The Session >> Discussions >> When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
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When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
When do people think it is not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or gooseberry thingy phone to send emails or be texting while at a session?
The only reason I can think of is to be giving directions to some one else who wants to join the session.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I have always seen a session as a group of likeminded people who come together to share a music they love.
If there was just myself and a couple of other people I suppose it could be disconcerting if one of those people spent half their time on the phone rather than playing, but if it's a decent sized group with plenty of tunes then it really isn't my concern how long anyone spends on the phone. Either way they are the ones missing out on contributing to the music. Having said that just 'cos they're texting doesn't mean they're not listening and enjoying the tunes. I suppose if it's a paid sessioneer or they're getting drinks free then not playing could be a problem.
Of course if you think people should just be sitting there paying complete attention to a "performance" I think you should be on stage and not in a session
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Let's not get on to the is it a performance or not thread again ,flossie life is far too short and it's boring.
To me you are part of the conversation , musical or verbal 100% or you are not. Multi tasking is doing two things at 25% leaving 50% waste
Are not people or the music worth the full 100%
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't like it. It's like having a conversation with yer pals and just drifting off mid-sentence and going awa ... ooh look! the cat wants to come in ...
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It is only music kids!
No laughing no smiling no bodhrans no this and no that.
You people who have been to the top of the mountain and returned with the hard and fast rules of the craft etched in stone should make a nice little pathway in the garden with these stones with the rules side down. Relax, make friends, have a good time, smile, laugh, forgive and forget.
your shout!
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't mind bodhrans in moderation ,love the sharing of jokes and find some sessions far too serious and earnest to enjoy . That's not what I am on about mcknowall
it's about respect
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It has occurred to me that if you were on call as a doctor, fireman or lifeboat crew it would be perfectly understandable.
Maybe it's because I cannot think of anything so important or urgent that I would wish to interupt a session after taking the trouble to get there.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
If the activity is not interrupting the music or the grand time of things for others then what's the issue? If someone is talking on their cell phone louder then the music whilst sitting in the mix then they should be told of their rude behavior and asked to move on. Texting, as I'm aware, is a silent activity. I don't understand how that can be disruptive, rude, or disrespectful.
I'm with McKnowall as far as the "rules" are concerned. Great analogy McKnowall. Common Sense, Common Courtesy, now these were rather, ummm how shall I say, common?, and there didn't seem to be a need for discussion about them.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
sometimes people are using their blueberries/gooseberries to make a note of tunes to learn and also recording tunes to learn by ear for next week's session...not texting or e-mailing...have you considered that?
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Three circumstances come to mind:
1.Calling one of the absent regular players at the hospital.
2.Calling the liquors distributor to tell them the taps have run out.
3.Calling the fire brigade to say the pub is afire.
There may be others, but those seem the most
likely choices to me just now.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
My fluter sends emails to himself and me with tune names. "Wow, what was that?" "The X in the Y" "Psst, dude, it was The X in the Y, copy me on that, OK?" Boom boom boom, he's done.
Someone gets a text message. They take out their thing, they respond, they put it away.
I have no beef with any of these. No big whoop. It's the 21st century.
I think what you mean, and what gets most people, is when someone sits there texting incessantly, over and over again.
That is the same as holding an entire phone conversation sitting in the circle. If you wanted to make a phone call, you'd get up and go scoot off somewhere. Same as an extended text conversation. Go scoot and yak. Off with ya.
But a quickie, a one off? Feh. Meh. It's the 21st century. There's only so much you can do. If some eejit wants to sit there typing "LOL" and "ROFL" and "ZOMG!!!1!11!" over and over again, well... [shrug]
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't have a problem with people texting at a session. It's a fairly unobstrusive activity, one I have certainly been guilty of. If I get a text mid-tune set I'm not going to stop playing and look at it, but when the set is finished I'll probably read it and respond if I feel like it. Or I'll respond when someone plays a set of tunes I don't know. I can listen to tunes and text at the same time. It's not like texting and driving, I swear.
How is that any worse than going out for a smoke or whatever? You can argue that it's more unsociable than smoking outside with your mates but if you don't smoke, then it seems pretty unsociable when all the smokers go outside every twenty minutes. So in effect we are arbitrarily saying "this behaviour is acceptable and this behaviour is not."
Talking on the phone is different. If the musician next to you is having a loud phone conversation and interfering with your ability to hear the tune the person across the table from you is starting, that is annoying.
It's not even worthwhile to create a list of acceptable reasons to text at a session. Why? If you see someone texting at a session, are you going to ask them why and if it's not for one the reasons you have decided upon, are you going to kick them out or tell them to put the phone away? Chances are their text isn't affected you at all anyway, so who cares.
Blaenclydach made a good point as well -- frequently when people are faffing around with a mobile phone they are making a note of the tunes that were just played.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
The majority of people that I session or socialise with are either professional types on call or construction workers figuring out where they're going to be working next week. Everyone's texting and calling from Ireland to the US to Oz. No problems whatsoever with that scenario. Work is work.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It all comes down to good manners. If you're a member of a group doing an activity you do not interrupt what's going on without good reason. It's got nothing to do with "performance" - whatever that is.
Punters aren't part of the session, by definition, so there's no problem if they're talking amongst themselves, as long as they're not doing something that disrupts the music, and then action may have to be taken.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Sorry Dave it wasn't my intention to bore you but that is my opinion and relevant to the question I think.
I don't have a problem with the odd text message here and there but if it's one person doing it all the time they sound very bored and I'm surprised they even bother to turn up,
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Oh and as for multi-tasking if they can text and play a decent tune at the same time good for them!! However I don't think that's what you actually meant. Is it? I think you meant that they should be paying complete attention to the tunes even when they are not playing them and that I don't agree with. We all need a break over the course of an evening. It is a social occasion remember and it's nice to have a chat now and again.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I dont think we are too far apart flossie I am all for the crack in a session .I just think these things get in the way .
Incidently am disapointed none on the sessioners caught the Sir Terry Pratchet influenced comment.
And yes I own an iPhone
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't like the phones ringing; I don't like people who shout
into their phones in the midst of another conversation by
people sitting on either side of them. Get up and step away
from the table for two minutes; put the phone on "silent". That's
not too much to ask.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
This was sent to me a couple of days ago by a very good whistle player. It seems timely to pass it on.
Bridal Shower
By George Bilgere
Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.
And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.
And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.
I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.
You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.
O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,
after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Critical discussions coming soon to the yellow board*:
1) Is it rude to cough once or twice during the session? Under what circumstances should it be allowed? What about chair scraping?
2) Should a smile be required for all participants?
3) Is it acceptable to resort to violence if there is a disagreement over how many parts a tune has, or the proper key? Should firearms be allowed to settle the issue?
4) Should sessioners always use the restrooms? What are those jars for?
5) Under what circumstances do we require basic civilized behaviour from session participants? Does this include banjo players, and do we take into account the phase of the moon?
(* unless there's actually something important to discuss...)
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I can't see it as being any different from texting whilst on any night out with mates.
If someone spends *all night* texting without a pressing reason such as a lost friend or family emergency then I think it displays a lack of social skills. That person would be much better off being out with other people who's company they would prefer to the the people they are actually with. But I wouldn't hold it against someone.
Most people I've seen in perpetual social text mode have been teenagers, and they might not always feel entirely at home in a session full of the more aged. They may need the ongoing texting to reassure themselves that they still have a cool life outside of the session
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
At the end of a workshop, the (guitarist) tutor and I were on stage about to perform a song we'd co-composed earlier in the day. I was shocked as he nonchalantly sat, phone to ear, while I waited to start. Then I realised he was reminding himself of our song melody he'd recorded on it...
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
You could acceptably be texting the guitar player down the other end of the table to tell them what key the tune is in.
Double benefit here. They instantly stop belting out the Bflat minor chord they've been stuck on in order to read the text, and then maybe they move on to something more appropriate.
When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
When do people think it is not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or gooseberry thingy phone to send emails or be texting while at a session?
The only reason I can think of is to be giving directions to some one else who wants to join the session.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I have always seen a session as a group of likeminded people who come together to share a music they love.
If there was just myself and a couple of other people I suppose it could be disconcerting if one of those people spent half their time on the phone rather than playing, but if it's a decent sized group with plenty of tunes then it really isn't my concern how long anyone spends on the phone. Either way they are the ones missing out on contributing to the music. Having said that just 'cos they're texting doesn't mean they're not listening and enjoying the tunes. I suppose if it's a paid sessioneer or they're getting drinks free then not playing could be a problem.
Of course if you think people should just be sitting there paying complete attention to a "performance" I think you should be on stage and not in a session
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by flossie
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It is as rude as sitting reading a book or listening to the radio.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by gam
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Let's not get on to the is it a performance or not thread again ,flossie life is far too short and it's boring.
To me you are part of the conversation , musical or verbal 100% or you are not. Multi tasking is doing two things at 25% leaving 50% waste
Are not people or the music worth the full 100%
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't like it. It's like having a conversation with yer pals and just drifting off mid-sentence and going awa ... ooh look! the cat wants to come in ...
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by ethical blend
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It is only music kids!
No laughing no smiling no bodhrans no this and no that.
You people who have been to the top of the mountain and returned with the hard and fast rules of the craft etched in stone should make a nice little pathway in the garden with these stones with the rules side down. Relax, make friends, have a good time, smile, laugh, forgive and forget.
your shout!
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't mind bodhrans in moderation ,love the sharing of jokes and find some sessions far too serious and earnest to enjoy . That's not what I am on about mcknowall
it's about respect
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It has occurred to me that if you were on call as a doctor, fireman or lifeboat crew it would be perfectly understandable.
Maybe it's because I cannot think of anything so important or urgent that I would wish to interupt a session after taking the trouble to get there.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
You are just getting out of shouting, seen it a thousand times before.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Sorry don't understand that one mcknowall
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
If the activity is not interrupting the music or the grand time of things for others then what's the issue? If someone is talking on their cell phone louder then the music whilst sitting in the mix then they should be told of their rude behavior and asked to move on. Texting, as I'm aware, is a silent activity. I don't understand how that can be disruptive, rude, or disrespectful.
I'm with McKnowall as far as the "rules" are concerned. Great analogy McKnowall. Common Sense, Common Courtesy, now these were rather, ummm how shall I say, common?, and there didn't seem to be a need for discussion about them.
All the best!
Peace,
Ed
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by ejsant
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
sometimes people are using their blueberries/gooseberries to make a note of tunes to learn and also recording tunes to learn by ear for next week's session...not texting or e-mailing...have you considered that?
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by blaenclydach
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Three circumstances come to mind:
1.Calling one of the absent regular players at the hospital.
2.Calling the liquors distributor to tell them the taps have run out.
3.Calling the fire brigade to say the pub is afire.
There may be others, but those seem the most
likely choices to me just now.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Piece
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
My fluter sends emails to himself and me with tune names. "Wow, what was that?" "The X in the Y" "Psst, dude, it was The X in the Y, copy me on that, OK?" Boom boom boom, he's done.
Someone gets a text message. They take out their thing, they respond, they put it away.
I have no beef with any of these. No big whoop. It's the 21st century.
I think what you mean, and what gets most people, is when someone sits there texting incessantly, over and over again.
That is the same as holding an entire phone conversation sitting in the circle. If you wanted to make a phone call, you'd get up and go scoot off somewhere. Same as an extended text conversation. Go scoot and yak. Off with ya.
But a quickie, a one off? Feh. Meh. It's the 21st century. There's only so much you can do. If some eejit wants to sit there typing "LOL" and "ROFL" and "ZOMG!!!1!11!" over and over again, well... [shrug]
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't have a problem with people texting at a session. It's a fairly unobstrusive activity, one I have certainly been guilty of. If I get a text mid-tune set I'm not going to stop playing and look at it, but when the set is finished I'll probably read it and respond if I feel like it. Or I'll respond when someone plays a set of tunes I don't know. I can listen to tunes and text at the same time. It's not like texting and driving, I swear.
How is that any worse than going out for a smoke or whatever? You can argue that it's more unsociable than smoking outside with your mates but if you don't smoke, then it seems pretty unsociable when all the smokers go outside every twenty minutes. So in effect we are arbitrarily saying "this behaviour is acceptable and this behaviour is not."
Talking on the phone is different. If the musician next to you is having a loud phone conversation and interfering with your ability to hear the tune the person across the table from you is starting, that is annoying.
It's not even worthwhile to create a list of acceptable reasons to text at a session. Why? If you see someone texting at a session, are you going to ask them why and if it's not for one the reasons you have decided upon, are you going to kick them out or tell them to put the phone away? Chances are their text isn't affected you at all anyway, so who cares.
Blaenclydach made a good point as well -- frequently when people are faffing around with a mobile phone they are making a note of the tunes that were just played.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by DrSilverSpear
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
The majority of people that I session or socialise with are either professional types on call or construction workers figuring out where they're going to be working next week. Everyone's texting and calling from Ireland to the US to Oz. No problems whatsoever with that scenario. Work is work.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Patkiwi
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Geez - what is this, church? As long as you are not disrupting somebody else's playing - or the listening enjoyment of others - who cares?
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It all comes down to good manners. If you're a member of a group doing an activity you do not interrupt what's going on without good reason. It's got nothing to do with "performance" - whatever that is.
Punters aren't part of the session, by definition, so there's no problem if they're talking amongst themselves, as long as they're not doing something that disrupts the music, and then action may have to be taken.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Sorry Dave it wasn't my intention to bore you but that is my opinion and relevant to the question I think.
I don't have a problem with the odd text message here and there but if it's one person doing it all the time they sound very bored and I'm surprised they even bother to turn up,
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by flossie
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Oh and as for multi-tasking if they can text and play a decent tune at the same time good for them!! However I don't think that's what you actually meant. Is it? I think you meant that they should be paying complete attention to the tunes even when they are not playing them and that I don't agree with. We all need a break over the course of an evening. It is a social occasion remember and it's nice to have a chat now and again.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by flossie
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
It's also a good way of getting a drink added to the order when someone's gone to the bar in a crowded place
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Bren
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I dont think we are too far apart flossie I am all for the crack in a session .I just think these things get in the way .
Incidently am disapointed none on the sessioners caught the Sir Terry Pratchet influenced comment.
And yes I own an iPhone
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by bazouki dave
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I don't like the phones ringing; I don't like people who shout
into their phones in the midst of another conversation by
people sitting on either side of them. Get up and step away
from the table for two minutes; put the phone on "silent". That's
not too much to ask.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Hup
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Of course if it's an **iPhone** (TM) - that's different. The whole
idea of having the thing is to show others that you have it.
# Posted on November 8th 2009 by Hup
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
bazouki dave....."shouting" is going to the bar for drinks in Australia.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
What's mine you say?, I'll have a schooner of new thanks.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by mcknowall
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
This was sent to me a couple of days ago by a very good whistle player. It seems timely to pass it on.
Bridal Shower
By George Bilgere
Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.
And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.
And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.
I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.
You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.
O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,
after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by oldstrings
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Critical discussions coming soon to the yellow board*:
1) Is it rude to cough once or twice during the session? Under what circumstances should it be allowed? What about chair scraping?
2) Should a smile be required for all participants?
3) Is it acceptable to resort to violence if there is a disagreement over how many parts a tune has, or the proper key? Should firearms be allowed to settle the issue?
4) Should sessioners always use the restrooms? What are those jars for?
5) Under what circumstances do we require basic civilized behaviour from session participants? Does this include banjo players, and do we take into account the phase of the moon?
(* unless there's actually something important to discuss...)
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by ayedbl
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Maybe it should be called the Nanny Board.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by Phantom Button
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I was too busy playing my instrument while driving to the session. I'll text when I want too, just to make good use of time.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by Lint - upon - Tweed
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
I can't see it as being any different from texting whilst on any night out with mates.
If someone spends *all night* texting without a pressing reason such as a lost friend or family emergency then I think it displays a lack of social skills. That person would be much better off being out with other people who's company they would prefer to the the people they are actually with. But I wouldn't hold it against someone.
Most people I've seen in perpetual social text mode have been teenagers, and they might not always feel entirely at home in a session full of the more aged. They may need the ongoing texting to reassure themselves that they still have a cool life outside of the session
- chris
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
At the end of a workshop, the (guitarist) tutor and I were on stage about to perform a song we'd co-composed earlier in the day. I was shocked as he nonchalantly sat, phone to ear, while I waited to start. Then I realised he was reminding himself of our song melody he'd recorded on it...
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by suesinger
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
You could acceptably be texting the guitar player down the other end of the table to tell them what key the tune is in.
Double benefit here. They instantly stop belting out the Bflat minor chord they've been stuck on in order to read the text, and then maybe they move on to something more appropriate.
# Posted on November 9th 2009 by grego
Re: When is it not rude or disrespectful to use your iPhone or be texting in a session?
Not a performance. Texting isn't a problem.
# Posted on November 10th 2009 by reenactor