Anybody remember their first session?
I can - unfortunately! - I was not properly prepared, but I felt, rightly or wrongly at the time, that it was a crunch time, that if I did not go, I never would...anyway, I went, to a local session here in Limerick, with my banjo....asked if I could join in, and they were all very nice. They asked me to play a tune...and I said ....."no thanks"...aaagh the embaressment of it all now comes back to me...they asked me a few times but the hole I had dug for myself was getting deeper by the minute...my big red face....a woman in the bar said "honey, you dont look like you have too good a time there".... anyway I eventually played a tune - think it was the Kesh jig. But only 1 tune not a set...and it went OK.....
anyway I left the session determined to learn more tunes and to be able to take part properly.
I suppose everybody has to start somewhere, I probably started before I was ready but Im still playing and still going to sessions and still loving it...
anybody else remember their first session, and was it a good or a not-so-good experience?!
oh - sorry - by the way, this was about 6 yrs ago, I do know quite a few more tunes by now than just the Kesh jig! - I practise pretty much every day for about 20- 30 minutes....
i totally feel for you man, i started off my musical career playing a pizza box, iv'e always found that Domino's box's provide the most range of sounds avoid Apache pizza at all cost they are awful.here is my link, i know i sound like a horse shoe along a street but with hope and the blessings of god, i will make it someday, god bless you all, keep the bodhran/pizza playing spirit in your heart always,
regards,
Hiller C hoffman
My first session was frankly appalling. I started when I was ten, and I had opposition right from the outset from my own treasonous fiddle, which, I am certain, accepted a good few pieces of silver to lose all tension in the A string halfway through my scratchy, barely audible butchery of the Swallowtail Jig.
And yet, for some reason, I went back the next time, and did a bit better. I mean, it was still a while before I would take the Chair of Destiny at the front of the room (I played from the back most of the time, at the most inconvenient place for people to crane their necks and spot me), but everything generally went uphill from there.
Not that it could really go downhill, you understand.
I remember the first time i played at a session .It was at last years willy clancy week in miltown Malbay in a pub they call the blondes .I had just gone to listion to music and after a few pints i asked one of the banjo players if i could have a look at his banjo .It was not in my arms ten seconds when a young lady who was playing the fiddle said go on give us a tune .Red faced i played the two tunes i new best . I was only playing a few seconds and the rest of the session joined in .My god what a feeling and the wife got a picture of me playing Des
I played Star of the County Down on a whistle in a folk club in 1992 and managed to screw it up big-time. I have to clench my buttocks at the very thought of that night . Thanks for the opportunity for this catharsis.
It was a festival session. I was agonisingly nervous. I started a tune and someone behind me leapt in loud, fast . . . and in a different key. Took me years to try again.
My first session was at a musician's meeting in Hamm, Germany. I guess it was in 2005. I had a feadog tourist whistle with me, and I knew the Kesh Jig and Maids of Mt. Kisco at that time. There where three or four sessions going parallel. I played the Kesh at one of them and the Maids at another one. It was great. I spent the rest of the four days mostly listening, asking for tunes to learn and hints, but had a great time anyway. This meeting was my starting point and I never looked back to the pseudo-medieval music I played before. I visit as many sessions as I can these days (one today, one on saturday and two on sunday for example ), but that first one still has something magical about it...
My first session was last Fall, and it was terrifying. I only knew about ten tunes, and couldn't do any ornamentation at all, except for a few trebles in a waltz. I am still befuddled by how everyone else managed to play along, even when they didn't know the tune. Te other fiddler ended up playing each tune perfectly by the third repeat, and I was still trying to figure out what type of tune it was!
A dreadful rendition of the song "Go, Move Shift" in a pub in Ripponden, West Yorkshire back in the early nineties....so nervous my voice sounded like.....s.....te!! Afterwards somebody said "there now, that wasnt so bad, was it?"....no, it was worse...
I try not to think about my first session too much, just too painful/embarrassing. I knew a few (literally, like 5 or 6) tunes, and had been doing jazz-rock improvising for years, but was not at all well prepared for an Irish session, and painfully unaware of the fact. So, my attitude basically sucked.
But I really liked the tunes, so I ate a lot of crow, and stuck with it. And the people I had offended forgave me, and helped me learn.
Fast-forward to last night: I led a session--ta da!--and happily played Drowsy Maggie and The Red-Haired Boy and Si Bheag Si Mhor--and yes, The Irish Washerwoman--with newbies whose attitudes did not suck. So I had it easier than those session leaders who had to deal with me, years ago. Not that I deserve it, just lucky I guess.
Yeah, I'm another with an embarrassing first session.
I only knew a few tunes, which wasnt really a problem, the problem was that nobody told me that you cant play as well in public as you can at home alone.
I thought I could do Harvest home no bother..... feck sake, i made a woefull show of myself.
Then I proceeded to get rediculously drunk and actually fell asleep while singing a song..... oh god!! its all coming back to me now....
This thread is a catch 22. On the one hand as a beginner, its great to know that I'm not alone if I crash and burn. On the other hand, now i'm dreading just how bad that crash and burn will be.
I went to my first session for a year and a half before I actually started playing. I had just bought my Martin M36, and I brought it to the session to show a friend who knew a lot about guitars. The fiddler who lead the session stopped it part way through the night, said, "Ted, I know you know the next set we are doing, get out your guitar, sit down and play."
That was December, 2006. I've been sitting down ever since, learning more tunes and starting some tunes with the melody line with my 12-string. I play 5 or 6 sessions a week now. I love this music, it's in my DNA
It's very intimadating to join a session, especially when you are new to the music. For the most part, all the musicians I have met have been very helpful. There were a few, on no not another guitar attitudes, but, if you are serious about learning the tunes, and not just banging away on your guitar, people will be very helpful.
Funny, I guess I don't really have a strong, definable "first session memory." I think it's because my initial opportunities for jamming occurred in the context of house parties, music camps and festivals -- and I reckon it didn't dawn on me that these might be considered sessions, per se. It was just me getting together with friends or acquaintances (or friendly strangers), and music happened to be part of the equation.
Also, can't help but think that the era and setting had something to do with it, too: This would've been the mid to late 1970s, in upstate NY, and I suspect that for most of us this session business was all relatively new. The people I tended to play with were mainly in their 20s and perhaps 30s, and there simply wasn't as much of a "session consciousness" as is the case now -- not that there was total anarchy, but I don't remember there being a lot of discussion about rules of conduct either.
I do remember a late-70s festival in Buffalo, me sitting alone plunking what (very) few tunes I knew then on my mandolin, when I heard a Fermanagh accented voice ask, "D'ye fancy playin' a tchune?" -- and looked up to see Cathal McConnell smiling at me. I could hardly refuse, of course, and I was trying to bring myself to tell him that I was a novice at this, when fortunately a friend of mine happened by and joined us, thereby deflecting attention from me. One or two other people stopped as well, and I have to say I felt rather relieved.
My first session - I went down Larnes main st, to hear
these guy who played Dubliners songs ,, in the town hall bar.
They took out fiddles and a banjo and guitar,, But played a
set of reels first to warm up- As soon as I heard that Sound I
was Hooked,First I started runing around with them , then
Fleadhs ,, And the rest is history,,
jim,,,,
It wasn't my first, but it was one of the best and it's the one that has me always coming back. I had just come back to Boston after a long exile in Chicago. I'd been playing for about a year and came along to the monday night session at the Green Briar with a friend who was quite the regular and dragged me up to the inner circle with her.
I averaged about 1 tune per hour that I was able to play along with but something about the atmosphere made me feel incredible and when we hit a tune I knew it felt like the fiddle was playing itself and that I was just along for the ride. Blissful.
Actually, now that I think about it, that was in fact the first session that I played at. Prior to that I'd only punted.
sts....I can relate to that. 2 nights ago our regular sessioneers had a go with Cathal. The man is amazing. I thought I would be too intimidated to play but he puts everyone at ease. What a nice and genuine person he is. The week before we were able to play with some of Roger Drawdy and the Firestarters as well as with some of Jack Hardys band. Again everyone was at ease form the start. Its no wonder I'm enjoying myself playing this music. I've never felt ill at ease in any session. Maybe I'm too stupid to realize it. Nah..I'm just lucky to have met a nice bunch of people.
When I went to my first session I didn't have an instrument yet. I was still waiting for the flute maker to make it. It took me a lot of courage anyway to introduce myself and ask if it would be ok to join the group when my flute came.
They guy I spoke with was a little leary but he was friendly. He asked me some questions about my musical history. I gave him honest answers. He said it would be ok if I joined and just sat in the circle holding my flute if I wanted to. So that's what I did.
Every week I would try to find out names of tunes and then go home and try to learn them and then at the following session make a poor attempt to play with everyone.
One day, after having been coming for a few months, they had a slow moment and turned to me to ask me what tunes I know. That's when I had that scary moment of playing a tune and messing it up and generally exposing my utter incompetence. But they were welcoming anyway.
Many sessioners really do want to pass on the tunes and grow the members. I'm glad they welcomed me. I'm still terrible but I'm getting better and people are nice enough to notice.
Sessions were just starting up in Washington, D.C. I had been playing several instruments and writing some songs prior, but had only become aware of Irish trad music a year or so before the sessions started up -- through a guy I had become entangled with.
I didn't know A THING about session etiquette, nor even that there was such a thing. I had been messing around on my friend's mandolin, picking out my first few tunes. And there I go to this very small session, just getting started up in 'our city' and I start madly flailing away at the few tunes I knew. I think there were some raised eyebrows or looks that I didn't quite understand. My friend was highly esteemed, so maybe the eyebrows that started going up were trying not to go up at the same time -- as in --- oh God --- it's _____'s girlfriend ---- but Jesus --- she's a complete and absolute idiot. What the hell does she think she is doing? But then, oh my God, we have to be POLITE, because it's ______'s girlfriend.
And I think _____ was probably very embarrassed.....but I really can't remember. Nothing was 'said.' _____ probably drank some extra beers.
There was nobody to clue me in -- or else simply -- nobody did clue me in.
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
And it took me a long time to learn, because people were not so "frank" about things back then. Somehow or another, you were, I guess, just supposed to know.
Well, I feel like I'm coming down with something 'bad' like the flu right now. Can you get it over the internet, "Ceol????" IT MUST BE THE MEMORY OF MY FIRST SESSION -- it's enough, now, to knock my immune system totally out of orbit.
My first session was before I played a melodic instrument - I sat there watching for most of the time and then I started playing spoons - didn't know any session etiquette then though - I probably annoyed the @#$% out of the real players.
My first session was quite recently, - at the Otley Folk festival. Walking around with banjo on back looking for a suitable group to join in with. I'd been playing a year, knew about 10 tunes at session speed, and was just hoping that they'd crop up. Some did.... for the others i just sat out and tried to get the names of the tunes. The guy in front turned round and said `that was OK"- I thought I'd sounded bloody great.. a lot to learn!
Joined a session recently, and rather nervously kicked off a few tunes on request, apart from having to play the whole of swallowtail as opposed to swallow's nest on my own. They knew one but not the other. I'm glad i had a bash, allbeit before i was probably ready. You can't get profficient playing on your own at home all the time.
pig521, it's heartening to come across top-flight musicians who nonetheless enjoy playing with people who are not necessarily up to their level of ability and experience (and may in fact be well below it). I was just amazed that, at a busy music festival with all kinds of activities and events around, Cathal would take the time to sit down with a young, wet-behind-the-ears shnook like me.
(Hey, interested to see in your profile that you live in Georgia. My older daughter -- who is only mildly infected with the Irish/Celtic music fever, I'm afraid -- lives in Atlanta.)
TD and M, I have to say mine wasn't such an ordeal because I still have the time of my life. The sessions I go to now and normally quite relaxed and are started by friends who I've gotten to know quite well. Most of the players are very encouragin
Thanks for all your comments, I took the plunge once a few months ago and just played a couple of tunes. The standard was so good that I've left it a while but continued doing about 1-2 hours practice a day. Last night I took the plunge again, turned up with great antisipation (especially as I'm English and all the others are French and my French is terrible) only to find it was cancelled! Your comments have have encouraged me to just 'do it'! So, I'll have another go soon. Cheers
I was my first session.
My first job after leaving school was playing pub-piano for singsongs around our market place, but I wanted to branch out onto box, being a 3rd generation box player.
I had tried getting a spot in various folk-clubs playing box, but hadn't twigged they were singers-only clubs.
So took my box down the road, found an empty room and started my own session, not knowing the pub was owned by an Irishman - the room was soon full of singers and dancers.
I had a great first session in Boulder CO. People were extremely welcoming and I didn't play anything unless I knew it well. I went many times where I just sat and listened and wrote down tunes so I could learn them. That was 3 years ago and I have built up my 'tunes' quite a bit since then. Now I go to a couple sessions a month here in Tampa (wish we had more around here) and they are also very welcoming with a small amount of etiquette like don't come into the circle if you are banging away on a tune you don't know! For the most part it is a delightful time and we love when our 'neighbors' 3 hrs. away drive all the way up the coast to join us!!!! So for me, I wouldn't play a session until I knew some tunes really well enough (so as not to shatter my confidence) and of course, was invited in the the circle
In October 1995, I stopped by a local music store just to browse and talk to some of my friends who worked there. While I was at the store, I noticed some flyers (on green paper) about an Irish Jam Session which someone had posted on the store's bulletin board. At the time, I had never heard of an Irish Jam Session and didn't have the slightest idea what an Irish Jam Session was.
I became interested in playing piano in Irish music after attending a workshop on Folk Keyboard in 1981 which was taught by Triona ni Dhomhnaill. Then I heard Triona perform with a band called Touchstone. This experience opened my eyes and my ears to the possibilities of the piano in Irish music. I bought a copy of O'Neill's and began trying to play some of the tunes in that collection. However, until I saw the flyers announcing an Irish Jam Session in 1995, I didn't have anyone to share this music with or play it with.
The Irish Jam Session was going to be held at a local seafood restaurant that evening. I went to the session and sat there quietly all evening while I listened to the music. After the end of the session, I told the musicians which instruments I played (piano and bass) and asked if I might bring one of them to their next session. I was asked to bring my genuine imitation piano (a Roland EP-90 Digital Piano) to "fill out" the sound as my contribution to the general cacophony. Since I hadn't heard anyone playing Irish music before (except at the workshop in 1981), there were a few awkward moments until I learned how to blend in with the other musicians at the sessions. Since then, I have been participating more or less irregularly in the local Irish Session. Most of the time, I just accompany the other musicians escept for the rare occasions when I try to lead this group of mixed nuts.
My first session
My first session
Anybody remember their first session?
I can - unfortunately! - I was not properly prepared, but I felt, rightly or wrongly at the time, that it was a crunch time, that if I did not go, I never would...anyway, I went, to a local session here in Limerick, with my banjo....asked if I could join in, and they were all very nice. They asked me to play a tune...and I said ....."no thanks"...aaagh the embaressment of it all now comes back to me...they asked me a few times but the hole I had dug for myself was getting deeper by the minute...my big red face....a woman in the bar said "honey, you dont look like you have too good a time there".... anyway I eventually played a tune - think it was the Kesh jig. But only 1 tune not a set...and it went OK.....
anyway I left the session determined to learn more tunes and to be able to take part properly.
I suppose everybody has to start somewhere, I probably started before I was ready but Im still playing and still going to sessions and still loving it...
anybody else remember their first session, and was it a good or a not-so-good experience?!
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by BanjoBongo
Re: My first session
oh - sorry - by the way, this was about 6 yrs ago, I do know quite a few more tunes by now than just the Kesh jig! - I practise pretty much every day for about 20- 30 minutes....
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by BanjoBongo
Re: My first session
i totally feel for you man, i started off my musical career playing a pizza box, iv'e always found that Domino's box's provide the most range of sounds avoid Apache pizza at all cost they are awful.here is my link, i know i sound like a horse shoe along a street but with hope and the blessings of god, i will make it someday, god bless you all, keep the bodhran/pizza playing spirit in your heart always,
regards,
Hiller C hoffman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqjrEOorJKg
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by DarkRois
Re: My first session
My first session was frankly appalling. I started when I was ten, and I had opposition right from the outset from my own treasonous fiddle, which, I am certain, accepted a good few pieces of silver to lose all tension in the A string halfway through my scratchy, barely audible butchery of the Swallowtail Jig.
And yet, for some reason, I went back the next time, and did a bit better. I mean, it was still a while before I would take the Chair of Destiny at the front of the room (I played from the back most of the time, at the most inconvenient place for people to crane their necks and spot me), but everything generally went uphill from there.
Not that it could really go downhill, you understand.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Shard
Re: My first session
I remember the first time i played at a session .It was at last years willy clancy week in miltown Malbay in a pub they call the blondes .I had just gone to listion to music and after a few pints i asked one of the banjo players if i could have a look at his banjo .It was not in my arms ten seconds when a young lady who was playing the fiddle said go on give us a tune .Red faced i played the two tunes i new best . I was only playing a few seconds and the rest of the session joined in .My god what a feeling and the wife got a picture of me playing Des
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by DES RYNNE
Re: My first session
I played Star of the County Down on a whistle in a folk club in 1992 and managed to screw it up big-time. I have to clench my buttocks at the very thought of that night . Thanks for the opportunity for this catharsis.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Steve Shaw
Re: My first session
It was a festival session. I was agonisingly nervous. I started a tune and someone behind me leapt in loud, fast . . . and in a different key. Took me years to try again.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by c.g.
Re: My first session
My first session was at a musician's meeting in Hamm, Germany. I guess it was in 2005. I had a feadog tourist whistle with me, and I knew the Kesh Jig and Maids of Mt. Kisco at that time. There where three or four sessions going parallel. I played the Kesh at one of them and the Maids at another one. It was great. I spent the rest of the four days mostly listening, asking for tunes to learn and hints, but had a great time anyway. This meeting was my starting point and I never looked back to the pseudo-medieval music I played before. I visit as many sessions as I can these days (one today, one on saturday and two on sunday for example
), but that first one still has something magical about it...
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by s.g.
Re: My first session
My first session was last Fall, and it was terrifying. I only knew about ten tunes, and couldn't do any ornamentation at all, except for a few trebles in a waltz. I am still befuddled by how everyone else managed to play along, even when they didn't know the tune. Te other fiddler ended up playing each tune perfectly by the third repeat, and I was still trying to figure out what type of tune it was!
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Criostoir
Re: My first session
A dreadful rendition of the song "Go, Move Shift" in a pub in Ripponden, West Yorkshire back in the early nineties....so nervous my voice sounded like.....s.....te!! Afterwards somebody said "there now, that wasnt so bad, was it?"....no, it was worse...
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by bodatcha
Re: My first session
I try not to think about my first session too much, just too painful/embarrassing. I knew a few (literally, like 5 or 6) tunes, and had been doing jazz-rock improvising for years, but was not at all well prepared for an Irish session, and painfully unaware of the fact. So, my attitude basically sucked.
But I really liked the tunes, so I ate a lot of crow, and stuck with it. And the people I had offended forgave me, and helped me learn.
Fast-forward to last night: I led a session--ta da!--and happily played Drowsy Maggie and The Red-Haired Boy and Si Bheag Si Mhor--and yes, The Irish Washerwoman--with newbies whose attitudes did not suck. So I had it easier than those session leaders who had to deal with me, years ago. Not that I deserve it, just lucky I guess.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by mickray
Re: My first session
Ha ha, this thread is gas.
Yeah, I'm another with an embarrassing first session.
I only knew a few tunes, which wasnt really a problem, the problem was that nobody told me that you cant play as well in public as you can at home alone.
I thought I could do Harvest home no bother..... feck sake, i made a woefull show of myself.
Then I proceeded to get rediculously drunk and actually fell asleep while singing a song..... oh god!! its all coming back to me now....
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by session savage
Re: My first session
Hey, forget the embarresements, it does get better, right folks ?
That's what we keep going for.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: My first session
Even if one can't spell.....
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Guernsey Pete
Re: My first session
This thread is a catch 22. On the one hand as a beginner, its great to know that I'm not alone if I crash and burn. On the other hand, now i'm dreading just how bad that crash and burn will be.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by jasten
Re: My first session
I went to my first session for a year and a half before I actually started playing. I had just bought my Martin M36, and I brought it to the session to show a friend who knew a lot about guitars. The fiddler who lead the session stopped it part way through the night, said, "Ted, I know you know the next set we are doing, get out your guitar, sit down and play."
That was December, 2006. I've been sitting down ever since, learning more tunes and starting some tunes with the melody line with my 12-string. I play 5 or 6 sessions a week now. I love this music, it's in my DNA
It's very intimadating to join a session, especially when you are new to the music. For the most part, all the musicians I have met have been very helpful. There were a few, on no not another guitar attitudes, but, if you are serious about learning the tunes, and not just banging away on your guitar, people will be very helpful.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by Celtic Guitar
Re: My first session
Funny, I guess I don't really have a strong, definable "first session memory." I think it's because my initial opportunities for jamming occurred in the context of house parties, music camps and festivals -- and I reckon it didn't dawn on me that these might be considered sessions, per se. It was just me getting together with friends or acquaintances (or friendly strangers), and music happened to be part of the equation.
Also, can't help but think that the era and setting had something to do with it, too: This would've been the mid to late 1970s, in upstate NY, and I suspect that for most of us this session business was all relatively new. The people I tended to play with were mainly in their 20s and perhaps 30s, and there simply wasn't as much of a "session consciousness" as is the case now -- not that there was total anarchy, but I don't remember there being a lot of discussion about rules of conduct either.
I do remember a late-70s festival in Buffalo, me sitting alone plunking what (very) few tunes I knew then on my mandolin, when I heard a Fermanagh accented voice ask, "D'ye fancy playin' a tchune?" -- and looked up to see Cathal McConnell smiling at me. I could hardly refuse, of course, and I was trying to bring myself to tell him that I was a novice at this, when fortunately a friend of mine happened by and joined us, thereby deflecting attention from me. One or two other people stopped as well, and I have to say I felt rather relieved.
# Posted on February 28th 2008 by sts
Re: My first session
My first session - I went down Larnes main st, to hear
these guy who played Dubliners songs ,, in the town hall bar.
They took out fiddles and a banjo and guitar,, But played a
set of reels first to warm up- As soon as I heard that Sound I
was Hooked,First I started runing around with them , then
Fleadhs ,, And the rest is history,,
jim,,,,
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by FIDDLE4
Re: My first session
It wasn't my first, but it was one of the best and it's the one that has me always coming back. I had just come back to Boston after a long exile in Chicago. I'd been playing for about a year and came along to the monday night session at the Green Briar with a friend who was quite the regular and dragged me up to the inner circle with her.
I averaged about 1 tune per hour that I was able to play along with but something about the atmosphere made me feel incredible and when we hit a tune I knew it felt like the fiddle was playing itself and that I was just along for the ride. Blissful.
Actually, now that I think about it, that was in fact the first session that I played at. Prior to that I'd only punted.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by matan_fiddler
Re: My first session
sts....I can relate to that. 2 nights ago our regular sessioneers had a go with Cathal. The man is amazing. I thought I would be too intimidated to play but he puts everyone at ease. What a nice and genuine person he is. The week before we were able to play with some of Roger Drawdy and the Firestarters as well as with some of Jack Hardys band. Again everyone was at ease form the start. Its no wonder I'm enjoying myself playing this music. I've never felt ill at ease in any session. Maybe I'm too stupid to realize it. Nah..I'm just lucky to have met a nice bunch of people.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by thepig521
Re: My first session
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned."
"And what sin would that be, child?"
"I killed a tune last night."
"Is that all?"
"In public."
"I see."
"In front of Liz Carroll."
"My, my."
"On her fiddle."
"Oh dear."
"And first I tortured it [the tune] for several minutes."
That was about 25 years ago. I owe my ongoing fantasy session life to Ms. Carroll's oh-so generous encouragement despite what I put that tune through.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by Will CPT
Re: My first session
When I went to my first session I didn't have an instrument yet. I was still waiting for the flute maker to make it. It took me a lot of courage anyway to introduce myself and ask if it would be ok to join the group when my flute came.
They guy I spoke with was a little leary but he was friendly. He asked me some questions about my musical history. I gave him honest answers. He said it would be ok if I joined and just sat in the circle holding my flute if I wanted to. So that's what I did.
Every week I would try to find out names of tunes and then go home and try to learn them and then at the following session make a poor attempt to play with everyone.
One day, after having been coming for a few months, they had a slow moment and turned to me to ask me what tunes I know. That's when I had that scary moment of playing a tune and messing it up and generally exposing my utter incompetence. But they were welcoming anyway.
Many sessioners really do want to pass on the tunes and grow the members. I'm glad they welcomed me. I'm still terrible but I'm getting better and people are nice enough to notice.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by sbhikes
Re: My first session
Sessions were just starting up in Washington, D.C. I had been playing several instruments and writing some songs prior, but had only become aware of Irish trad music a year or so before the sessions started up -- through a guy I had become entangled with.
I didn't know A THING about session etiquette, nor even that there was such a thing. I had been messing around on my friend's mandolin, picking out my first few tunes. And there I go to this very small session, just getting started up in 'our city' and I start madly flailing away at the few tunes I knew. I think there were some raised eyebrows or looks that I didn't quite understand. My friend was highly esteemed, so maybe the eyebrows that started going up were trying not to go up at the same time -- as in --- oh God --- it's _____'s girlfriend ---- but Jesus --- she's a complete and absolute idiot. What the hell does she think she is doing? But then, oh my God, we have to be POLITE, because it's ______'s girlfriend.
And I think _____ was probably very embarrassed.....but I really can't remember. Nothing was 'said.' _____ probably drank some extra beers.
There was nobody to clue me in -- or else simply -- nobody did clue me in.
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
And it took me a long time to learn, because people were not so "frank" about things back then. Somehow or another, you were, I guess, just supposed to know.
Well, I feel like I'm coming down with something 'bad' like the flu right now. Can you get it over the internet, "Ceol????" IT MUST BE THE MEMORY OF MY FIRST SESSION -- it's enough, now, to knock my immune system totally out of orbit.
Linda
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by Fid42
Re: My first session
My first session was before I played a melodic instrument - I sat there watching for most of the time and then I started playing spoons - didn't know any session etiquette then though - I probably annoyed the @#$% out of the real players.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by camwebby
Re: My first session
My first session was quite recently, - at the Otley Folk festival. Walking around with banjo on back looking for a suitable group to join in with. I'd been playing a year, knew about 10 tunes at session speed, and was just hoping that they'd crop up. Some did.... for the others i just sat out and tried to get the names of the tunes. The guy in front turned round and said `that was OK"- I thought I'd sounded bloody great.. a lot to learn!
Joined a session recently, and rather nervously kicked off a few tunes on request, apart from having to play the whole of swallowtail as opposed to swallow's nest on my own. They knew one but not the other. I'm glad i had a bash, allbeit before i was probably ready. You can't get profficient playing on your own at home all the time.
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by gilezzznik
Re: My first session
Mine was about 8 months ago at the Folkworks Summer School! Till then I didn't know what a session was, or that they existed!
I now go to about two a week coz they are brilliant for meeting new people and tunes
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by D.J.F.
Re: My first session
pig521, it's heartening to come across top-flight musicians who nonetheless enjoy playing with people who are not necessarily up to their level of ability and experience (and may in fact be well below it). I was just amazed that, at a busy music festival with all kinds of activities and events around, Cathal would take the time to sit down with a young, wet-behind-the-ears shnook like me.
(Hey, interested to see in your profile that you live in Georgia. My older daughter -- who is only mildly infected with the Irish/Celtic music fever, I'm afraid -- lives in Atlanta.)
# Posted on February 29th 2008 by sts
Re: My first session
Goodness, was everyone's first session such an ordeal? Mine was delightful: http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/12355/comments#comment251870
# Posted on March 1st 2008 by Tall, Dark, and Mysterious
Re: My first session
TD and M, I have to say mine wasn't such an ordeal because I still have the time of my life. The sessions I go to now and normally quite relaxed and are started by friends who I've gotten to know quite well. Most of the players are very encouragin
# Posted on March 1st 2008 by camwebby
Re: My first session
Thanks for all your comments, I took the plunge once a few months ago and just played a couple of tunes. The standard was so good that I've left it a while but continued doing about 1-2 hours practice a day. Last night I took the plunge again, turned up with great antisipation (especially as I'm English and all the others are French and my French is terrible) only to find it was cancelled! Your comments have have encouraged me to just 'do it'! So, I'll have another go soon. Cheers
# Posted on March 1st 2008 by Sandy Holdom
Re: My first session
I was my first session.
My first job after leaving school was playing pub-piano for singsongs around our market place, but I wanted to branch out onto box, being a 3rd generation box player.
I had tried getting a spot in various folk-clubs playing box, but hadn't twigged they were singers-only clubs.
So took my box down the road, found an empty room and started my own session, not knowing the pub was owned by an Irishman - the room was soon full of singers and dancers.
# Posted on March 2nd 2008 by geoffwright
Re: My first session
I had a great first session in Boulder CO. People were extremely welcoming and I didn't play anything unless I knew it well. I went many times where I just sat and listened and wrote down tunes so I could learn them. That was 3 years ago and I have built up my 'tunes' quite a bit since then. Now I go to a couple sessions a month here in Tampa (wish we had more around here) and they are also very welcoming with a small amount of etiquette like don't come into the circle if you are banging away on a tune you don't know! For the most part it is a delightful time and we love when our 'neighbors' 3 hrs. away drive all the way up the coast to join us!!!! So for me, I wouldn't play a session until I knew some tunes really well enough (so as not to shatter my confidence) and of course, was invited in the the circle
# Posted on March 5th 2008 by Celticmermaid
Re: My first session
In October 1995, I stopped by a local music store just to browse and talk to some of my friends who worked there. While I was at the store, I noticed some flyers (on green paper) about an Irish Jam Session which someone had posted on the store's bulletin board. At the time, I had never heard of an Irish Jam Session and didn't have the slightest idea what an Irish Jam Session was.
I became interested in playing piano in Irish music after attending a workshop on Folk Keyboard in 1981 which was taught by Triona ni Dhomhnaill. Then I heard Triona perform with a band called Touchstone. This experience opened my eyes and my ears to the possibilities of the piano in Irish music. I bought a copy of O'Neill's and began trying to play some of the tunes in that collection. However, until I saw the flyers announcing an Irish Jam Session in 1995, I didn't have anyone to share this music with or play it with.
The Irish Jam Session was going to be held at a local seafood restaurant that evening. I went to the session and sat there quietly all evening while I listened to the music. After the end of the session, I told the musicians which instruments I played (piano and bass) and asked if I might bring one of them to their next session. I was asked to bring my genuine imitation piano (a Roland EP-90 Digital Piano) to "fill out" the sound as my contribution to the general cacophony. Since I hadn't heard anyone playing Irish music before (except at the workshop in 1981), there were a few awkward moments until I learned how to blend in with the other musicians at the sessions. Since then, I have been participating more or less irregularly in the local Irish Session. Most of the time, I just accompany the other musicians escept for the rare occasions when I try to lead this group of mixed nuts.
# Posted on March 9th 2008 by fauxcelt