Just a quick question folks. Is it ok to sit in on a session and try to pick up songs you don't know?
And another thing, I was at a session the other day and a fella was there playing an acoustic bass guitar, first time I've ever seen that but it sounded great
Sitting in on a session to pick up tunes? Yes, that's the traditional, and best, way of learning tunes for everyone, from beginners upwards. It's a sort of cerebral osmosis - sit and listen for long enough and it sinks in, rather like picking up a language in a country where you're the foreigner and nobody knows your language. Unfortunately, not everyone can get to sessions frequently enough (or sometimes even at all) and so they've got to rely on learning from tapes and cds, a bit more difficult - you can't ask a player afterwards how exactly did they play a particular bit of a tune. And then there's the printed music, the infamous "dots". There's no harm in learning from the dots (many players do it) but you've got to realize that the printed music is only a rough template; like a touring road map, it shows you the main directions to take but doesn't show you the really interesting stuff - the scenery, the hedgerows, the 16c cottages, which you can only see by actually doing the journey. At some stage, when you've learnt from the dots then you've got to play the tune with other people in a session before it makes real musical sense.
Trevor
Thanks Trevor, Maybe just takes a wee bit of confidence to get in there and start playing. I was worried that some of the folks there mightn't want a beginner messing about.
I am still just a novice and newcomer to session playing, but I'm very sensitive and respectful to the etiquette. If you are learning tunes at a session, make sure you are doing it quietly so it doesn't ruin the music or annoy the folks who are playing the tune. I personally believe practice should be done at home, not in the session, especially if it's in a public place like bar.
However, every session and situtation is different. Just be considerate. You might want to ask first if you can record the session or certain tunes, and learn them at home. Then play them at the session when you know them well enough to contribute to the music. Trevor is right, if you listen enough at the session, the tunes will start to sink in, which will make learning them much easier.
Glad you asked. It would be great if more people had your tact, jpg. I think there's a difference between picking up tunes by “cerebral osmosis” and "messing about." If you start into tunes that you don't know and the session isn't a slow, learner's session, then it's very likely that you may get the trophy for "Freak of the Week."
Your session might be totally fine with it, it may be a learner's session, but if it's a more advanced session then a large part of the enjoyment the others players get from the session comes from everyone who's playing knowing the tunes. If you start "messing about" it could make you unwelcome and that would seriously hinder your progression.
So, my suggestion is to ask the session leader or somebody who's playing most of the tunes what is appropriate. They'll appreciate that. If they say, "don't play it 'till you know it," you should ask if you can bring a tape recorder.
Thanks Folks, There are a few of us who have played in various types of bands growing up but we've always been interested in traditional music. Now that we've all moved back home to Portaferry we are looking to play a bit more. Occasionally, there is a proper session on in Strangford with some amazing musicians and to be honest I'd be a bit embarrassed trying to keep up with those folks but I'm dyin to learn.
Hi jpg,
I reckon going to a fast session is a great way to learn fast. Maybe go along, listen, and get friendly with one of the musicians. If you haven't got an instrument with you, you might find them a lot more inviting than if you have(!). If you then tell them that you play a bit of whatever it is you play, they'll probably say "bring it along next time." - Then you're 'In' without forcing yourself on the session - after all, you've been invited. Get the names of some of the tunes, and the keys they're played in, and if possible, get them to let you tape the session and maybe have a bash at starting learn a couple of tunes at home. That way you won't have them thinking you're doing the 'mindless noodling' thing that can be so irritating. But basically what I'm trying to say is that sitting in on fast sessions is a great way to learn fast, although it''s probably not the least stressfull way to learn.
If you're a learner, sitting in on fast sessions is a great way to frustrate yourself, learn wrong versions of tunes cos you're trying to hear a billion notes a second and annoy the people that actually can play fast.
If you're sitting at a session noodling around for three hours and you never actually contribute anything to the session, don't play! I'd much rather see a tape recorder than a person who doesn't know the tunes....taking up space, while someone who DOES know the tunes is hanging around at the bar, waiting for a space to open up so he/she can jump in.
Go to level appropriate sessions. Music is like Japanese. If you were in college and you decided to take Japanese and you've never spoken a word of it in your life, you certainly wouldn't sign up for the advanced class or the school-sponsored unguided trip to Tokyo! You'd be totally lost and frustrated.
I've been playing the fiddle for sixteen years (I'm 23). I just started the accordion a few months ago. But, I wouldn't go dragging that thing to sessions until I can play up to speed. And I certainly wouldn't sit in at the Burren on Friday night with my accordion and try to noodle along!!
Sorry about that.
But on a more serious note, if you want to learn a language fast, immersing yourself in the language and the culture is the most efficient way to do it. My son is learning French at the moment, and the teacher just talks French to them, and the kids go and stay in France with French families. The standard way to teach English as a foreign language is to have classes where only English is spoken....
My daughter married a Belgian a year ago and now lives and works as a hospital nurse in Leuven, which is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Her Flemish is now fluent, as it has to be in a busy hospital environment, and she goes to evening classes in advanced Dutch studies at the University when her shift work permits. So total immersion really does work with languages, and it should do so equally well with music and other art forms. It is not unknown for Shakespeare enthusiasts who go to see the plays frequently to become as word-perfect as the actors. As a side comment there is, or used to be until fairly recently, a school in England where Latin is (was?) taught as a spoken language by total immersion during the lessons - after all, the Romans managed it quite successfully!
Trevor
I hope I'm not sounding too hectoring, but I reckon slow sessions breed slow players. If you're playing with people who play slowly it's too easy to get comfortable with not stretching yourself, and you just stay at the same level. Then you get comfortable playing at that level, after all, it's just fun isn't it? Then a sort of inverse snobbery creeps in "Actually I think the tunes sound better played like this" - and before you know it you're stuck in the swamp of mediocrity.
God, that sounds so patronising and smug doesn't it - it's not that I think that I'm great, but I do try to improve. Of course what I've said is a massive over-generalisation, but I do know people who have literally played for decades without ever leaving that comfortable slow-session ghetto.
You're quite right, but that inconvenient fact has been conveniently ignored from the very first reply onwards. Maybe it isn't the question that people wanted to answer - It's obviously all jpg's fault for asking the wrong question!
I've been playing Irish flute for a little over 2 years and I'm 33. I think that playing with folks who are a step or few steps above your playing level is a great thing. They guys I play with down at our session play very well, they play up to speed and know tons of tunes. I've worked my ass off to play with these guys! I have been motivated & inspired to learn to play up to speed and learn tunes quickly. I'm at the point where I can make a contribution and sometimes I get a few compliments (not that I care about that). Sure, my flute playing has a long way to go and has room for much much improvement, but I don't think I would be where I am right now if I was sitting in some beginner slow session, playing the Merry Blacksmith every week. (I'm don't mean to bust on slow sessions or the Merry Blacksmith)
Gosh, I seem to agree with both camps here. I am so super sensitive to session etiquette, that I totally see Cara's point of view--get out of the way if you can't yet play (sorry to paraphrase you so poorly there, Cara)!
On the other hand, I see how one can easily stunt one's growth by sticking to the slow sessions level. Like you Joyce, I have forced myself up to fast session playing and really stretched my growth a lot, but it can be stressful, and sometimes, I suspect the fast players may also be "coming down" to my level a bit, and I don't want that to happen to much, because I don't want to spoil their fun.
And Joyce--you don't care about the compliments? Really? I know I do! A truly heartfelt and honest bit of praise from an accomplished player is something I cherish.
Andee I don't deserve compliments yet. When I do get them, I think people are just being nice and want to encourage me. But I have a long ways to go....but it is nice when someone you respect & admire notices how hard you are working : )
Ottery, when I read the initial question I understood "song" in its common modern meaning of "tune" as played by an instrument as well as its older meaning of a tune that is sung by the human voice, usually with words.
Trevor
JPG, in case you can't tell from previous posts, in Irish music a song is something you sing, and a tune is something you play. At the risk of repeating stuff, try http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/learn.html#fly for some tips on learning tunes in a fast session.
I don't necessarily totally agree with you, ottery dear, at least from my own experience. Most slow, learning players I've ever known are most eager to get to faster playing! I spend what feels an inordinate amount of our time in our slow session trying to get new members to slow down so they can play good slow music rather than playing awful fast music.
And my own goal is to shift people out of our slow session into the fast ones. Let's face it, they're generally more fun, since most people find ripping through a set of tunes more fun than learning the tunes, especially when you're still learning to learn by ear. But I do have several players who have "graduated" out of the slow learning level but still come back to our session every now and again just to learn tunes and for the crack. (One of the things we try to teach is that sessions aren't just about tunes, and that enjoying the crack is one of the top important things about them.)
Hi Zina, I'm only speaking of what I've seen, and that is that people who, as novices, come to 'fast' sessions (what one of my friends calls 'big-boys sessions') tend to be those who end up playing those type of sessions. Round here the slower sessions don't seem to be 'training grounds' for future players of the music, but places where people go and play the the same half dozen tunes for the rest of their lives(!) They also seem to be monthly, rather than weekly, which sort of encourages this, because if you play the same half dozen tunes every week, you soon get bored! And i don't think it's got anything to do with musical ability, some of these people are much more competent and less flaky musicians than me, they just don't seem to make any progress down this particular path. There are a couple of sessions like this that I get to pop into maybe a couple of times a year, and the same people will be playing Flowers of Edinburgh and Staten Island that were when I was last there, six months earlier.
Maybe the sessions you organise are different...?
Breandan, I didn't say that it was necessarily good to play fast. At the best sessions that I go to the most experienced musicians are the ones who play at the steadier pace, but it depends what you mean by 'fast' and 'slow'. By 'fast session' I mean one where the music swings, I guess.... You know what I mean!
Sorry - I should never have daid "I reckon going to a fast session is a great way to learn fast." I should have said "I reckon going to to BEST session you can get to is a great way to learn fast."
I didn't mean to introduce the old 'how fast is a bit of string' argument - I just tend to equate faster sessions with better sessions, which they tend to be in this neck of the woods.
But while we're on the subject - Gian, you're setting yourself a very restrictive range of parameters there!
Perhaps our slow session IS a bit different, which is why we call it a "tune learning session" instead of a "slow session", to be honest, or sometimes "a learner's session." It's a little odd running a session where the goal is to get players ready for "regular" sessions (I nearly said "normal", but find me a "normal" session...like finding a "normal" player) and constantly be encouraging them to move on to the "big boys' session" as Ottery puts it, but in Colorado most people have little to no idea of what a session is supposed to be like. Hopefully we help out a bit with that.
Zina, in Bristol (UK) we do something similar. It is a fortnightly session from 8-11.30 in the harbourside Nova Scotia pub. The session is run by Gill Newlyn, a master fiddler, who specifically sets the first hour aside for beginners and improvers. The tunes are played at a slowish to steady pace with emphasis on timing, intonation and dynamics. The beginners session frequently starts with a warm-up on slow scales and arpeggios. Words of wisdom regarding session etiquette are often handed down. More advanced fiddlers and mandolin players sometimes join in for the discipline of revisiting the old tunes at the slower speeds and maybe discovering new aspects to think about. From 9pm onwards the advanced players drift in and most of the beginners and improvers stay and listen.
Trevor
Zina, the discussion seems to have gone full circle and now it's back to whether it's best to go to a 'learning session' or jump straight in to a full blown (hopefully not fly-blown) session. As I said before, the 'easier' sessions I've experienced around here are not really a learning environment for anything other than crawling through the 'Kesh Waltz' for eternity - something like one of Dante's circles of hell. Maybe if we had something like your sessions my view wouldn't be so jaundiced. I think the situation Trevor describes there is possibly the best compromise, and indeed there used to be an identical session in Oxford led by the fiddler Danny Lenahan on Sunday afternoons, where he would devote an hour of his time to effectively giving a lesson before the session officially started. This was a fantastic resource which sadly died soon after Danny did.
Hi Folks, Sorry for the misleading title. The general idea was to ask the question "What is the best way to start a session?" in the first post but I forgot. Anyway, thanks for the tips. I've played in a few sessions around the place since the first post and hope to get over to Downpatrick for one of the sessions in Mullans Bar (Thanks breandan). I was a bit worried after reading some of the posts on session etiquette and the like but thankfully everyone in the places I've been has been brilliant and I've been made to feel very welcome.
Starting a session
Starting a session
Just a quick question folks. Is it ok to sit in on a session and try to pick up songs you don't know?
And another thing, I was at a session the other day and a fella was there playing an acoustic bass guitar, first time I've ever seen that but it sounded great
# Posted on April 14th 2003 by jpg
Re: Starting a session
Sitting in on a session to pick up tunes? Yes, that's the traditional, and best, way of learning tunes for everyone, from beginners upwards. It's a sort of cerebral osmosis - sit and listen for long enough and it sinks in, rather like picking up a language in a country where you're the foreigner and nobody knows your language. Unfortunately, not everyone can get to sessions frequently enough (or sometimes even at all) and so they've got to rely on learning from tapes and cds, a bit more difficult - you can't ask a player afterwards how exactly did they play a particular bit of a tune. And then there's the printed music, the infamous "dots". There's no harm in learning from the dots (many players do it) but you've got to realize that the printed music is only a rough template; like a touring road map, it shows you the main directions to take but doesn't show you the really interesting stuff - the scenery, the hedgerows, the 16c cottages, which you can only see by actually doing the journey. At some stage, when you've learnt from the dots then you've got to play the tune with other people in a session before it makes real musical sense.
Trevor
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Starting a session
Thanks Trevor, Maybe just takes a wee bit of confidence to get in there and start playing. I was worried that some of the folks there mightn't want a beginner messing about.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by jpg
Re: Starting a session
I am still just a novice and newcomer to session playing, but I'm very sensitive and respectful to the etiquette. If you are learning tunes at a session, make sure you are doing it quietly so it doesn't ruin the music or annoy the folks who are playing the tune. I personally believe practice should be done at home, not in the session, especially if it's in a public place like bar.
However, every session and situtation is different. Just be considerate. You might want to ask first if you can record the session or certain tunes, and learn them at home. Then play them at the session when you know them well enough to contribute to the music. Trevor is right, if you listen enough at the session, the tunes will start to sink in, which will make learning them much easier.
Good luck
Joyce
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by JMH
Re: Starting a session
Glad you asked. It would be great if more people had your tact, jpg. I think there's a difference between picking up tunes by “cerebral osmosis” and "messing about." If you start into tunes that you don't know and the session isn't a slow, learner's session, then it's very likely that you may get the trophy for "Freak of the Week."
Your session might be totally fine with it, it may be a learner's session, but if it's a more advanced session then a large part of the enjoyment the others players get from the session comes from everyone who's playing knowing the tunes. If you start "messing about" it could make you unwelcome and that would seriously hinder your progression.
So, my suggestion is to ask the session leader or somebody who's playing most of the tunes what is appropriate. They'll appreciate that. If they say, "don't play it 'till you know it," you should ask if you can bring a tape recorder.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by jerball
Re: Starting a session
Thanks Folks, There are a few of us who have played in various types of bands growing up but we've always been interested in traditional music. Now that we've all moved back home to Portaferry we are looking to play a bit more. Occasionally, there is a proper session on in Strangford with some amazing musicians and to be honest I'd be a bit embarrassed trying to keep up with those folks but I'm dyin to learn.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by jpg
Re: Starting a session
Hi everyone
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by The Ryans
Re: Starting a session
Hi jpg,
I reckon going to a fast session is a great way to learn fast. Maybe go along, listen, and get friendly with one of the musicians. If you haven't got an instrument with you, you might find them a lot more inviting than if you have(!). If you then tell them that you play a bit of whatever it is you play, they'll probably say "bring it along next time." - Then you're 'In' without forcing yourself on the session - after all, you've been invited. Get the names of some of the tunes, and the keys they're played in, and if possible, get them to let you tape the session and maybe have a bash at starting learn a couple of tunes at home. That way you won't have them thinking you're doing the 'mindless noodling' thing that can be so irritating. But basically what I'm trying to say is that sitting in on fast sessions is a great way to learn fast, although it''s probably not the least stressfull way to learn.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
If you're a learner, sitting in on fast sessions is a great way to frustrate yourself, learn wrong versions of tunes cos you're trying to hear a billion notes a second and annoy the people that actually can play fast.
If you're sitting at a session noodling around for three hours and you never actually contribute anything to the session, don't play! I'd much rather see a tape recorder than a person who doesn't know the tunes....taking up space, while someone who DOES know the tunes is hanging around at the bar, waiting for a space to open up so he/she can jump in.
Go to level appropriate sessions. Music is like Japanese. If you were in college and you decided to take Japanese and you've never spoken a word of it in your life, you certainly wouldn't sign up for the advanced class or the school-sponsored unguided trip to Tokyo! You'd be totally lost and frustrated.
I've been playing the fiddle for sixteen years (I'm 23). I just started the accordion a few months ago. But, I wouldn't go dragging that thing to sessions until I can play up to speed. And I certainly wouldn't sit in at the Burren on Friday night with my accordion and try to noodle along!!
Cara
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by carafiddle
Re: Starting a session
I see - 'Music is like Japanese' - hence the term 'noodling'...
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
Sorry about that.
But on a more serious note, if you want to learn a language fast, immersing yourself in the language and the culture is the most efficient way to do it. My son is learning French at the moment, and the teacher just talks French to them, and the kids go and stay in France with French families. The standard way to teach English as a foreign language is to have classes where only English is spoken....
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
My daughter married a Belgian a year ago and now lives and works as a hospital nurse in Leuven, which is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium. Her Flemish is now fluent, as it has to be in a busy hospital environment, and she goes to evening classes in advanced Dutch studies at the University when her shift work permits. So total immersion really does work with languages, and it should do so equally well with music and other art forms. It is not unknown for Shakespeare enthusiasts who go to see the plays frequently to become as word-perfect as the actors. As a side comment there is, or used to be until fairly recently, a school in England where Latin is (was?) taught as a spoken language by total immersion during the lessons - after all, the Romans managed it quite successfully!
Trevor
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Starting a session
I hope I'm not sounding too hectoring, but I reckon slow sessions breed slow players. If you're playing with people who play slowly it's too easy to get comfortable with not stretching yourself, and you just stay at the same level. Then you get comfortable playing at that level, after all, it's just fun isn't it? Then a sort of inverse snobbery creeps in "Actually I think the tunes sound better played like this" - and before you know it you're stuck in the swamp of mediocrity.
God, that sounds so patronising and smug doesn't it - it's not that I think that I'm great, but I do try to improve. Of course what I've said is a massive over-generalisation, but I do know people who have literally played for decades without ever leaving that comfortable slow-session ghetto.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a song session
The question was "Is it ok to sit in a session and learn songs" - no mention of playing an instrument or learning tunes.
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by geoffwright
Re: Starting a session
You're quite right, but that inconvenient fact has been conveniently ignored from the very first reply onwards. Maybe it isn't the question that people wanted to answer - It's obviously all jpg's fault for asking the wrong question!
# Posted on April 15th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
I've been playing Irish flute for a little over 2 years and I'm 33. I think that playing with folks who are a step or few steps above your playing level is a great thing. They guys I play with down at our session play very well, they play up to speed and know tons of tunes. I've worked my ass off to play with these guys! I have been motivated & inspired to learn to play up to speed and learn tunes quickly. I'm at the point where I can make a contribution and sometimes I get a few compliments (not that I care about that). Sure, my flute playing has a long way to go and has room for much much improvement, but I don't think I would be where I am right now if I was sitting in some beginner slow session, playing the Merry Blacksmith every week. (I'm don't mean to bust on slow sessions or the Merry Blacksmith)
Joyce
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by JMH
Re: Starting a session
Gosh, I seem to agree with both camps here. I am so super sensitive to session etiquette, that I totally see Cara's point of view--get out of the way if you can't yet play (sorry to paraphrase you so poorly there, Cara)!
On the other hand, I see how one can easily stunt one's growth by sticking to the slow sessions level. Like you Joyce, I have forced myself up to fast session playing and really stretched my growth a lot, but it can be stressful, and sometimes, I suspect the fast players may also be "coming down" to my level a bit, and I don't want that to happen to much, because I don't want to spoil their fun.
And Joyce--you don't care about the compliments? Really? I know I do! A truly heartfelt and honest bit of praise from an accomplished player is something I cherish.
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Andee
Re: Starting a session
Andee I don't deserve compliments yet. When I do get them, I think people are just being nice and want to encourage me. But I have a long ways to go....but it is nice when someone you respect & admire notices how hard you are working : )
Joyce
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by JMH
Re: Starting a session
Ottery, when I read the initial question I understood "song" in its common modern meaning of "tune" as played by an instrument as well as its older meaning of a tune that is sung by the human voice, usually with words.
Trevor
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Starting a session
Yes I agree, I thought that was what was meant. I was just teasing Geoff.
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
JPG, in case you can't tell from previous posts, in Irish music a song is something you sing, and a tune is something you play.
At the risk of repeating stuff, try http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/learn.html#fly for some tips on learning tunes in a fast session.
I don't necessarily totally agree with you, ottery dear, at least from my own experience. Most slow, learning players I've ever known are most eager to get to faster playing! I spend what feels an inordinate amount of our time in our slow session trying to get new members to slow down so they can play good slow music rather than playing awful fast music.
And my own goal is to shift people out of our slow session into the fast ones. Let's face it, they're generally more fun, since most people find ripping through a set of tunes more fun than learning the tunes, especially when you're still learning to learn by ear. But I do have several players who have "graduated" out of the slow learning level but still come back to our session every now and again just to learn tunes and for the crack. (One of the things we try to teach is that sessions aren't just about tunes, and that enjoying the crack is one of the top important things about them.)
Zina
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Starting a session
Hi Zina, I'm only speaking of what I've seen, and that is that people who, as novices, come to 'fast' sessions (what one of my friends calls 'big-boys sessions') tend to be those who end up playing those type of sessions. Round here the slower sessions don't seem to be 'training grounds' for future players of the music, but places where people go and play the the same half dozen tunes for the rest of their lives(!) They also seem to be monthly, rather than weekly, which sort of encourages this, because if you play the same half dozen tunes every week, you soon get bored! And i don't think it's got anything to do with musical ability, some of these people are much more competent and less flaky musicians than me, they just don't seem to make any progress down this particular path. There are a couple of sessions like this that I get to pop into maybe a couple of times a year, and the same people will be playing Flowers of Edinburgh and Staten Island that were when I was last there, six months earlier.
Maybe the sessions you organise are different...?
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
What Ottery nonsense. Playing fast is not a measure of good musicianship!! The fact that you CAN play fast does not mean that you should.
You'd be welcome into our 'slow' session in Speedy Mullan's Downpatrick anytime.
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by breandan
Re: Starting a session
Breandan, I didn't say that it was necessarily good to play fast. At the best sessions that I go to the most experienced musicians are the ones who play at the steadier pace, but it depends what you mean by 'fast' and 'slow'. By 'fast session' I mean one where the music swings, I guess.... You know what I mean!
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
for me the best tempo for a reel is from 106 to 112 b.p.m., max 116.
# Posted on April 16th 2003 by gian marco
Re: Starting a session
It's too fast when you can't get the lilt or do the phrasing, and the ornaments disappear into a general mush.
Trevor
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Starting a session
Sorry - I should never have daid "I reckon going to a fast session is a great way to learn fast." I should have said "I reckon going to to BEST session you can get to is a great way to learn fast."
I didn't mean to introduce the old 'how fast is a bit of string' argument - I just tend to equate faster sessions with better sessions, which they tend to be in this neck of the woods.
But while we're on the subject - Gian, you're setting yourself a very restrictive range of parameters there!
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session!
LOL -- "how fast is a bit of string"?!? hehehe
Perhaps our slow session IS a bit different, which is why we call it a "tune learning session" instead of a "slow session", to be honest, or sometimes "a learner's session." It's a little odd running a session where the goal is to get players ready for "regular" sessions (I nearly said "normal", but find me a "normal" session...like finding a "normal" player) and constantly be encouraging them to move on to the "big boys' session" as Ottery puts it, but in Colorado most people have little to no idea of what a session is supposed to be like. Hopefully we help out a bit with that.
zls
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Starting a session
Zina, in Bristol (UK) we do something similar. It is a fortnightly session from 8-11.30 in the harbourside Nova Scotia pub. The session is run by Gill Newlyn, a master fiddler, who specifically sets the first hour aside for beginners and improvers. The tunes are played at a slowish to steady pace with emphasis on timing, intonation and dynamics. The beginners session frequently starts with a warm-up on slow scales and arpeggios. Words of wisdom regarding session etiquette are often handed down. More advanced fiddlers and mandolin players sometimes join in for the discipline of revisiting the old tunes at the slower speeds and maybe discovering new aspects to think about. From 9pm onwards the advanced players drift in and most of the beginners and improvers stay and listen.
Trevor
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Starting a session
Zina, the discussion seems to have gone full circle and now it's back to whether it's best to go to a 'learning session' or jump straight in to a full blown (hopefully not fly-blown) session. As I said before, the 'easier' sessions I've experienced around here are not really a learning environment for anything other than crawling through the 'Kesh Waltz' for eternity - something like one of Dante's circles of hell. Maybe if we had something like your sessions my view wouldn't be so jaundiced. I think the situation Trevor describes there is possibly the best compromise, and indeed there used to be an identical session in Oxford led by the fiddler Danny Lenahan on Sunday afternoons, where he would devote an hour of his time to effectively giving a lesson before the session officially started. This was a fantastic resource which sadly died soon after Danny did.
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by Ottery
Re: Starting a session
Hey JPG, not trying to lame as much I can, but aren't your questions a bit out of the topic "starting a session"?
# Posted on April 17th 2003 by tufbo
Re: Starting a session
Hi Folks, Sorry for the misleading title. The general idea was to ask the question "What is the best way to start a session?" in the first post but I forgot. Anyway, thanks for the tips. I've played in a few sessions around the place since the first post and hope to get over to Downpatrick for one of the sessions in Mullans Bar (Thanks breandan). I was a bit worried after reading some of the posts on session etiquette and the like but thankfully everyone in the places I've been has been brilliant and I've been made to feel very welcome.
# Posted on May 5th 2003 by jpg