Traditional Nordic dance music is a type of traditional music or folk music that once was common in the mainland part of the Nordic countries - Scandinavia plus Finland. The person who plays this kind of music might be called speleman (Swedish/Norwegian), spelman (Swedish), spelleman (Norwegian), pelimanni (Finnish) or spillemand (Danish). Finnish traditional dance music is often called pelimanni music in English, while there does not seem to exist a similar, widespread term for the corresponding music from the other countries. It is often more meaningful to distinguish between the traditional dance music from different regions than between music from the countries as such. Some concepts in the field can be defined as Norwegian or Finnish, but most are either common to all four countries or local. Besides the dance music tradition, all countries also have other traditions of folk music that are not shared to a similar extent. Traditional Music is a quasi-synonym for folk music. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and for the common people. ... Overview map of the region. ... Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe named after the Scandinavian Peninsula. ...

Nordic folk dance music consists of various dance rhythms, that do not originate in the Nordic countries but once were the fashion dances among the European nobility. With time these dances spread to common people, and in some cases they remanined there long after the nobility had exchanged them for new fashionable dances. Many of these rhythms can also be found in other parts of Europe, and some of them has also been used in classical music. Classical music is a broad, somewhat imprecise term, referring to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, European art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly 1000 to the present day. ...

The majority of the tunes are in minor keys. Traditionally, there were many tunes in keys that can not be classified as either minor or major. Traces of this still exist, but most of that disappeared when the accordion got popular. The majority of the dances that goes with this music are partner dances, but exceptions exist such as the minuets that are common in some parts of Finland and also can be found in parts of Sweden, the solo-dance halling, generally considered typically Norwegian but also found in parts of Sweden, and the Finnish quadrille danced by several couples in formation. The most common dance rhythms is the polska. It is in 3/4 (three beats to the bar). In the most common polskas, the third beat is accentuated as well as the first. There are extremely many local versions of the polska rhythm, and generally a local version of how it is danced goes with the local music although many of these have disappeared. The schottische, also known as reinlender, polka and waltz are other common dance rhythms. In addition there are many other more uncommon dance rhythms, where only a small number of tunes survived such as the anglais (Swedish: engelska). A minor scale in musical theory can be viewed as the sixth mode of the major scale. ... In music theory, the key identifies the tonic triad, the chord, major or minor, which represents the final point of rest for a piece, or the focal point of a section. ... A button accordion An accordion is a musical instrument of the handheld bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as squeezeboxes. ... Two people doing the Salsa. ... A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two persons, usually in 3/4 time. ... Quadrille is an historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. ... See also the beat disambiguation page. ... In musical notation, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. ... The Schottische is a partnered country dance, Bohemian in origin, that is two short runs and a hop followed by four turning hop steps: step step step hop, step step step hop, step hop step hop step hop step hop. ... Street musicians in Prague playing a polka Polka is a type of dance and genre of dance music. ... The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in 3/4 time, done primarily in closed position. ...

The most typical instrument is the fiddle. In most cases normal violins are used, but there are exceptions such as the hardingfele, used in parts of Norway, which has a set of sympathetic strings in addition to the normal four strings. The instrument nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) probably once existed in a large part of Europe, but survived until modern times only in Sweden. Other instruments that traditionally often were used are simple clarinets, mainly home-made, and later accordion. Musicians in this type of music today also might use other instruments that were not used traditionally, as well as writing new tunes in more or less old style. The fiddle is a violin played as a folk instrument. ... A Hardanger fiddle or hardingfele (Norwegian) is a stringed instrument very similar to a violin, but different enough that a luthier accustomed to repairing violins who works on a hardingfele is likely to ruin it. ... Sympathetic strings are strings on musical instruments which begin resonating, not due to any external influence such as picking or bowing, but due to another note (or frequency). ... A nyckelharpa The nyckelharpa (Swedish for key harp) is traditional in Sweden. ... World map showing Europe Political map Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of Earth; the term continent here referring to a cultural and political distinction, rather than a physiographic one, thus leading to various perspectives about Europes precise borders. ... Two soprano clarinets: a Bâ™­ clarinet (left) and an A clarinet (right, with no mouthpiece). ... A button accordion An accordion is a musical instrument of the handheld bellows-driven free reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as squeezeboxes. ...