If you’re think of learning a new instrument:
D Tin Whistle from £7.99. The fingering is slightly different to a recorder but simpler and you go up the octave by blowing harder. Tin whistles are designed to play these sorts of tunes.
It’s also really worth considering harmonica. Extremely portable, surprisingly loud and inherently rhythmical. To play all the tunes in the Country Dance book you will need two instruments:
Harmonica in D £29 and a Harmonica in G £37
Or if you want to go all in for folk music the classic instrument for Country Dancing is a:
Melodeon in D/G £349 Warning! Seriously addictive!
For pianists:
Consider getting a:
Melodica £54.70 (no great point in getting one with more notes than this, as long as you can get a top B you will able to play all the tunes in the book)
Piano Accordion £399
or Harmonium £539 (pretty heavy but very lovely)
For guitarists / violinists:
Guitars may not add much to country dancing if there’s more than one, though if you don’t have percussion they can really hold things together.
Violins are great but difficult to play accurately at speed. Can be really fun to get kids and inexperienced players just playing open strings to match the chords (e.g. G, A etc). But they need to be in tune. Strings make a huge difference – you can pick up a “field” violin either cheap on ebay / in a charity shop / new and cheap from a music store – and then buy it some proper strings. Dominants are a good brand.
You could also get a lovely:
Mandolin £199. Loud, percussive, much better at melody than guitars and much easier to play than violin. Worth getting a decent electronic tuner though as tricky to tune.
For wind players:
If you want something portable, consider getting a
D Tin Whistle from £7.99. Or if you can already play the recorder bring one of those – Yamahas are decent.
Clarinet and sax are brilliant instruments for country dance – loud, portable and able to play all the tunes in the book. If you play but don’t have an instrument you would want to bring on camp, or if you are thinking of learning, it is MUCH better to get an instrument in C to play folk music. That’s because it is in the same key as all the other instruments so you don’t have to do complex transposing. C instruments have the same fingering as Bb, but are slightly smaller, so can also be better for kids:
C Clarinet £199.99
C Sax (plastic) £88.80, C Sax (metal) £798
For brass players:
Trumpets are great volume-wise but the range of most folk tunes is difficult. If you are looking at buying an instrument again an instrument in C will be much better for playing folk tunes:
C Trumpet £222
All brass instruments are great for Country Dancing though.
Scores in Bb for wind and brass (melody, harmony and bass line) are available here.
For percussionists:
Percussion is hugely powerful for keeping the dancers and band in time. It is a big responsibility though as you need to watch the dancers the whole time to make sure the tempo is good for dancing to, and take responsibility for not letting the band gradually slow down.
If you are a drummer why not bring a kick drum pedal £23.90 and some proper drum sticks, then build a woodcraft junk drum-kit out of whatever you can find?
If you want a dedicated percussion instrument a Cajon £34 is a good bet. Or a Cajun Triangle £28 is also a fantastic option.
(Please note the links on this page are from a quick Google search and for rough guidance only. Better value instruments may be available, particularly second-hand.)