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hobbs49

I've been listening to a tape in my car, "Ponca Tribal Songs" with Lamont Brown, Sylvester Warrior, Albert Waters, and Henry Snake as the singers. They sing three trot songs, the usual songs that one may commonly hear on a recording or at a powwow. I think that Lamont Brown might have even written about these songs.

What I noticed was that on the first song, there is only one loud beat between the first part of the song and and the second part. There was very little pause between the song parts as well. However on the 2nd and 3rd songs, there were actually three hard beats and a correspondingly longer pause between the first and second parts of the song.

I've heard these songs sung since I was a kid and I guess I've never paid any attention to the drumming portion of the songs. Maybe this crew is just doing something different for this recording. Does anyone out there know how those loud beat(s) are supposed to go? Does it vary by song? Not sure why, but this really has me intrigued.

Thanks to anyone who is willing to help me understand this better!

suthernwaterbird

Are there words in these songs?

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hobbs49

Mostly words. Real tongue twisters.

Gledanh Zhinga

That group of songs has both kinds of in-between beats, either three accents or one. I think that most or all of the no stahpe (tiptoe) songs have the single accent. The songs are learned that way and not changed.