Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Have you ever been to a session that has a reasonable audience (mostly foreigners) or trad. fans, listening to the music /songs and the musicians don't interact with the them. They play a few sets then take a break for 5-10 minutes start to talk between themselves, ignoring the crowd before restarting, losing the crowd as they do. Or the musician who when asked by a visitor (usually from foreigner shore) to play Lonesome Boatman or sing Wild Rover or the likes is ignored at best or told we don't play that type off music hear. Should we give the punters a mixer of what they want to hear and what we want to play? or just do our own thing. My pet hate when someone ask for a tune/song they get the reply throw a fiver into the box or buy a round and we play it, this is like begging and I wish to have no part of it. My own personal feeling is that most sessions are run to please the people playing and not the punters, there is the feeling of we know what is best for you, this is the reason so many are paid so badly. The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys they give the crowd a mixer of what they want to hear and what the group want to play resulting in a reasonable payday.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Oh god, not again!!!
I'm sure Dublin's paid gigs are very nice in their own way, but they were definitely not what *this* punter was after.
Of course, sessions are run to please the people playing and not anyone who happens to be standing around/sitting nearby. When they're not, they're called gigs.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Oh, for feck's sake.
This is the third thread jmccy's posted in the last two days, all on related subjects. S/he hasn't responded to a single comment on the previous two threads so my guess is that this is a third attempt at a wind-up.
By the way, jmccy, 'disinterested' is not synonymous with 'uninterested'.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
This is like a Do It Yourself guide for how to find a session, identify the species, place in formaldehyde, then dissect it into little bits, label everything, & write a textbook.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Who bl00dy cares. Have tunes. If the singers don't like it they can go somewhere else. If the punters don't like it they can go somewhere else.
What is the problem with singers? What are you so scared off?
Mix p1sh. There are plenty mixed sessions, plenty circle of death song session. Leave us in peace to have a night of feckin tunes if we want, will you?
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
If someone asks me to sing The Wild Rover I find the politest way I can of telling them to take a flying...
Anyway you are just after a rise. You are not after a debate and you have still not answered my question from way back when - was it your annoying singing that led the folk in the Cobblestone to tell you that they didn't like guitars?
Fair play, Jusa. What to do though? I like to look back over the last 4 or 5 pages of bumped threads (new comments) to see what I missed. Problem is, sometimes it's more pages than that with ... Oh, you're right. We're building our own Frankenstein.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Who bl00dy cares. Have tunes. If the singers don't like it they can go somewhere else. If the punters don't like it they can go somewhere else.
What is the problem with singers? What are you so scared off?
Mix p1sh. There are plenty mixed sessions, plenty circle of death song session. Leave us in peace to have a night of feckin tunes if we want, will you?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
there speaks the voice of tolerance,
Bogman plays with an outfit called the peat bog faeries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_TdfGa8ALQ
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Bogman you have to learn not to bottle things up.
This thread is clearly a wind up either deliberately by someone thinking they're funny, or as good as by someone who just doesn't get the whole session thing.
That said. I have no problem with punters making requests in a friendly manner. If the request is clearly undoable I'll apologise and say "not our thing"; if its for a song and there are no singers I'll point that out but we might have a go at the tune anyway.
Do I feel obliged in anyway to do this? No, it's just how I meet life. The stranger in the pub has no right to expect you to bow to his/her whim. OTOH. But I personally don't see the need to be unfriendly by default.
Requests are a rarity anyway, persiatent or obnoxiously delivered requests might be handled differently.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
And look at all the folk jumping up and down and having a good time. There are few bands in Scotland that I can think of that are as good at engaging an audience as the PBFs. That is a group that knows all about performance.
Doesn't mean you want to do that all the time though. Sometimes you just want a quiet tune.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"If the request is clearly undoable I'll apologise and say "not our thing""
That is exactly the polite way I tell them to go and take a flying...
In the session the other night a woman, coming out of the toliet, after we had finished playing a set when we were all holding our instruments asked if we were going to play music.
Now I looked at my guitar and I looked up, and down and up and in all honesty said that I was going to try really hard not to be cheeky....
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Thanks music reader for the post.. The Peat Bog Faires seem like good fun. They are certainly good musicians. When you get hundreds of people dancing and having a good night out to pipes and fiddles you are doing nothing wrong. Fair play to you Bogman.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Thanks you NCFA, dispite PBF taking about 5% of my musical time, the rest being what I've played since 9 - trad, Dick Miles reckons I am not aloud opinions on actual traditional music. Shortly i'm off to a great trad session with my mates in the local pub, something Dick Miles can't do. a) he can't play. b) he can't have any mates.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Just imagine yourself walking into a pub, not knowing there would be a session, so you have no instrument in hand; you are the punter-what do you think? I can't stand the way some posters dumb down the listeners-not my experience at all.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
With you there primrose.. I hate that word .. never heard it used for a session,,hate it the same way as I hate the word "diddely" both which I only hear here. Hear here!!
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
@Dick Miles, will you kindly stop going on about Bogman being in the PBF(as if that is in itself something to be ashamed of) in every feckin thread. It has nothing to do with the current discussion, or any of the other threads where you bring it up like a broken record.
The PBF have been a popular band in Scotland for years.
In an entirely different aspect of his musical life Bogman is highly regarded in the trad music session scene in Scotland. I've never met Bogman or heard him play live, yet I know this because I must know about a dozen musicians that have met/heard/played with Bogman down the years.
In fact if anything the fact that Bogman plays with the PBF in performances like the one you posted and also in a highly regarded traditional session shows that he very much understands that a gig and a session are entirely different bests
I'm sick to the back teeth of seeing you post irrelevant links in order to sidetrack any thread (even a dumb one like this) into a fight with the sole apparent purpose of attracting attention.
I don't normally go off on rants like this, but my patience has been absolutely eroded in this case.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
My posting may be annoying, they are not intented as a wind up but as a thought provoking exercise. Each person who contributes to a session has his own view, its when the bickering about how the session is treated or the money is sh*t, nobody listening the noise is f----------king awful, I'm not player here again and then the musician who has no job and retires to his/her flat broke. A friend use to tell the joke of the mugger who went to mug a musician coming home from a gig only to be told sure everyone knows musicians have no money, unless of course he has a job.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Goodnight to all the good folk who have their head so far up their arse they don't realise that they play for pittance, while the publican is including them in his tax returns, claiming he has paid them 4 times as much. So he actually makes money on them as he save twice as much on taxes as he pays the musicians.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
jmccy, I don't see where each of these 3 subsequent threads is adding anything. Each seems to fall back on the generalized premise which assumes *most* sessions do not work due to snobbery. 1st off, I don't think generalities are very thought provoking. Do you?
Please look over what you've given us so far, they're too similar to be stimulating new thought;
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"My own personal feeling is that most sessions are run to please the people playing and not the punters, there is the feeling of we know what is best for you..."
October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Do the punters come to hear the singers or musics?
"The Punters who come to the Sessions usually get bored after hearing 5 or 6 sets, only the knowledgeable will appricate more than 5 or 6 sets unless broken up by song."
October 27th 2010 by jmccy
Is there Snobery in Irish music?
"Do Irish musicain have a snobery regarding the instrument you play?"
Posted on October 27th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Does it matter?
In a performance, you should never play down to "the crowd". In a session, to all intents and purposes, you don't have an audience. They are'nt punters, just bystanders. If they are disinterested they are probably in the wrong pub.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
To OP:
"My pet hate when someone ask for a tune/song they get the reply throw a fiver into the box or buy a round and we play it, this is like begging and I wish to have no part of it. ...... The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys they give the crowd a mixer of what they want to hear and what the group want to play resulting in a reasonable payday"
So, you want to get paid for playing a few tunes but you don't want to be seen to be getting money directly off punters? That's called hypocrisy. You're right about one thing - your angst seems to be based around money. Methinks you've moved a good bit away from the tradition and getting further...
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Theirlandais - < highest number of posts >
No I am not - lol .. I'am just Browseing through -- Its good here,
just Reading the comment's - Range's form, World War III to
something like the Beano - lol...
jim,,,
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
If you so desire it...
I think lexical pedantry is entirely acceptable when it's directed at trolls, especially massively over-fed ones. And our most recent troll certainly needs to go on a diet....
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
How about pointing the finger at mass culture, the decline of musical education, and short attention spans? How about the rising tide of anti-intellectualism and the prevalence of an attitude that believes an art form that doesn't make someone money isn't worth pursuing or even comprehending?
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
I don't know about anybody else's session, but at mine, it's mostly made up of amateur musicians who rarely if ever take the stage as performers. You meet at the pub, and you play some tunes, and you get lost in your own world of playing your favorite tunes with good folk s that you only get to see at the session. When bystanders clap, or ask for a tune, there is always that awkward moment. But it's not due to any great disconnect or snobbery or unwillingness to engage. It's just that we were having such a good time, we forgot they were there. Except for the bartender. We always know exactly where he is.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
jmccy -
Why are you so interested in the punters? You seem to have a profound need to commune with them. I'm sure you've found that most members here don't really give the punters much thought. This is the general temperment of the average sessionista, it would seem to me. If they enjoy it, great, I'm glad they do. If they don't, it doesn't affect in any way whether or not I still want to play, so why concern yourself with it? Besides, I don't want the pressure of worrying whether or not they are entertained or connect with the music, so I prefer it if I don't have to worry about it.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
This is probably not the right place to point out that the correct word for the lack of interest described is "uninterested"
"Disinterested" is more apt to describe a situation where you have no financial or other stake in the proceedings. A subtle difference, but that's what language is all about.
As for punters, then if the music attracts them, your session has a great chance of survival. If it doesn't, then I hope you spend money at the bar.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
JImmy B"
I think you hit well upon the question, "What about the punters?".
What about them? They are not significant, are they really?
They are not in the mix in any meaningful way, it seems to me. They are not an audience, because we are not a "show". They are, mostly, not really there for us, and we assuredly are not there for their benefit or diversion. We are no more than a dart game going on in the corner - someone will always want to watch, of course, but not all play.
Any requests or input from a punter might be kind of a contradictory and interruptive moment - sort of,
"Who are you, and what have you to do with us? We do not see any instrument, so, what do you want? Why the intrusion?"
This does not deny enthused listeners, and those who love a grand noise in the background when they are out pub-crawling. But, all things being equal, what makes anyone not a part of a session think that the musicians are in any way obligated or automatically accessible to them?
(Save management - thanks a lot for the pints and a space to play in! The owner wants to hear Danny Bye, well...)
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Bren, whilst I agree with you about retaining nuance in our language (and I always use disinterested/uninterested in the way you allude to), the unfortunate fact is that "disinterested" originally meant "uninterested" anyway. The distinction between these words is relatively modern. It's a p*sser, but there you go.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Went to a sesh the other week, billed as "traditional".
I lost patience with the local who got up, encouraged by their mates, then sang one of their own long songs, in an American accent, reading the words from a palmtop.
Thats when the punters drop off to sleep.
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Have you ever been to a session that has a reasonable audience (mostly foreigners) or trad. fans, listening to the music /songs and the musicians don't interact with the them. They play a few sets then take a break for 5-10 minutes start to talk between themselves, ignoring the crowd before restarting, losing the crowd as they do. Or the musician who when asked by a visitor (usually from foreigner shore) to play Lonesome Boatman or sing Wild Rover or the likes is ignored at best or told we don't play that type off music hear. Should we give the punters a mixer of what they want to hear and what we want to play? or just do our own thing. My pet hate when someone ask for a tune/song they get the reply throw a fiver into the box or buy a round and we play it, this is like begging and I wish to have no part of it. My own personal feeling is that most sessions are run to please the people playing and not the punters, there is the feeling of we know what is best for you, this is the reason so many are paid so badly. The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys they give the crowd a mixer of what they want to hear and what the group want to play resulting in a reasonable payday.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
jmccy, Do you deliberately craft your discussion topics to get people wound up? They seem more like 'argument' topics to me...
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Oh god, not again!!!
I'm sure Dublin's paid gigs are very nice in their own way, but they were definitely not what *this* punter was after.
Of course, sessions are run to please the people playing and not anyone who happens to be standing around/sitting nearby. When they're not, they're called gigs.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Tirno
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Oh, for feck's sake.
This is the third thread jmccy's posted in the last two days, all on related subjects. S/he hasn't responded to a single comment on the previous two threads so my guess is that this is a third attempt at a wind-up.
By the way, jmccy, 'disinterested' is not synonymous with 'uninterested'.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
If I'm getting paid to cater to an audience, I will.
If I'm not, I won't.
Not rocket science here folks.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys..."
oh.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Are Session.org readers to blame for jmccy's continued silly posts?
Yes.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
This is like a Do It Yourself guide for how to find a session, identify the species, place in formaldehyde, then dissect it into little bits, label everything, & write a textbook.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Who bl00dy cares. Have tunes. If the singers don't like it they can go somewhere else. If the punters don't like it they can go somewhere else.
What is the problem with singers? What are you so scared off?
Mix p1sh. There are plenty mixed sessions, plenty circle of death song session. Leave us in peace to have a night of feckin tunes if we want, will you?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
reply to the OP that was......
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
If someone asks me to sing The Wild Rover I find the politest way I can of telling them to take a flying...
Anyway you are just after a rise. You are not after a debate and you have still not answered my question from way back when - was it your annoying singing that led the folk in the Cobblestone to tell you that they didn't like guitars?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
That seems most likely No Cause. Snubbed belters are always on the moan.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"Go fly a kite" is the politest way I can think of to tell someone to take a flying what you said. It's also got that retro feel, which is nice.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
~ jmccy in Dublin ~
Fair play, Jusa. What to do though? I like to look back over the last 4 or 5 pages of bumped threads (new comments) to see what I missed. Problem is, sometimes it's more pages than that with ... Oh, you're right. We're building our own Frankenstein.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Who bl00dy cares. Have tunes. If the singers don't like it they can go somewhere else. If the punters don't like it they can go somewhere else.
What is the problem with singers? What are you so scared off?
Mix p1sh. There are plenty mixed sessions, plenty circle of death song session. Leave us in peace to have a night of feckin tunes if we want, will you?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
there speaks the voice of tolerance,
Bogman plays with an outfit called the peat bog faeries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_TdfGa8ALQ
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Dick Miles
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLLCoQGUj0Q&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLLCoQGUj0Q&feature=related
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Sorry, I posted the same thing twice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX6oKNCRelE
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Hugo Chavez
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Once again, what has that to do with session music? At least I can play unlike you you hopeless muppet.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Bogman you have to learn not to bottle things up.
This thread is clearly a wind up either deliberately by someone thinking they're funny, or as good as by someone who just doesn't get the whole session thing.
That said. I have no problem with punters making requests in a friendly manner. If the request is clearly undoable I'll apologise and say "not our thing"; if its for a song and there are no singers I'll point that out but we might have a go at the tune anyway.
Do I feel obliged in anyway to do this? No, it's just how I meet life. The stranger in the pub has no right to expect you to bow to his/her whim. OTOH. But I personally don't see the need to be unfriendly by default.
Requests are a rarity anyway, persiatent or obnoxiously delivered requests might be handled differently.
oops door bell must run - chris
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
And look at all the folk jumping up and down and having a good time. There are few bands in Scotland that I can think of that are as good at engaging an audience as the PBFs. That is a group that knows all about performance.
Doesn't mean you want to do that all the time though. Sometimes you just want a quiet tune.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"If the request is clearly undoable I'll apologise and say "not our thing""
That is exactly the polite way I tell them to go and take a flying...
In the session the other night a woman, coming out of the toliet, after we had finished playing a set when we were all holding our instruments asked if we were going to play music.
Now I looked at my guitar and I looked up, and down and up and in all honesty said that I was going to try really hard not to be cheeky....
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Thanks music reader for the post.. The Peat Bog Faires seem like good fun. They are certainly good musicians. When you get hundreds of people dancing and having a good night out to pipes and fiddles you are doing nothing wrong. Fair play to you Bogman.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by big_tab
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Thanks you NCFA, dispite PBF taking about 5% of my musical time, the rest being what I've played since 9 - trad, Dick Miles reckons I am not aloud opinions on actual traditional music. Shortly i'm off to a great trad session with my mates in the local pub, something Dick Miles can't do. a) he can't play. b) he can't have any mates.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by bogman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Just imagine yourself walking into a pub, not knowing there would be a session, so you have no instrument in hand; you are the punter-what do you think? I can't stand the way some posters dumb down the listeners-not my experience at all.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by primrose lass
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
With you there primrose.. I hate that word .. never heard it used for a session,,hate it the same way as I hate the word "diddely" both which I only hear here. Hear here!!
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by big_tab
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
@Dick Miles, will you kindly stop going on about Bogman being in the PBF(as if that is in itself something to be ashamed of) in every feckin thread. It has nothing to do with the current discussion, or any of the other threads where you bring it up like a broken record.
The PBF have been a popular band in Scotland for years.
In an entirely different aspect of his musical life Bogman is highly regarded in the trad music session scene in Scotland. I've never met Bogman or heard him play live, yet I know this because I must know about a dozen musicians that have met/heard/played with Bogman down the years.
In fact if anything the fact that Bogman plays with the PBF in performances like the one you posted and also in a highly regarded traditional session shows that he very much understands that a gig and a session are entirely different bests
I'm sick to the back teeth of seeing you post irrelevant links in order to sidetrack any thread (even a dumb one like this) into a fight with the sole apparent purpose of attracting attention.
I don't normally go off on rants like this, but my patience has been absolutely eroded in this case.
- chris
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
crossposted with Bogman
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Chris.. Dont forget theres someone at the door..
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by big_tab
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Same as it ever was...Smack! Same as it ever was...Smack! Same as it ever was...Smack! Same as it ever was...Smack! Same as it ever was...Smack!
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Bob himself
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
In interest of fairness and by way of comparison this is Mr Music Reader:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dickmilesmusic#p/u/4/xtiOGzLZ8G8
Posted without comment.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Opened door handed daughter over to friends mum for school halloween disco. must remember to walk over to school at 9:00 to do my bit though.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
More from the Peatbog Faeries:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Ihdxp-0ek
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
NCFA
Yeah, that YT clip ending LZ8G8 just about sums it up (oh, and what's that I hear in the background ticking away?)
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by domhnall.
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
My posting may be annoying, they are not intented as a wind up but as a thought provoking exercise. Each person who contributes to a session has his own view, its when the bickering about how the session is treated or the money is sh*t, nobody listening the noise is f----------king awful, I'm not player here again and then the musician who has no job and retires to his/her flat broke. A friend use to tell the joke of the mugger who went to mug a musician coming home from a gig only to be told sure everyone knows musicians have no money, unless of course he has a job.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
That is what a windup is.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
@domnull - I dunno but I was hoping it would go boom!
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Goodnight to all the good folk who have their head so far up their arse they don't realise that they play for pittance, while the publican is including them in his tax returns, claiming he has paid them 4 times as much. So he actually makes money on them as he save twice as much on taxes as he pays the musicians.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
By the way does anyone have the words for the wild rover?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
I forgot to ask for the chords not to many now two at at time would be good don't want to fry the old brain.
Thanks
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
jmccy, I don't see where each of these 3 subsequent threads is adding anything. Each seems to fall back on the generalized premise which assumes *most* sessions do not work due to snobbery. 1st off, I don't think generalities are very thought provoking. Do you?
Please look over what you've given us so far, they're too similar to be stimulating new thought;
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"My own personal feeling is that most sessions are run to please the people playing and not the punters, there is the feeling of we know what is best for you..."
October 28th 2010 by jmccy
Do the punters come to hear the singers or musics?
"The Punters who come to the Sessions usually get bored after hearing 5 or 6 sets, only the knowledgeable will appricate more than 5 or 6 sets unless broken up by song."
October 27th 2010 by jmccy
Is there Snobery in Irish music?
"Do Irish musicain have a snobery regarding the instrument you play?"
Posted on October 27th 2010 by jmccy
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Ben Steen
Song lyrics
Re: The Wild Rover
May 19th 2006 by bloodyfiddlers
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/10058/comments#comment209727
The Pogues - The Wild Rover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afO3IQX2Qnc
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Does it matter?
In a performance, you should never play down to "the crowd". In a session, to all intents and purposes, you don't have an audience. They are'nt punters, just bystanders. If they are disinterested they are probably in the wrong pub.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ormepipes
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Random_humour ..
<"Do Irish musicain have a snobery regarding the instrument you play?" >
Yes! to that too -- All's well when is a session, but divide them
and -
Fiddlers' are Filled up with Elitism..
Piper's are Clan Type's Like the Bagpipe Cousin's and think they are Traditionall music..
Flute player's think everyone's against them and try to play everything in G --- lol..
And so it goes on ...
jim,,, : )
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Fiddle4,
What do you mean "Piper's are Clan Type's Like the Bagpipe Cousin's and think they are Traditionall music" ?
We don't "think" we are, we know we are !
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ormepipes
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"Fiddlers' are Filled up with Elitism.."
Actually, fiddlers are the only members of the Irish Traditional community who are above any kind of snobbery.
And, actually, pipers are the only ones beneath it.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by Piece
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
ormepipes
Aye ! spoken like a true piper -- lol.
jim,,,
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Rook -
I rest my case : )
jim,,,
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Hi Rook,
Like it !
I thought it was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel and I was right !
Actually, to be serious, my little band has just lost its fiddle player and I am quite bereft.
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by ormepipes
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Those fiddlers may be full of themselves sometimes, but they are handy to have around...
# Posted on October 28th 2010 by AlBrown
Troll hat trick
You keep feeding him, he keeps getting fatter.
By the way, disinterested isn't the word you want. It's uninterested. Completely different.
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Dragut Reis
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Hi jmccy, here's another post, it should help with your objective of getting the highest number of posts on the web site.. good look in your quest
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Theirlandais
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
To OP:
"My pet hate when someone ask for a tune/song they get the reply throw a fiver into the box or buy a round and we play it, this is like begging and I wish to have no part of it. ...... The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys they give the crowd a mixer of what they want to hear and what the group want to play resulting in a reasonable payday"
So, you want to get paid for playing a few tunes but you don't want to be seen to be getting money directly off punters? That's called hypocrisy. You're right about one thing - your angst seems to be based around money. Methinks you've moved a good bit away from the tradition and getting further...
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by the wounded hussar
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Theirlandais - < highest number of posts >
No I am not - lol .. I'am just Browseing through -- Its good here,
just Reading the comment's - Range's form, World War III to
something like the Beano - lol...
jim,,,
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"Completely different."
Shouldn't that be "completely unalike"?
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Piece
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
If you so desire it...
I think lexical pedantry is entirely acceptable when it's directed at trolls, especially massively over-fed ones. And our most recent troll certainly needs to go on a diet....
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Dragut Reis
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
How about pointing the finger at mass culture, the decline of musical education, and short attention spans? How about the rising tide of anti-intellectualism and the prevalence of an attitude that believes an art form that doesn't make someone money isn't worth pursuing or even comprehending?
It's not all due to traddies' introspective ways!
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
I don't know about anybody else's session, but at mine, it's mostly made up of amateur musicians who rarely if ever take the stage as performers. You meet at the pub, and you play some tunes, and you get lost in your own world of playing your favorite tunes with good folk s that you only get to see at the session. When bystanders clap, or ask for a tune, there is always that awkward moment. But it's not due to any great disconnect or snobbery or unwillingness to engage. It's just that we were having such a good time, we forgot they were there. Except for the bartender. We always know exactly where he is.
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by mark gowman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Additionally, there's an awfully big difference between a trad session and a payday. I'm a little bit sad if you don't see that.
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by mark gowman
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
jmccy -
Why are you so interested in the punters? You seem to have a profound need to commune with them. I'm sure you've found that most members here don't really give the punters much thought. This is the general temperment of the average sessionista, it would seem to me. If they enjoy it, great, I'm glad they do. If they don't, it doesn't affect in any way whether or not I still want to play, so why concern yourself with it? Besides, I don't want the pressure of worrying whether or not they are entertained or connect with the music, so I prefer it if I don't have to worry about it.
# Posted on October 29th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
This is probably not the right place to point out that the correct word for the lack of interest described is "uninterested"
"Disinterested" is more apt to describe a situation where you have no financial or other stake in the proceedings. A subtle difference, but that's what language is all about.
As for punters, then if the music attracts them, your session has a great chance of survival. If it doesn't, then I hope you spend money at the bar.
# Posted on October 30th 2010 by Bren
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"unlike you you hopeless muppet"
Have you started to warm to him, then, bogman?
# Posted on October 30th 2010 by ethical blend
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
JImmy B"
I think you hit well upon the question, "What about the punters?".
What about them? They are not significant, are they really?
They are not in the mix in any meaningful way, it seems to me. They are not an audience, because we are not a "show". They are, mostly, not really there for us, and we assuredly are not there for their benefit or diversion. We are no more than a dart game going on in the corner - someone will always want to watch, of course, but not all play.
Any requests or input from a punter might be kind of a contradictory and interruptive moment - sort of,
"Who are you, and what have you to do with us? We do not see any instrument, so, what do you want? Why the intrusion?"
This does not deny enthused listeners, and those who love a grand noise in the background when they are out pub-crawling. But, all things being equal, what makes anyone not a part of a session think that the musicians are in any way obligated or automatically accessible to them?
(Save management - thanks a lot for the pints and a space to play in! The owner wants to hear Danny Bye, well...)
Just my ravings.
# Posted on October 30th 2010 by Piece
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
"The best paying session in Dublin is Gogartys..."
Joke... You obviously don't have a clue bud.
# Posted on November 1st 2010 by Zouk2003
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Bren, whilst I agree with you about retaining nuance in our language (and I always use disinterested/uninterested in the way you allude to), the unfortunate fact is that "disinterested" originally meant "uninterested" anyway. The distinction between these words is relatively modern. It's a p*sser, but there you go.
# Posted on November 1st 2010 by Steve Shaw
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
Went to a sesh the other week, billed as "traditional".
I lost patience with the local who got up, encouraged by their mates, then sang one of their own long songs, in an American accent, reading the words from a palmtop.
Thats when the punters drop off to sleep.
# Posted on November 1st 2010 by geoffwright
Re: Are musicians/singers to blame for disinterested punters?
*The distinction between these words is relatively modern*
and we live in modern times, do we not? Relatively ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/28/1
# Posted on November 1st 2010 by Bren