Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Hi!
I have an idea that I keep trying to ignore (in the spirit of preserving my little spare time), but it keeps coming back to haunt me. I am imagining an open sharing session where proficient Irish fiddlers in Seattle could come together and share tunes.
My vision for it is that each participant brings a tune to share in a setting where there could be effective tape recording (like someone's living room or meeting room, not a pub) along with a wee bit of phrase-by-phrase call and response learning. The "sharer" could bring notation if available or not. Hopefully most of the others would not already know the tune, though they should be suitable for sessions. We would all take away a fair amount of new tunes to learn at our own pace for a month.
The following month we would start out by playing through each of the new tunes for fun. Then each would again bring a new tune to share and begin building more rep for the following month.
I have plenty of notation and recordings to continue learning from, but I think that the group interaction would be fun, as well as more satisfying than trying to get this out of regular sessions. Has anyone tried this way of building rep before? Anything like it? How did it go?
If you are in Seattle, does this sound like fun to you? Interested?
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Chris, that's sort of how we work our local slow session here in Helena, MT. We don't limit it to just one instrument, and in fact some of us switch between different instruments during the slow session. Last week, we revisited several previous tunes (The Snowy Path, Terry Teehan's reel, and Siobhan Ni Dhuibir), and worked up Whelan's Fancy, requested by one of our whistle players.
I think our slow session works for several reasons. First off, we tend to do tunes that show up in our regular weekly session. So people can count on playing the tunes and knowing other people will join in. We also make sure everyone is comfortable with the tempo, which means that we will play one phrase at a time, and at a crawl, for as long as need be, but we'll also speed things up a bit so people can hear what it's supposed to sound like, and the quick studies can get a feel for the tune. This works in part because there are a few core players who can pick up a tune by ear in 4 or 5 run throughs, or right away off the dots.
It also helps that the slow session is just once a month. This gives everyone time to woodshed on the tunes. During the winter, we might move to every three weeks or every other week if there's interest.
Finally, we keep it fun. There's always beverages, sometimes food, a friendly, low-key atmosphere, and no one-upmanship. I tend to lead the slow session, but anyone who has a tune to teach is welcome to. I often set my fiddle aside and use flute or whistle, both of which I'm still a beginner on. It helps other beginners relax when they see a more experienced player squawking and dropping notes and laughing at himself.
It's different from a regular session, and I enjoy doing this for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is getting to play tunes and learn new ones. The craic and social aspects are often even better than a pub session, because we have more time to talk, and we're usually in someone's livingroom rather than a noisy bar.
You could set up your tune learning circle either for all abilities, or just more experienced players. Or perhaps alternate and see who shows up at both. I say go for it, and good luck!
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Here in San Diego, we've had several attempts to start a tune exchange (as we call it). I don't quite remember what happened to the first one; it's a while ago and I was just starting out. The second attempt has just gone into hibernation to be re-awakened again in the new year.
We met weekly at one of the musicians' house. Due to the somewhat remote location of two of the three houses we met, the group of people was rather small, 5 people only. And since we met during the week, there might have been other musicians who just couldn't stay out that late (until 10, plus 30-45 minutes drive or more). And due to traffic, we couldn't meet before 7. For me personally, I found it sometimes rather difficult after a long day to drive 30 miles and then try and concentrate for two or three more hours.
And maybe we made the mistake of introducing too many tunes and not repeating tunes from previous learning sessions enough. Every night we did probably 4 or 5 new tunes. Since I am rather active learning new tunes on my own, there's a lot of competition for the few available memory slots in my brain! And for me personally, I must say that I'm more motivated to practice and learn tunes that I "discover" on my own. I'm sure you all know the feeling when you hear a specific set on a CD and it's the greatest thing you've ever heard and you just have to learn to play that set. It's probably rather difficult to create that kind of enthusiasm and motivation in a group (unless you have some really inspiring musicians there).
However, I think generally everyone in the group likes it and has fun. Next year, the plan is to meet bi-weekly or once a month to allow some more time to learn the tunes. (We actually have the luxury that one of us records the tunes and puts them out on the web as mp3.) The meetings will probably be in different locations, in the East county and in the North county, so that people from both ends of the county can participate. And I think what might be also good is instead of spending all three hours on learning new tunes, to take the final hour for a little session with tunes everybody knows.
And although I have already forgotten the majority of the tunes we did, there are a couple great tunes that I have introduced into my session repertoire and into my sessions (not all of the tune exchange musicians play in the same sessions). Plus I have some other great tunes added to my to-do list (well, together with tunes that have been there for quite some time, so I'm not sure about their success rate). As for building a rep, for me personally, it's not the greatest way. I definitely learn faster and more tunes on my own (the obvious disadvantage there is that I then have to convince others to learn the same tunes). To build a common group repertoire, it can probably be very effective. Furthermore, it's a good excercise for learning by ear (no sheet music at our meetings). And it's an opportunity to hang out with other musicians, particularly those I don't meet that often.
You might want to have a little poll in advance to find out
- how many people would be interested in general
- how many people would be interested in learning by ear only vs. how many people would prefer sheet music as support
- how many people of those interested are advanced and beginners.
Our group consists of fairly advanced musicians/by-ear-learners, and I can see that other musicians with different approaches/levels might get easily frustrated. Similarly, somebody who picks up new tunes quickly (either by ear or from notation) will probably get frustrated at too slow a speed and too many repetitions. It's probably a good idea to keep the group somewhat homogenous.
But I would definitely give it a shot. It can be a lot of fun! I would be interested to hear what your experience will be. Maybe we can learn something to make our attemps more successful. Keep us posted!
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Our Slow Session is held once a week and sets out to achieve the same objective of musicians building up a repertoire. It's not as structured as Will's and just involves playing the tunes slower than normal. However, the same 40 or so tunes are played in sets (taken from the Foinn Seisiun books) each week and as these sets are often played at sessions on other nights in Monkstown, musicians get a chance to consolidate what they've learnt. The session started over a year ago and most musicians know the first 40 tunes quite well so that this year we've inserted another 20 into the programme.
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
We have a learning (not slow exactly) session. It's called the Next Generation session (here come the Start Trek jokes!), because it's really mostly for the kids, but there is room for a limited number of adults. There were only 2 adults including me when I went for the first time last month. I can't wait to do it again! It's the first Sunday of every month, we bring snacks and drinks, and for the first hour we learn a tune (it seems to be broken down into a few groups, by learning ability and/or instrument. It was hard to tell since most of the kids were fiddlers or flute players. Then for the second hour we have a session based around tunes the kids have been learning all along. They are all common session tunes from what I could tell. It's a lot of fun, and now that I am trying not to learn so many tunes and just work on what I've got and get it really good, one tune a month is plenty for me!
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
It's interesting how these kind of sessions start, grow and evolve, in particular if they are organized with a certain intent and purpose in mind -- e.g., to build a repertoire, as in Bannerman's group.
Several years back, a few people in my neck of the woods started meeting regularly, perhaps once a month or thereabouts, over a period of several months. There weren't a lot of us, the numbers weren't very consistent, and the skill level and experience varied considerably, but we thought it'd be fun to just get together as often as we could and see what happened.
One advanced-beginner participant, however, seemed determined to turn the session into a kind of repertoire-building exercise. If someone played a tune or did a song, he would ask the player if he/she had any sheet music for it, or what collection it might be found in, or if there were any recorded versions of it, and he would scribble whatever details provided in a notebook. He would frequently promise to photo-copy his notes and share them with other participants (never did, as it turned out) so we could "work" on the tunes/songs for next time.
I have to admit, I felt a bit ambivalent, maybe even slightly annoyed at this. On the one hand, you could applaud and appreciate his zeal, his desire to improve, etc.
But on the other hand, well, it's not like we had a lot of time for these sessions, and here we were spending several minutes at a blow trying to remember the source of the tune/song we'd just done and where one might find sheet music for it, and then watch him scribble down the info.
Perhaps most of all, I wasn't sure I wanted to be given "homework" (i.e., the notes he promised to share) for the next session. My motivation was simply to come play tunes and/or sing, and if I heard something I wanted to learn, I'd follow up on my own.
Anyway, for various reasons, the sessions petered out -- and, as I said, I never did get any notes.
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
I live in Redmond and would be interested. I regularly attend the Celtic Bayou session, and it's hard to learn new tunes there. I've heard about the Fado session, but it's not easy for me to leave the eastside.
Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Hi!
I have an idea that I keep trying to ignore (in the spirit of preserving my little spare time), but it keeps coming back to haunt me. I am imagining an open sharing session where proficient Irish fiddlers in Seattle could come together and share tunes.
My vision for it is that each participant brings a tune to share in a setting where there could be effective tape recording (like someone's living room or meeting room, not a pub) along with a wee bit of phrase-by-phrase call and response learning. The "sharer" could bring notation if available or not. Hopefully most of the others would not already know the tune, though they should be suitable for sessions. We would all take away a fair amount of new tunes to learn at our own pace for a month.
The following month we would start out by playing through each of the new tunes for fun. Then each would again bring a new tune to share and begin building more rep for the following month.
I have plenty of notation and recordings to continue learning from, but I think that the group interaction would be fun, as well as more satisfying than trying to get this out of regular sessions. Has anyone tried this way of building rep before? Anything like it? How did it go?
If you are in Seattle, does this sound like fun to you? Interested?
(Also posted this at Fiddle-L.)
Chris M. (Seattle-Fiddler)
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by SeattleFiddler
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Chris, that's sort of how we work our local slow session here in Helena, MT. We don't limit it to just one instrument, and in fact some of us switch between different instruments during the slow session. Last week, we revisited several previous tunes (The Snowy Path, Terry Teehan's reel, and Siobhan Ni Dhuibir), and worked up Whelan's Fancy, requested by one of our whistle players.
I think our slow session works for several reasons. First off, we tend to do tunes that show up in our regular weekly session. So people can count on playing the tunes and knowing other people will join in. We also make sure everyone is comfortable with the tempo, which means that we will play one phrase at a time, and at a crawl, for as long as need be, but we'll also speed things up a bit so people can hear what it's supposed to sound like, and the quick studies can get a feel for the tune. This works in part because there are a few core players who can pick up a tune by ear in 4 or 5 run throughs, or right away off the dots.
It also helps that the slow session is just once a month. This gives everyone time to woodshed on the tunes. During the winter, we might move to every three weeks or every other week if there's interest.
Finally, we keep it fun. There's always beverages, sometimes food, a friendly, low-key atmosphere, and no one-upmanship. I tend to lead the slow session, but anyone who has a tune to teach is welcome to. I often set my fiddle aside and use flute or whistle, both of which I'm still a beginner on. It helps other beginners relax when they see a more experienced player squawking and dropping notes and laughing at himself.
It's different from a regular session, and I enjoy doing this for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is getting to play tunes and learn new ones. The craic and social aspects are often even better than a pub session, because we have more time to talk, and we're usually in someone's livingroom rather than a noisy bar.
You could set up your tune learning circle either for all abilities, or just more experienced players. Or perhaps alternate and see who shows up at both. I say go for it, and good luck!
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Here in San Diego, we've had several attempts to start a tune exchange (as we call it). I don't quite remember what happened to the first one; it's a while ago and I was just starting out. The second attempt has just gone into hibernation to be re-awakened again in the new year.
We met weekly at one of the musicians' house. Due to the somewhat remote location of two of the three houses we met, the group of people was rather small, 5 people only. And since we met during the week, there might have been other musicians who just couldn't stay out that late (until 10, plus 30-45 minutes drive or more). And due to traffic, we couldn't meet before 7. For me personally, I found it sometimes rather difficult after a long day to drive 30 miles and then try and concentrate for two or three more hours.
And maybe we made the mistake of introducing too many tunes and not repeating tunes from previous learning sessions enough. Every night we did probably 4 or 5 new tunes. Since I am rather active learning new tunes on my own, there's a lot of competition for the few available memory slots in my brain! And for me personally, I must say that I'm more motivated to practice and learn tunes that I "discover" on my own. I'm sure you all know the feeling when you hear a specific set on a CD and it's the greatest thing you've ever heard and you just have to learn to play that set. It's probably rather difficult to create that kind of enthusiasm and motivation in a group (unless you have some really inspiring musicians there).
However, I think generally everyone in the group likes it and has fun. Next year, the plan is to meet bi-weekly or once a month to allow some more time to learn the tunes. (We actually have the luxury that one of us records the tunes and puts them out on the web as mp3.) The meetings will probably be in different locations, in the East county and in the North county, so that people from both ends of the county can participate. And I think what might be also good is instead of spending all three hours on learning new tunes, to take the final hour for a little session with tunes everybody knows.
And although I have already forgotten the majority of the tunes we did, there are a couple great tunes that I have introduced into my session repertoire and into my sessions (not all of the tune exchange musicians play in the same sessions). Plus I have some other great tunes added to my to-do list (well, together with tunes that have been there for quite some time, so I'm not sure about their success rate). As for building a rep, for me personally, it's not the greatest way. I definitely learn faster and more tunes on my own (the obvious disadvantage there is that I then have to convince others to learn the same tunes). To build a common group repertoire, it can probably be very effective. Furthermore, it's a good excercise for learning by ear (no sheet music at our meetings). And it's an opportunity to hang out with other musicians, particularly those I don't meet that often.
You might want to have a little poll in advance to find out
- how many people would be interested in general
- how many people would be interested in learning by ear only vs. how many people would prefer sheet music as support
- how many people of those interested are advanced and beginners.
Our group consists of fairly advanced musicians/by-ear-learners, and I can see that other musicians with different approaches/levels might get easily frustrated. Similarly, somebody who picks up new tunes quickly (either by ear or from notation) will probably get frustrated at too slow a speed and too many repetitions. It's probably a good idea to keep the group somewhat homogenous.
But I would definitely give it a shot. It can be a lot of fun! I would be interested to hear what your experience will be. Maybe we can learn something to make our attemps more successful. Keep us posted!
Good luck!
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by heike
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Our Slow Session is held once a week and sets out to achieve the same objective of musicians building up a repertoire. It's not as structured as Will's and just involves playing the tunes slower than normal. However, the same 40 or so tunes are played in sets (taken from the Foinn Seisiun books) each week and as these sets are often played at sessions on other nights in Monkstown, musicians get a chance to consolidate what they've learnt. The session started over a year ago and most musicians know the first 40 tunes quite well so that this year we've inserted another 20 into the programme.
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Bannerman
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
We have a learning (not slow exactly) session. It's called the Next Generation session (here come the Start Trek jokes!), because it's really mostly for the kids, but there is room for a limited number of adults. There were only 2 adults including me when I went for the first time last month. I can't wait to do it again! It's the first Sunday of every month, we bring snacks and drinks, and for the first hour we learn a tune (it seems to be broken down into a few groups, by learning ability and/or instrument. It was hard to tell since most of the kids were fiddlers or flute players. Then for the second hour we have a session based around tunes the kids have been learning all along. They are all common session tunes from what I could tell. It's a lot of fun, and now that I am trying not to learn so many tunes and just work on what I've got and get it really good, one tune a month is plenty for me!
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by Andee
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
Sorry, I seem to be in the wrong room.
I though it said "Idea for settee - Irish re-upholstery group"
I'll get my coat.
Dave
# Posted on November 17th 2003 by showaddydadito
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
It's interesting how these kind of sessions start, grow and evolve, in particular if they are organized with a certain intent and purpose in mind -- e.g., to build a repertoire, as in Bannerman's group.
Several years back, a few people in my neck of the woods started meeting regularly, perhaps once a month or thereabouts, over a period of several months. There weren't a lot of us, the numbers weren't very consistent, and the skill level and experience varied considerably, but we thought it'd be fun to just get together as often as we could and see what happened.
One advanced-beginner participant, however, seemed determined to turn the session into a kind of repertoire-building exercise. If someone played a tune or did a song, he would ask the player if he/she had any sheet music for it, or what collection it might be found in, or if there were any recorded versions of it, and he would scribble whatever details provided in a notebook. He would frequently promise to photo-copy his notes and share them with other participants (never did, as it turned out) so we could "work" on the tunes/songs for next time.
I have to admit, I felt a bit ambivalent, maybe even slightly annoyed at this. On the one hand, you could applaud and appreciate his zeal, his desire to improve, etc.
But on the other hand, well, it's not like we had a lot of time for these sessions, and here we were spending several minutes at a blow trying to remember the source of the tune/song we'd just done and where one might find sheet music for it, and then watch him scribble down the info.
Perhaps most of all, I wasn't sure I wanted to be given "homework" (i.e., the notes he promised to share) for the next session. My motivation was simply to come play tunes and/or sing, and if I heard something I wanted to learn, I'd follow up on my own.
Anyway, for various reasons, the sessions petered out -- and, as I said, I never did get any notes.
# Posted on November 18th 2003 by sts
Re: Idea for Seattle - Irish repertoire building group
I live in Redmond and would be interested. I regularly attend the Celtic Bayou session, and it's hard to learn new tunes there. I've heard about the Fado session, but it's not easy for me to leave the eastside.
# Posted on November 18th 2003 by vulcan666