I've been asked to supply some details for a little local park festival thingy we're playing this weekend. One (reasonable yet naive) question was 'how did your "group" get together?'
My answer was as follows:
~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬
How did we get together? I wish I could remember. How players at Irish sessions get to find out about other players and other sessions then end up playing together shall remain one of the great mysteries of this tradition. Maybe it has something to do with the Guinness they drink.
~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬
So how do sessionistas get together enough to consolidate as a "group" or whatever you want to call it? I suppose nowadays you could just say 'through this website', if you want. But does anyone have any interesting anecdotes?
I lived in this small town for about years before finding anyone else who played this music. Her son was on a soccer team I coached. At a pizza party after the season, the mom noticed I was wearing a tee-shirt with a fiddle on it. She asked if I played, and I mumbled something about traditional Irish music. Here we'd known each other for two years, but the topic never came up. That was the beginning of a local session that's run for 10 years now.
A local trad music fan heard me whistling (ie, not with a whistle)
"Sí bheag Sí mhor" in a locker room a couple of years ago and told
me about the session. He's like a silent session musician - knows the
tunes, the people and the gossip, always there and never plays. I
was working on both trad and classical technique, but getting
discouraged with my progress on the classical side.
I started scraping along at the session soon after. I think I've "proven"
myself now and still finding out who's who - a lot of people come
and go.
Interesting or not, here it is: Noodled on fiddle in various garage-rock bands (opened for the BoDeans once--big whoop, eh?), then joined a band that played Pogues covers and a few tunes at local joints.
Hmmm... I guess if I'm going to play this stuff, I ought to try to learn a little bit about it. I'm going to sit in at some of those weekly trad sessions they have at these places.
7-8 years later, a guy at a gig tells me he's opening a coffee shop in my area, and wants to have an Irish session at it, so I put the word out. Our session is only about 8 months old now, just 3-5 core players.
And now we are big stars on YouTube. Literally dozens of people from all over the world have watched our clips. ;>}
I've put out an advertising campaign throughout the country, asking to join me all musicians who:
- could play a few tunes without stopping in the middle
- could keep a rhythm
- did not need to play at top speed and top volume
- had basic social skills
- did not treat traditional music as a form of musical therapy
- did not consider cajon, bass guitar and bongo drum the basic instruments of Irish traditional music
The campaign was 100% successful - all 4 of them turned up. We are still good friends to this day.
In 1995, some local musicians who had participated in Irish Sessions in other states decided that they wanted to try to start an Irish Session here. One of these musicians put pamphlets advertising an Irish Jam Session in local music stores and other places where musicians were likely to gather and see the pamphlets. This is how I learned about the effort to organize an Irish Jam Session here. I went to the second session and sat there quietly and listened. When the session was over, I asked if I could join them at the next session to play music with them and they said yes--if I would bring my genuine imitation piano (a Roland EP-90 Digital Piano) to the session. Since then, I have been participating more or less irregularly in the local Irish Session.
Well, I had a solo gig at a little pub/restaurant locally, hollering hackneyed classics for sweet, little old Irish American grannies and fiddling jigs and reels. I was literally the strolling Irish fiddler. Tips happily accepted. Ran into the local 'Celtic' band in the town over, turns out the man from the band was putting a session together at the band's home pub, and that was...uh...er...a while ago, maybe five or six years?
We've added other dear friends since then, connected with other sessionistas in our area, taken on newbies, mentored them as best we could, and even linked up with sessions in neighboring areas, some 2 and 3 hours away, we've changed venues several times, and we're still going strong.
So, the question now arises, particularly to Will, but also to others, especially in these far-flung places in eg the States, what did you do for sessions before you developed one in your own town? Travel for miles to one in a nearby big city?
Just curious.
Before these other local musicians started an Irish Jam Session here in 1995, I didn't even know that there were such things as Irish Jam Sessions. I knew that I liked this music and I enjoyed playing it but it never occurred to me that there might be other musicians here who liked Irish music as much as I did. And now I am grateful that someone decided to take the time, energy, and effort to start and organize an Irish Session here because I do enjoy playing this music with other muscians who like it and enjoy it as much as I do.
The session has been around for years, I joined it. The band I am in was born when four of us at the session looked at each other and said 'let's form a band.' Since we were all in our fourties, we were a couple decades later than most of who say those words. A few years later, when three members left (or one left, depending on your perspective), a new member was added who knew one of the existing members through a community concert band. So we were a quarted again.
That is the beauty of sessions, they are like fertilized ground for the formation of musicians and music groups. Or to use another analogy, they are like a musical womb. Come to think of it, since the punters are watching, they are like a womb with a view.......
The band got together in the nineties as a meeting of friends on Sundays to sing Irish songs. When their fiddler (who only knew ITM from sheet music) retired because of old age they put a small ad in a local paper. "Fiddler wanted. Must love Irish Music". I was the only applicant. That's why they kept me.
Because they come from a place half an hour's drive away we would not have met if it hadn't been for the ad.
How did you get together?
How did you get together?
I've been asked to supply some details for a little local park festival thingy we're playing this weekend. One (reasonable yet naive) question was 'how did your "group" get together?'
My answer was as follows:
~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬
How did we get together? I wish I could remember. How players at Irish sessions get to find out about other players and other sessions then end up playing together shall remain one of the great mysteries of this tradition. Maybe it has something to do with the Guinness they drink.
~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬~¬
So how do sessionistas get together enough to consolidate as a "group" or whatever you want to call it? I suppose nowadays you could just say 'through this website', if you want. But does anyone have any interesting anecdotes?
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: How did you get together?
I lived in this small town for about years before finding anyone else who played this music. Her son was on a soccer team I coached. At a pizza party after the season, the mom noticed I was wearing a tee-shirt with a fiddle on it. She asked if I played, and I mumbled something about traditional Irish music. Here we'd known each other for two years, but the topic never came up. That was the beginning of a local session that's run for 10 years now.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Will CPT
Re: How did you get together?
A local trad music fan heard me whistling (ie, not with a whistle)
"Sí bheag Sí mhor" in a locker room a couple of years ago and told
me about the session. He's like a silent session musician - knows the
tunes, the people and the gossip, always there and never plays. I
was working on both trad and classical technique, but getting
discouraged with my progress on the classical side.
I started scraping along at the session soon after. I think I've "proven"
myself now and still finding out who's who - a lot of people come
and go.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Hup
Re: How did you get together?
This session has been going for many years - decades, but the venues
change from time to time.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Hup
Re: How did you get together?
I'm not together.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Bob himself
Re: How did you get together?
Interesting or not, here it is: Noodled on fiddle in various garage-rock bands (opened for the BoDeans once--big whoop, eh?), then joined a band that played Pogues covers and a few tunes at local joints.
Hmmm... I guess if I'm going to play this stuff, I ought to try to learn a little bit about it. I'm going to sit in at some of those weekly trad sessions they have at these places.
7-8 years later, a guy at a gig tells me he's opening a coffee shop in my area, and wants to have an Irish session at it, so I put the word out. Our session is only about 8 months old now, just 3-5 core players.
And now we are big stars on YouTube. Literally dozens of people from all over the world have watched our clips. ;>}
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by mickray
Re: How did you get together?
Three of us escaped from a sinking session by swimming for our lives. We then picked up a whistle player at a party, and formed a ceilidh band.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: How did you get together?
I've put out an advertising campaign throughout the country, asking to join me all musicians who:
- could play a few tunes without stopping in the middle
- could keep a rhythm
- did not need to play at top speed and top volume
- had basic social skills
- did not treat traditional music as a form of musical therapy
- did not consider cajon, bass guitar and bongo drum the basic instruments of Irish traditional music
The campaign was 100% successful - all 4 of them turned up. We are still good friends to this day.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by EastPole
Re: How did you get together?
In 1995, some local musicians who had participated in Irish Sessions in other states decided that they wanted to try to start an Irish Session here. One of these musicians put pamphlets advertising an Irish Jam Session in local music stores and other places where musicians were likely to gather and see the pamphlets. This is how I learned about the effort to organize an Irish Jam Session here. I went to the second session and sat there quietly and listened. When the session was over, I asked if I could join them at the next session to play music with them and they said yes--if I would bring my genuine imitation piano (a Roland EP-90 Digital Piano) to the session. Since then, I have been participating more or less irregularly in the local Irish Session.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: How did you get together?
Well, I had a solo gig at a little pub/restaurant locally, hollering hackneyed classics for sweet, little old Irish American grannies and fiddling jigs and reels. I was literally the strolling Irish fiddler. Tips happily accepted. Ran into the local 'Celtic' band in the town over, turns out the man from the band was putting a session together at the band's home pub, and that was...uh...er...a while ago, maybe five or six years?
We've added other dear friends since then, connected with other sessionistas in our area, taken on newbies, mentored them as best we could, and even linked up with sessions in neighboring areas, some 2 and 3 hours away, we've changed venues several times, and we're still going strong.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: How did you get together?
So, the question now arises, particularly to Will, but also to others, especially in these far-flung places in eg the States, what did you do for sessions before you developed one in your own town? Travel for miles to one in a nearby big city?
Just curious.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: How did you get together?
Yes, travel 60 to 90 minutes. Still do, about once a week on average, in addition to the session I started closer to home.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by mickray
Re: How did you get together?
Before these other local musicians started an Irish Jam Session here in 1995, I didn't even know that there were such things as Irish Jam Sessions. I knew that I liked this music and I enjoyed playing it but it never occurred to me that there might be other musicians here who liked Irish music as much as I did. And now I am grateful that someone decided to take the time, energy, and effort to start and organize an Irish Session here because I do enjoy playing this music with other muscians who like it and enjoy it as much as I do.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: How did you get together?
The session has been around for years, I joined it. The band I am in was born when four of us at the session looked at each other and said 'let's form a band.' Since we were all in our fourties, we were a couple decades later than most of who say those words. A few years later, when three members left (or one left, depending on your perspective), a new member was added who knew one of the existing members through a community concert band. So we were a quarted again.
That is the beauty of sessions, they are like fertilized ground for the formation of musicians and music groups. Or to use another analogy, they are like a musical womb. Come to think of it, since the punters are watching, they are like a womb with a view.......
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by AlBrown
Re: How did you get together?
"A womb with a view"? Very punny AlBrown. Are sax and violins a part of this?
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by fauxcelt
Re: How did you get together?
The band got together in the nineties as a meeting of friends on Sundays to sing Irish songs. When their fiddler (who only knew ITM from sheet music) retired because of old age they put a small ad in a local paper. "Fiddler wanted. Must love Irish Music". I was the only applicant. That's why they kept me.
Because they come from a place half an hour's drive away we would not have met if it hadn't been for the ad.
# Posted on June 24th 2008 by kuec