Yup! Sadly that is how my wife greeted me after I only let out a couple of short sentences when she pressed "How was the session tonight?" I'd just had my fillings rattled by three free skin reverberant bangers, bodhranistas, of varying degrees of abuse, from 'see what I can do' to cluelessly banging the same way no matter what the time signature ~ WITH SUSTAIN!!! Sorry for the raised voice, my hearing was also affected. So, yes, it may have been a quip in nature. I may have been short and sardonic in my response, or, more likely, given my current state of fry, sarky?
Now it is your opportunity, not that you don't take it anyway, whenever an opportunity arises, and this is meant to be just such an opportunity, to 'clear the air' as some might say, or fill it with ozone and methane. Give us a your experience, your pain and suffering at a session in your history with sessions. Come one, come all, step up, step up. The soap box will hold any weight from light weight to heavy weight. Have a good moan, a dig, your ribs and chips (French fries) worth, or nut loaf worth. Let it all hang out...
But, please, don't directly reveal the guilty or innocent by name. Exercize your demons, take them for a walk, let them off the chain, exorcise them in exhortation. Give it a go. Think hard on a moment in a session when it was just too much and you either held back, 'this too will pass', or maybe you actually did something, with or without diplomatic skills, blood or roses.
We're all here alongside the couch, and there's a punching bag in the room and a couple of battackas too if you need to strike out physically. Here it's chiding and verbal abuse you can exhale... Be Simon Cowell for a moment and let rip... Think of it as a form of Gestalt Therapy, you've been biting down on a leather strop and now it has been removed and you've been given the carte blanch to growl, SHOUT OUT, scream therapy with meaning, curses to exorcise session demons and their fowl recreations to undermine your personal musical pleasures...
& for those who might not have been exposed in any way whatsoever,
by intent, by accident, by news or a relative ~
TV shows: X-Factor / American Idol /
Britain's Got Talent ~ coming to North America soon... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Cowell
Ears are funny things.
Sometimes they hear what they want to hear and other times they are a tool of the devil.
And I have no wish to know anything about Simon Cowel.
I have just thrown out a shirt I have owned for 40 years.
It has a beautifully embroidered "Life is a garden, Dig it" on the back.
Bodhrans ceaselessly banging might be a nuisance. But nothing destroys a session quite like a man playing a loud concertina without restraint and he only knowing half of every tune he plays. We find ourselves having to play against him rather than with him. Worse yet, he is a friend and so nobody wants to hurt his feelings. His love of the music is clear but his playing is both awfully loud and shrill, and horribly muddled. He plays wrong notes and since he tries to catch up he is often off the beat. Thankfully he doesn't come to many sessions. He is a torment that should be reserved for musicians in the lowest circle in hell.
You can't expect us to put this stuff into print on the Sesh. People
actually read it. I could write about a particular whistle player ...
but I will restrain myself.
I always thought that one of the defining qualities of friendship was that, for the greater good, you can hurt a friend's feelings.
Much as it's easy to despise Cowell, his teeth, his learjet, his his grand and overarching homoginisation of culture .... at least he tells it like it is.
I could rant for Scotland about sessions gone wrong, but the problem is a lot of people read this board and a few probably know who I am.
That said, if you've really fecked me off by playing the loudest set of border pipes in the world out of tune and out of time and then had the balls to tell me "Learn the tunes, honey" because I refused to play a tune with you for the above reasons, I might mention it on this website.
"... and telling it like it is means telling it like it is to their faces. Not on some silly website"
Indeed! That's why I'm not going to mention the ****** ***** who played the ***** for * ******* ***** nonstop *********.
See you in the lowest circle of Hell ..... evidently reserved for Jeffries C/G players, who are forced to play along with Bb concertinas and old-pitch pipers for eternity.
(Visiting banjo players are also a regular feature in Hell - they blame the heat playing chaos with their tuning)
WHAT IS THE *&$%#@$ DEAL WITH SPEEDING UP THE TUNES? EVERY SINGLE TIME, HERE'S THE B PART, HERE'S THE TWIDDLY BITS, AND ZOOMO! EL SPEEDO UPO AGAIN! AGAIN! EVERY SINGLE TIME! CAN'T YOU HEAR YOURSELF DOING THAT? COME ON MAN! FOR THE LOVE OF!
Ever see the end of The Boys and Girls from County Clare? With the three brothers fiddling together? Colm Meaney's character keeps speeding up, and Bernard Hill's character says "Yer speeding up again."? Yeah. Sigh. This too will pass. Ha ha.
...and another thing. Why is is so hard to strum in the correct rhythm? Or drum for that matter? You'd think that strumming or banging would be the easiest thing to do in the proper tempo, with the proper rhythm.
Any other dead horses lying around while I got my flog out?
Going *thump* *thump* incessantly on the on-beat of every tune gets tiresome after a while. Listen to a really good player play the tunes. Does the on-beat get accented the same way in every single phrase of the tune? Didn't think so.
My personal favorite session nightmare was the evening a middle school music teacher showed up with her recorder and sheet music - and - a native American spinning hand drum. You may know the sort, a small drum at the end of a stick with two beads dangling at the ends of strings. Spin the thing back and forth in your hands and the beads whack the diminutive head like a woodpecker on crack. (crack the drug that is)
I have to admire the restraint of our local sessioneers. We put up with the ear popping blikita-blikita-blikita-blikita for almost three sets before we asked her to stop or be buried alive with her dime-store trinket.
Should we out our former selves for hideous transgressions of the past? Or do we just squirm in our hair shirts while we heave the chunks of concrete at others? Either one is fun. Could get embarrassing, though
Or how about inserting a disclaimer: Any resemblance to events or persons living or dead is coincidental.
I would go on record to say that non-traditional instruments may not blend well with traditional instruments in a setting where persons gather to play traditional music.
By the way, everyone (see.... I'm inclusive) should write on a chalkboard 100 times, Bart Simpson style, "A Susato whistle and a table is not a percussion instrument. A Susato whistle and a table is not a percussion instrument." etc etc.
Don't get me started on PIANO ACCORDIONS ~ not all of them, but those that seem to only know the one selection ~ ALL REEDS BLARING ~ and who insist on BOOM-CHUCK bass and chord accompaniment ~ AND FLATTEN EVERYTHING they play. Yes, I can hear a recognizable melody, but none of the sweet rhythm of dance ~ just BOOM CHUCK BOOM CHUCK BOOM CHUCK CHUCK!!! AND MUSH for melody... AAAAAA!!!
Call the bouncers, this one is going to need to be removed physcially...
In one memorable session there were half a dozen button accordionists and couple of harmonica players chugging away with hornpipe after another. In the same session, a singer announced he would sing a song in F major, and a man with a keyless D flute kept playing along...
I'm mellowing out now. The damage of too many bodhran bashers has worn off and I can hear my tinnitus again in my right ear. I think it's Bb tonight...
One very minor peeve of mine is that quite often when I try to play a set of jigs in a more laidback manner they get leaned forward by people joining in with a more driving style. I don't notice this happening so much with other tune types.
I wouldn't want to make a major gripe out of this, but it is something that both slightly irks and amuses me.
That would be my personal minor gripe, that I usually keep to myself
Once I got to sit next to an enthusiastic fellow with a one-row F? box. No matter the tune or style, he would alternate between Bb and C at some prime number of beats per minute (67? 73?) while the rest are off at a respectable 118 bpm, ensuring that neither his notes nor his beats aligned with the crew. On tunes that he specifically requested.
Chris, yer bonkers. Why keep it to your self? Say something to the offenders. I love laid back jigs, couldn't be without them. If people aren't listening, get them told. This thread really annoys me.
Around here, it's really hard to keep tunes at a laid-back pace. There are some very, shall we say, enthusiastic players. But with a bit of stern discipline, it can be done. I recommend putting your foot to the floor quite firmly so as to mark the time that you prefer. If that doesn't work, try sitting next to the offending player - and, every now and then, mark time on their foot. Be careful, there are small bones in the top of the foot, so aim for the toes.
It isn't always or even primarily speeding up just more to do with leaning onto the beat or shying away from it (at least i think that's what it is ). Although speeding up a little sometimes results, I think it is more a case of feeling faster IYSWIM (NSTIDM*)
I think it takes a lot of listening and sympathy to not only adjust your speed to someone else, but also your swing, your phrasing, and where you are emphasising, or not, the beat. I'm not sure everyone in our session, or most sessions to be honest, focuses on this aspect of the music. Or even if they do, it's incredibly difficult to listen that closely to someone on the other side of the session in a loud pub. I really do try to do this. Sometimes - probably more frequently than I like -- I fail.
When I am playing by myself at home I play the tunes super bouncy and swingy. At a session I tend to lean into the beat and flatten out the tune for some reason and have to make more of a conscious effort to play swingy. At a session where I'm at all nervous, excited, upset, annoyed, fighting against loud punters, bored of sitting through too many songs, I tend to BOLT, launching into tunes at breakneck speed. The metaphor that comes to mind is a nutty thoroughbred horse that responds to pretty much anything by taking off at a flat-out gallop Not necessarily a good thing and probably a habit to break at some point, but there you have it. I usually restrain it to my own sets and usually match speeds with someone else if it's their set.
I sometimes sit out tunes I know and just listen, one of the main reasons for doing so* is knowing that there is a gulf in playing styles. e.g. when I don't join in with JD's hornpipes. I really like listening to JD playing hornpipes, but it is so far removed from how I play them myself that (a) I don't really enjoy playing along, and (b) make a really poor job of doing so in a way that doesn't seriously detract from the tunes. So I prefer to just listen in this case. Sure this is partly a limitation on my part, but I know I'd add more by not playing
I'm sure there are plenty of other occasions when my joining in grates to some extent on the person starting a set, but sometimes it is possible (for me at least) to go way of the grate-o-meter.
- Chris
* other reasons would include too busy talking to someone, or just enjoying listening.
I was at a session once when a bodhranista shows up and she accompanies EVERY reel with the 'Hand Jive' song rhythm.
Ya know: Boom-de-Boom-de-Boooom-de-BOOM-BOOM!!!!!
My eyes were rolled so far up into their sockets, I was surprised nobody thought I was having a seizure.
Yes, the rhythm formerly known as:
"Shave and a haircut.....TWO BITS" made famous by that well known purveyor of diddley music..... Bo Diddley !
Perhaps your bodhranista thought it was appropriate
Ceolachan, I would have been flattered if my wife had accused me of behaving like Simon Cowell. Then I would start wondering what she wants out of me because she is trying to flatter me and say nice things about me.
"I could rant for Scotland about sessions gone wrong, but the problem is a lot of people read this board and a few probably know who I am." Who are you?
"I couldn't do it, I'd end up at the bottom of the river choked on my own squeeze-box." If you were in Texas, Nicholas, you would end up at the bottom of a lake wearing a pair of concrete cowboy boots as well as your squeeze-box around your neck.
fauxcelt, That is five posts in a row from you. Please realize that three or more posts in a row without posts from other people is a sign that you need to get out more. For your sake, step away from the keyboard, go do some work in the yard, go to a pub, or do something that doesn't involve the internet--there is still time to save yourself.
LOL, AlBrown.
I didn't realize that was too many posts in a row. Have I set a record for the largest number of consecutive posts in a row? I hope so. In the future, I will try to improve on my record and do more than five consecutive posts in row.
Seriously, though, I am at work right now and it has been a quiet and uneventful shift so far. That is why I have time to visit this web site and post five comments in a row. I have to stay here until my shift ends at midnight. Then I can leave the building and go home.
Oh, okay, thank you SilverSpear. I don't know about Duijera Dubh but I do know that I am beyond professional help.
Also, after working until midnight yesterday evening, I am somewhat sleepy this morning but at least I only have to work eight hours today and then I will have a day off tomorrow.
The Simon Cowel of Sessions
The Simon Cowel of Sessions
"Who are you, the Simon Cowel of sessions?"
Yup! Sadly that is how my wife greeted me after I only let out a couple of short sentences when she pressed "How was the session tonight?" I'd just had my fillings rattled by three free skin reverberant bangers, bodhranistas, of varying degrees of abuse, from 'see what I can do' to cluelessly banging the same way no matter what the time signature ~ WITH SUSTAIN!!! Sorry for the raised voice, my hearing was also affected. So, yes, it may have been a quip in nature. I may have been short and sardonic in my response, or, more likely, given my current state of fry, sarky?
Now it is your opportunity, not that you don't take it anyway, whenever an opportunity arises, and this is meant to be just such an opportunity, to 'clear the air' as some might say, or fill it with ozone and methane. Give us a your experience, your pain and suffering at a session in your history with sessions. Come one, come all, step up, step up. The soap box will hold any weight from light weight to heavy weight. Have a good moan, a dig, your ribs and chips (French fries) worth, or nut loaf worth. Let it all hang out...
But, please, don't directly reveal the guilty or innocent by name. Exercize your demons, take them for a walk, let them off the chain, exorcise them in exhortation. Give it a go. Think hard on a moment in a session when it was just too much and you either held back, 'this too will pass', or maybe you actually did something, with or without diplomatic skills, blood or roses.
We're all here alongside the couch, and there's a punching bag in the room and a couple of battackas too if you need to strike out physically. Here it's chiding and verbal abuse you can exhale... Be Simon Cowell for a moment and let rip... Think of it as a form of Gestalt Therapy, you've been biting down on a leather strop and now it has been removed and you've been given the carte blanch to growl, SHOUT OUT, scream therapy with meaning, curses to exorcise session demons and their fowl recreations to undermine your personal musical pleasures...
& for those who might not have been exposed in any way whatsoever,
by intent, by accident, by news or a relative ~
TV shows: X-Factor / American Idol /
Britain's Got Talent ~ coming to North America soon...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Cowell
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ceolachan
The Simon Cowell of Sessions
There are two Ls in Cowellllllllll...
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I have no deamons. We opperate zero tollerance so all is peace and harmony.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ...
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I despise television.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by gam
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Ears are funny things.
Sometimes they hear what they want to hear and other times they are a tool of the devil.
And I have no wish to know anything about Simon Cowel.
I have just thrown out a shirt I have owned for 40 years.
It has a beautifully embroidered "Life is a garden, Dig it" on the back.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by mcknowall
Re: Destroyer of Sessions
Bodhrans ceaselessly banging might be a nuisance. But nothing destroys a session quite like a man playing a loud concertina without restraint and he only knowing half of every tune he plays. We find ourselves having to play against him rather than with him. Worse yet, he is a friend and so nobody wants to hurt his feelings. His love of the music is clear but his playing is both awfully loud and shrill, and horribly muddled. He plays wrong notes and since he tries to catch up he is often off the beat. Thankfully he doesn't come to many sessions. He is a torment that should be reserved for musicians in the lowest circle in hell.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by David Levine
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
You can't expect us to put this stuff into print on the Sesh. People
actually read it. I could write about a particular whistle player ...
but I will restrain myself.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Hup
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I always thought that one of the defining qualities of friendship was that, for the greater good, you can hurt a friend's feelings.
Much as it's easy to despise Cowell, his teeth, his learjet, his his grand and overarching homoginisation of culture .... at least he tells it like it is.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ...
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I could rant for Scotland about sessions gone wrong, but the problem is a lot of people read this board and a few probably know who I am.
That said, if you've really fecked me off by playing the loudest set of border pipes in the world out of tune and out of time and then had the balls to tell me "Learn the tunes, honey" because I refused to play a tune with you for the above reasons, I might mention it on this website.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
... and telling it like it is means telling it like it is to their faces. Not on some silly website
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ...
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
"... and telling it like it is means telling it like it is to their faces. Not on some silly website"
Indeed! That's why I'm not going to mention the ****** ***** who played the ***** for * ******* ***** nonstop *********.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Alex Wilding
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
See you in the lowest circle of Hell ..... evidently reserved for Jeffries C/G players, who are forced to play along with Bb concertinas and old-pitch pipers for eternity.
(Visiting banjo players are also a regular feature in Hell - they blame the heat playing chaos with their tuning)
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by geoffwright
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I make it a point to try and be the Paula Abdul of our local sessions - encouraging, weepy and incoherent.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I wish I could be more Llig-like. I end up in the Paula/Jusa puddle of overly-polite incoherency. Sigh.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
That being said...
WHAT IS THE *&$%#@$ DEAL WITH SPEEDING UP THE TUNES? EVERY SINGLE TIME, HERE'S THE B PART, HERE'S THE TWIDDLY BITS, AND ZOOMO! EL SPEEDO UPO AGAIN! AGAIN! EVERY SINGLE TIME! CAN'T YOU HEAR YOURSELF DOING THAT? COME ON MAN! FOR THE LOVE OF!
OK, thanks Mr. C, that felt good.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Ever see the end of The Boys and Girls from County Clare? With the three brothers fiddling together? Colm Meaney's character keeps speeding up, and Bernard Hill's character says "Yer speeding up again."? Yeah. Sigh. This too will pass. Ha ha.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
...and another thing. Why is is so hard to strum in the correct rhythm? Or drum for that matter? You'd think that strumming or banging would be the easiest thing to do in the proper tempo, with the proper rhythm.
Any other dead horses lying around while I got my flog out?
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I couldn't do it, I'd end up in the river choked on my own squeeze-box. I still play with most of them.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by nicholas
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Going *thump* *thump* incessantly on the on-beat of every tune gets tiresome after a while. Listen to a really good player play the tunes. Does the on-beat get accented the same way in every single phrase of the tune? Didn't think so.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
That's not aimed at anyone in particular, but rather at the general population of drummers and strummers who play that way.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
My personal favorite session nightmare was the evening a middle school music teacher showed up with her recorder and sheet music - and - a native American spinning hand drum. You may know the sort, a small drum at the end of a stick with two beads dangling at the ends of strings. Spin the thing back and forth in your hands and the beads whack the diminutive head like a woodpecker on crack. (crack the drug that is)
I have to admire the restraint of our local sessioneers. We put up with the ear popping blikita-blikita-blikita-blikita for almost three sets before we asked her to stop or be buried alive with her dime-store trinket.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Wow, JNE. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed being present for that for comedy's sake, or glad I avoided it.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Should we out our former selves for hideous transgressions of the past? Or do we just squirm in our hair shirts while we heave the chunks of concrete at others? Either one is fun. Could get embarrassing, though
Or how about inserting a disclaimer: Any resemblance to events or persons living or dead is coincidental.
I would go on record to say that non-traditional instruments may not blend well with traditional instruments in a setting where persons gather to play traditional music.
How about that for the passive voice?
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Love it, Batlady.
By the way, everyone (see.... I'm inclusive) should write on a chalkboard 100 times, Bart Simpson style, "A Susato whistle and a table is not a percussion instrument. A Susato whistle and a table is not a percussion instrument." etc etc.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Don't get me started on PIANO ACCORDIONS ~ not all of them, but those that seem to only know the one selection ~ ALL REEDS BLARING ~ and who insist on BOOM-CHUCK bass and chord accompaniment ~ AND FLATTEN EVERYTHING they play. Yes, I can hear a recognizable melody, but none of the sweet rhythm of dance ~ just BOOM CHUCK BOOM CHUCK BOOM CHUCK CHUCK!!! AND MUSH for melody... AAAAAA!!!
Call the bouncers, this one is going to need to be removed physcially...
If that's music then a Lada is a Porche....
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Or a bunch of whistles where the number of different top As equals the number of whistles.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Theo Gibb
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Ceol, they are even better when they accompany the tunes they don't know on the basses.
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
In one memorable session there were half a dozen button accordionists and couple of harmonica players chugging away with hornpipe after another. In the same session, a singer announced he would sing a song in F major, and a man with a keyless D flute kept playing along...
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by noranoreen
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
YES S S!!!
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Well noranoreen, some folks can play F Major on a D flute. But, I take it this flute player wasn't one of them....
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Hard on a keyless flute.....
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by minijackpot
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I wonder if Jeremy would consider exorcising the demons on thesession.org
And once more for luck,
# Posted on March 15th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Nope disillusioned, not difficult on a keyless flute...
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ceolachan
But that'd be another discussion...
I'm mellowing out now. The damage of too many bodhran bashers has worn off and I can hear my tinnitus again in my right ear. I think it's Bb tonight...
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Ah, c, if it is Bflat, then invite over a highland piper, and pretend the tinnitus is just another drone!
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Except that said piper would be a quarter-step flat....
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Michele Sims
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
One very minor peeve of mine is that quite often when I try to play a set of jigs in a more laidback manner they get leaned forward by people joining in with a more driving style. I don't notice this happening so much with other tune types.
I wouldn't want to make a major gripe out of this, but it is something that both slightly irks and amuses me.
That would be my personal minor gripe, that I usually keep to myself
- Chris
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Once I got to sit next to an enthusiastic fellow with a one-row F? box. No matter the tune or style, he would alternate between Bb and C at some prime number of beats per minute (67? 73?) while the rest are off at a respectable 118 bpm, ensuring that neither his notes nor his beats aligned with the crew. On tunes that he specifically requested.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by HipCzeck
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Chris, yer bonkers. Why keep it to your self? Say something to the offenders. I love laid back jigs, couldn't be without them. If people aren't listening, get them told. This thread really annoys me.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ...
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I'm probably one of the guiltier parties for driving Chris' laid back jigs. Sorry.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
it's everyone emily, no prime offender.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
and I'm sure i do similar things to other people no doubt
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Around here, it's really hard to keep tunes at a laid-back pace. There are some very, shall we say, enthusiastic players. But with a bit of stern discipline, it can be done. I recommend putting your foot to the floor quite firmly so as to mark the time that you prefer. If that doesn't work, try sitting next to the offending player - and, every now and then, mark time on their foot. Be careful, there are small bones in the top of the foot, so aim for the toes.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
It isn't always or even primarily speeding up just more to do with leaning onto the beat or shying away from it (at least i think that's what it is ). Although speeding up a little sometimes results, I think it is more a case of feeling faster IYSWIM (NSTIDM*)
- Chris
*Not Sure That I do Myself
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I think it takes a lot of listening and sympathy to not only adjust your speed to someone else, but also your swing, your phrasing, and where you are emphasising, or not, the beat. I'm not sure everyone in our session, or most sessions to be honest, focuses on this aspect of the music. Or even if they do, it's incredibly difficult to listen that closely to someone on the other side of the session in a loud pub. I really do try to do this. Sometimes - probably more frequently than I like -- I fail.
Not necessarily a good thing and probably a habit to break at some point, but there you have it. I usually restrain it to my own sets and usually match speeds with someone else if it's their set.
When it happens -- and sometimes it does in the OM -- it's incredibly cool. It's like this, http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/24039/comments#comment501105, second paragraph from the bottom, and then what I said a couple posts down.
When I am playing by myself at home I play the tunes super bouncy and swingy. At a session I tend to lean into the beat and flatten out the tune for some reason and have to make more of a conscious effort to play swingy. At a session where I'm at all nervous, excited, upset, annoyed, fighting against loud punters, bored of sitting through too many songs, I tend to BOLT, launching into tunes at breakneck speed. The metaphor that comes to mind is a nutty thoroughbred horse that responds to pretty much anything by taking off at a flat-out gallop
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Loud pubs certainly don't help
I sometimes sit out tunes I know and just listen, one of the main reasons for doing so* is knowing that there is a gulf in playing styles. e.g. when I don't join in with JD's hornpipes. I really like listening to JD playing hornpipes, but it is so far removed from how I play them myself that (a) I don't really enjoy playing along, and (b) make a really poor job of doing so in a way that doesn't seriously detract from the tunes. So I prefer to just listen in this case. Sure this is partly a limitation on my part, but I know I'd add more by not playing
I'm sure there are plenty of other occasions when my joining in grates to some extent on the person starting a set, but sometimes it is possible (for me at least) to go way of the grate-o-meter.
- Chris
* other reasons would include too busy talking to someone, or just enjoying listening.
# Posted on March 16th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
I was at a session once when a bodhranista shows up and she accompanies EVERY reel with the 'Hand Jive' song rhythm.
Ya know: Boom-de-Boom-de-Boooom-de-BOOM-BOOM!!!!!
My eyes were rolled so far up into their sockets, I was surprised nobody thought I was having a seizure.
# Posted on March 17th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Yes, the rhythm formerly known as:
"Shave and a haircut.....TWO BITS" made famous by that well known purveyor of diddley music..... Bo Diddley !
Perhaps your bodhranista thought it was appropriate
# Posted on March 17th 2010 by murfbox
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Ceolachan, I would have been flattered if my wife had accused me of behaving like Simon Cowell. Then I would start wondering what she wants out of me because she is trying to flatter me and say nice things about me.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
"I could rant for Scotland about sessions gone wrong, but the problem is a lot of people read this board and a few probably know who I am." Who are you?
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
SWFL Fiddler, if we ever get to visit you in Florida, we will buy you a dead horse just for you to flog to your heart's content.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
"I couldn't do it, I'd end up at the bottom of the river choked on my own squeeze-box." If you were in Texas, Nicholas, you would end up at the bottom of a lake wearing a pair of concrete cowboy boots as well as your squeeze-box around your neck.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
You can't be a "prime" offender unless you are the correct number (something which can't be divided)
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
fauxcelt, That is five posts in a row from you. Please realize that three or more posts in a row without posts from other people is a sign that you need to get out more. For your sake, step away from the keyboard, go do some work in the yard, go to a pub, or do something that doesn't involve the internet--there is still time to save yourself.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
LOL, AlBrown.
I didn't realize that was too many posts in a row. Have I set a record for the largest number of consecutive posts in a row? I hope so. In the future, I will try to improve on my record and do more than five consecutive posts in row.
Seriously, though, I am at work right now and it has been a quiet and uneventful shift so far. That is why I have time to visit this web site and post five comments in a row. I have to stay here until my shift ends at midnight. Then I can leave the building and go home.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
No, I don't think you have, fauxcelt. I remember Duijiera Dubh having conversations with himself went on far longer than five posts.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
*that went on.....
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
Oh, okay, thank you SilverSpear. I don't know about Duijera Dubh but I do know that I am beyond professional help.
Also, after working until midnight yesterday evening, I am somewhat sleepy this morning but at least I only have to work eight hours today and then I will have a day off tomorrow.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: The Simon Cowel of Sessions
It is tomorrow and I am enjoying my day off. The dogs are enjoying my day off also because I took them outside to play.
# Posted on March 20th 2010 by fauxcelt