something vital, something obvious that would occur to anyone but me. Combatting this paranoia expands a project incredibly and in this book accounts for the six extra chapters or appendices you'll find, as well as the greatly expanded text and examples in the original ten handouts. Ideally, I want to give the complete beginner a clear idea of how to get started while also giving the experienced player new ideas and techniques. I hope I've at least gotten close.

The handouts have no logical order to them, and except in a loose way do not progress from the easy to the difficult*. A table of contents and an index in the back should be helpful if you're looking for specific topics. If I were to recommend an order of topics for the beginner, I would read the initial chapter 'For the Total Beginner', then investigate bass runs, then syncopation, then the more involved bass runs, then thumb-leading techniques. If you're a more advanced player, some of the latter chapters and the higher numbered examples in the 'Eleven Times Through a Reel' and 'Nine Times Through a Jig' appendices could be fun to look at. Whatever your level of expertise, I urge you strongly (as I will throughout the book) to remember that in the accom-paniment game rhythm is king (and queen, chief executive officer and all major deities). I see too many players these days strong on flash and weak on rhythm. Heavily syncopated stylists are especially vulnerable to this failing. If my fingers are not getting somewhere on time, I will (and have) just put them down wherever they are just to keep on the beat (actually, this can occasionally be a fruitful source of new chords). Defining the beat clearly and audibly for the other players and the dancers is your job. Whatever else you play is a fringe benefit.

I also urge you to listen as much as you possibly can to other dance pianists, to get the feel and lilt of dance rhythm into your ears as well as for technical ideas. A sketchy discography in the back has a fairly current list of dance recordings with piano accompaniment. I have also been heavily influenced by guitar, mandolin and bouzouki players from Lester Flatt and other bluegrass greats to contemporary Irish accompanists like Alec Finn and Donal Lunny. Listening to folks like these can be incredibly inform-ative.

A brief note to beginners about the examples - in the examples with three staffs the top line will be the melody line, which you are accompanying but do not play. The bottom two lines are your concern - the middle line for your right hand, the bottom for your left.

I am grateful for the fascinating adventures traditional dance music has given me, and for this chance to give a little something back to the community which has entertained, supported, instructed, frustrated and welcomed me these many years. I would especially to thank the following people, without whom, God knows, I might still be a bank teller today (maybe I would have made head teller by now).** Bob McQuillen, the master New England pianist and accordionist, got me started in the dance musician life by generously (and forcefully) inviting me up on stage one exciting night to sit in with the band at the Fitzwilliam Town Hall dance in 1973. My life changed irrevocably (and for the better) that very moment. (I would like to note that I had been an avid contra-dancer for a few years before this happened - an introduction I recommend to all dance musicians.) Ernie Spence, dance supporter and enthusiast for longer than I have lived (and my former high-school principal) made going to dances possible for me by taking me to dances all over New England in those early years. We used to hold jam sessions in the back of his voluminous and hardy series of aged station wagons. (Or we would bounce along listening to country music from the clear-channel West Virginia station WWV, secretly hoping that a flying saucer would appear above us on those long, empty New England back roads, despite our strong streaks of Yankee skepticism.)

Jim Kennedy and Donna Hebert took a chance and actually hired me to play at dances in the early and mid '70's, at the Fitzwilliam dances and the Boston Country Dance Society's Tuesday night series, respectively. The piano at the Fitzwilliam Town Hall had keys like jagged teeth, I used to have to wear band-aids on my thumbs for each dance. I kept a stash hidden above the ticket office on the second floor - I wonder if they're still there? On Tuesday nights I worked with bassist Henry Chapin, who introduced me to the novel idea of the rhythm break - that you can actually stop playing as a useful effect. Along with Jack O'Connor, Donna Hebert and Tony Parkes we formed a band called Yankee Ingenuity which is still playing (with a few personnel changes) after nearly twenty years. Almost everything I've learned about dance-piano accompaniment has been through on-the-job training and experimentation at these fine folks' expense, and they still haven't fired me.

With regards to this book, I want to thank Jan Dreschsler, fine pianist from New Jersey, for her wonderful and comprensive suggestions about my workshop handouts. Also a big thanks to Jeanne Morrill for her editorial help and encouragement.

This book is dedicated to Bob McQuillen, Tony Parkes, Selma Kaplan, Mary Kay Brass, Ann Percival, Anita Anderson, Bruce Rosen, Andy Davis, Pete Campbell, Charlie Lennon, Claudio Buchwald, Linda Henry, Judy Francis, Gordon Peery, Jeremiah McLane, Molly Mason, Daniel Steinberg, Lyle Ramshaw, Larry Unger, Janet Paoletti, Daniel Paget, Jacqueline Schwab, Debbie Knight, Ruth Rappaport, Cal Howard, Ed Kaynor, Nick Hawes, Karen Axelrod, Beth Murray, Martin Morrisey, Peter Urensky, Laurie Andres, Edith Farrar, Bob Willoughby, Roberta Sutter, Karen Woolf, Susan Jannsen, Sue Buchholz, Jennifer Gilfillan, Maro Avakian, Heidi Chapman, Susan Petrov, Eric Scott, Bob Pasquarello, Bob Stein, Amy Silverman, Linda Viera, Jerry Lee Lewis, Susan Secco, Laurie Fisher, Craig DuBose, Dirk Powell, Leah Barkun, Miki McCloskey, Phil Merrill, Craig Johnson, Timm Triplett, Helen Kisiel, Muriel Johnstone, Sandi Goldring, David Arnold, Peter Amidon, Tomas Bartlett, Lynn Baumeister, Gretchen Kohler, Pat MacPherson, Richard Powers, Matt Fichtenbaum, Julie King, Ruth Richards, Olive Flagg, Mark Simos, Greg Sandall, Robert Mills, Brad Foster, Becky Ashenden, Jan Dreschler, Andrew Imbrie, Bill Matthieson, Bob Berch, Charlie Pilzer, Manon Kahle, Kathy Anderson, Sara Young, Denice Reese, Randyu Miller, Jack Sloanaker, and Chico Marx.

"The piano. Eighty-eight little mistakes waiting to happen."

Peter Barnes

* It also means "the upper front part of a boot or shoe". I have already covered this usage of the term in my 1963 monograph Indonesian Footwear Design During the Qua'rin Period As Compared With the Rise in 15th Century German Potato Consumption - More Than Coincidence? (Bernwood and Festig Publishing, Inc.).

** The astute reader may notice a slight resemblance between the title of this book and that of a novel by Ann Rice. It is not my intent by any means to disparage Ms. Rice's fine works and writing. I am merely attempting to capitalize on her popularity.