This week end I went to a session and the guitar/bouzuki player was so loud that I almost broke my bow into the fiddle, and is so unfair having such a loud instrument in acoustic environment.
People can be less noisy and give a moment to the music, cause is not the musician who as to bend over and play on the limit is the audience who needs to be quiet enough and respect the music and the musicians.
Of course this situation drives into a rupture situation playing on the limit and having a LOUD SIX SRING BIG RESONANT BOX of a instrument called guitar choking everybody, and I have noting against guitar
He may just have to be told. A friend of mine came down to London a while ago and we went uptown to buy him a guitar. Every shop we went in, we were followed in by this pr!ck who thought he had to audition guitars the same way as your guitar-bashing acquaintance, so none of the other potential customers could hear the guitars they were trying out. We had to let him know, in the end, that he was pissing everybody off. Rude, but effective.
I prefer a bouzouki over a guitar any day. It's a nicer sound and would it be true to say that bouzouki players are generally better at accompanying ITM than guitarists? Sorry for opening a can of worms,
Nonononono, A good guitar can add beautifully to the music... Listen to the first trck on Matt Molloy's 'Stony Steps", Donal Lunny (old school lunny, beautifully restrained) backs the first tune well, but the set really lifts off when the old McGlynn drone comes in on the second. Simple but SO effective.
But i think that the volume factor is so typical of many backers (not just guitarists, Bodhran anyone?) who somehow feel the the music is their to allow them to express their own brilliance. they need to be reminded they are BACKERS, they back tunes, not front them!! (that made more sence in me head i think)
the single greatest skill IMO in the music is the ability to listen, to yaself, and to others. The amount of technicaly brilliant guitarist who have ruined sessions by being to clever for their own(or anyone else's) good is huge...
ah well,
you could always do what Billy Moran, a well respected box player down in melbourne used to: buy a pickup and take your own little guitar amp down to noisy sessions!
I dissagree. Arty might as well be playing the bodhran. He adds nothing, he emphasises nothing, all he ever does is repeat what's already there in the tune. I bet playing with Arty is like playing with a metronome. Or worse, playing with people clapping along.
Don't know much about arty, but was at a session last night and a piper turned up. With pipes. Highland type...... Well he played for about 25 minutes with frequent tuning of drones, and then stopped. With ears ringing I was just able to hear one of the fiddlers tell the joke about throwing accordians into skips and crushing banjo's before pointedly putting his fiddle away and going to the bar. Piper boy must have got the message cos he didn't play again. Didn't stop his mate from playing the table all night ( a little used precussion insrtament that good players can augment with the use of wedding rings and half empty beer bottles ) whilst repeatadly asking for dirty old town and the wild rover.........
Reckon clever humour is the best ploy, as long as the offending party is sober enough to understand.
...I've never heard an acoustic guitar drown out anything...especially a fiddle. The range of each instrument is different...a fiddle will, or should always cut through.
At a session in Clonmel last month this guy, more than half-way stocious, with an uncased guitar plonked himself down beside me and proceeded to bash out meaningless chords louder than I have ever heard from an unamplified guitar. I could neither hear myself nor the rest of the session, so I upped and moved to the other side of the circle. The leader, on the box, saw and heard what was happening and started up a tune in B-major (5 sharps) which nobody else knew. This effectively baffled our stocious gentleman and he quickly vanished in search of another, perhaps more accomodating session (he should be so lucky!) It was a beautiful way of getting rid of an unwanted guest without any fuss.
Trevor
Surely everyone must have been at a session where someone drowns out/spoils the event/atmosphere.
If there's an obvious leader/co-ordinator they can always have a discrete word with the miscreant.
Or, play a tune in a funny key/rhythm.
I was once at a session with Martin Simpson (namedrop ) - it was so long ago he'd just got his Peter Abnett guitar - a lady accordion-player saw the burgeoning session and came and sat down at the table. Within five minutes we'd all gone somewhere else. It was a pity, it was a nice table.
Loud accompaniment in sessions
Loud accompaniment in sessions
This week end I went to a session and the guitar/bouzuki player was so loud that I almost broke my bow into the fiddle, and is so unfair having such a loud instrument in acoustic environment.
People can be less noisy and give a moment to the music, cause is not the musician who as to bend over and play on the limit is the audience who needs to be quiet enough and respect the music and the musicians.
Of course this situation drives into a rupture situation playing on the limit and having a LOUD SIX SRING BIG RESONANT BOX of a instrument called guitar choking everybody, and I have noting against guitar
# Posted on August 31st 2003 by pitnekit
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Learn some sets of alternate 3/2 and 5/2 tunes to confuse them.
7/2 will also to the job admirably.
Alternate tunes in B major and F may also piss them off.
Keep the tunes short and finish at some strange point in the middle of the tune. They are guarunteed to carry on.
Start a slow session.
# Posted on August 31st 2003 by geoffwright
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Dear Pitnekit,
Look on the bright side - it would be worse if you were a whistle player
!
# Posted on August 31st 2003 by sensible shoes
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
The guitarist was obviously trying to hear himself above your fiddle, Pitnekit :->
# Posted on August 31st 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Count yourself lucky it wasn't a piano (absolutely the last time I will slag off that magnificent instrument .... today)
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by nastyweegirl
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
The worst is this person thinks that to play in sessions the instrument needs to be LOUD and bl
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by pitnekit
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
He may just have to be told. A friend of mine came down to London a while ago and we went uptown to buy him a guitar. Every shop we went in, we were followed in by this pr!ck who thought he had to audition guitars the same way as your guitar-bashing acquaintance, so none of the other potential customers could hear the guitars they were trying out. We had to let him know, in the end, that he was pissing everybody off. Rude, but effective.
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by nastyweegirl
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
It's just like any etiquet problem, all you have to do is tell them
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by ...
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
I think that having some rock is ok but HARD HEAVY STUFF is too much for my
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by pitnekit
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Spot on Mr Gill.
Maybe he's not psychic.
PP
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
I prefer a bouzouki over a guitar any day. It's a nicer sound and would it be true to say that bouzouki players are generally better at accompanying ITM than guitarists? Sorry for opening a can of worms,
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by Celtic1234
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Nonononono, A good guitar can add beautifully to the music... Listen to the first trck on Matt Molloy's 'Stony Steps", Donal Lunny (old school lunny, beautifully restrained) backs the first tune well, but the set really lifts off when the old McGlynn drone comes in on the second. Simple but SO effective.
But i think that the volume factor is so typical of many backers (not just guitarists, Bodhran anyone?) who somehow feel the the music is their to allow them to express their own brilliance. they need to be reminded they are BACKERS, they back tunes, not front them!! (that made more sence in me head i think)
the single greatest skill IMO in the music is the ability to listen, to yaself, and to others. The amount of technicaly brilliant guitarist who have ruined sessions by being to clever for their own(or anyone else's) good is huge...
ah well,
you could always do what Billy Moran, a well respected box player down in melbourne used to: buy a pickup and take your own little guitar amp down to noisy sessions!
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by SirNose
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Amen
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by pitnekit
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
I dissagree. Arty might as well be playing the bodhran. He adds nothing, he emphasises nothing, all he ever does is repeat what's already there in the tune. I bet playing with Arty is like playing with a metronome. Or worse, playing with people clapping along.
# Posted on September 1st 2003 by ...
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Don't know much about arty, but was at a session last night and a piper turned up. With pipes. Highland type...... Well he played for about 25 minutes with frequent tuning of drones, and then stopped. With ears ringing I was just able to hear one of the fiddlers tell the joke about throwing accordians into skips and crushing banjo's before pointedly putting his fiddle away and going to the bar. Piper boy must have got the message cos he didn't play again. Didn't stop his mate from playing the table all night ( a little used precussion insrtament that good players can augment with the use of wedding rings and half empty beer bottles ) whilst repeatadly asking for dirty old town and the wild rover.........
Reckon clever humour is the best ploy, as long as the offending party is sober enough to understand.
# Posted on September 2nd 2003 by clunk999
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Does Michael Gill have anything nice to say about Irish musicians.
Good Luck
Mikea.
# Posted on September 6th 2003 by Mikea
Was the guitar amplified?....
...I've never heard an acoustic guitar drown out anything...especially a fiddle. The range of each instrument is different...a fiddle will, or should always cut through.
# Posted on September 7th 2003 by Vibrolux
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
At a session in Clonmel last month this guy, more than half-way stocious, with an uncased guitar plonked himself down beside me and proceeded to bash out meaningless chords louder than I have ever heard from an unamplified guitar. I could neither hear myself nor the rest of the session, so I upped and moved to the other side of the circle. The leader, on the box, saw and heard what was happening and started up a tune in B-major (5 sharps) which nobody else knew. This effectively baffled our stocious gentleman and he quickly vanished in search of another, perhaps more accomodating session (he should be so lucky!) It was a beautiful way of getting rid of an unwanted guest without any fuss.
Trevor
# Posted on September 7th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Accompianists do need to know when to back off. Maybe instead of call it "backing" the music we could start calling it "back offing" the music.
Q. How do you stop a loud guitarist from playing?
A. Hand out some sheet music
# Posted on September 7th 2003 by SteveM
Re: Loud accompaniment in sessions
Surely everyone must have been at a session where someone drowns out/spoils the event/atmosphere.
If there's an obvious leader/co-ordinator they can always have a discrete word with the miscreant.
Or, play a tune in a funny key/rhythm.
I was once at a session with Martin Simpson (namedrop ) - it was so long ago he'd just got his Peter Abnett guitar - a lady accordion-player saw the burgeoning session and came and sat down at the table. Within five minutes we'd all gone somewhere else. It was a pity, it was a nice table.
# Posted on September 10th 2003 by Guernsey Pete