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Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Last night at the Wig Museum a couple of players (a flute and a fiddle) were horse trading seats so as to sit in the optimum position for their particular purposes. We concluded that players of certain instruments prefer to look left and some to the right.
A fiddle player sitting on a chair will tend to look in a leftish direction that is to say along the length of the fiddle which sticks out to the left from the shoulder. All the bowing and holding the fiddle naturally points a fiddler to the left.
But a flautist sitting on the same chair will tend to look right on account of that’s where the flute and its gubbins points.
Six string devil botherers, ‘zoukists and the banjo boys will be the same as fiddlers. Pipers are fairly straight-on with maybe a hint of right hand bent. Whistlers seem to be right in the middle as are the various box players.
It makes sense that players of the same instrument will fit together nicely. If a flautist gets a fiddler on their right hand side there’s bound to be an amount of mutual collision and poking. A piper or box player may prefer a fiddle to his left and a fluter to his right.
Now if any of the musicians play in a left handed manner the above becomes more complicated...
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Jon: It's not so much what you look at (I play with my eyes closed 90% of the time anyway) it's more hearing the tunes and feeling you have enough space. It's dreadful trying to play at a session where there isn't enough space to adjust your wig.
TSS: a piano player's position id traditionally even better- back to the whole caboodle!
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Spoons and bones players generally look in the opposite direction to the hand holding the instruments. That's so they can pretend it was accidental when they punch you in the face.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I'm willing to contort myself in any position required in order to sit near the more consistent melody players - it also helps I am roughly the same size as a keebler elf.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
As a fiddler I look to the right. Otherwise I couldn't see the guitarist.
I prefer to have percussionists to my left so I can pull faces without them noticing.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I generally prefer to sit to the right of a fiddler, but that puts my box facing away from them. Best if they play left-handed, then - solves the whole problem.
As for the percussionists, I find it's best if I sit on one side of a wall, and they sit on the other.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Pipes and whistle - straight on - and I'm left handed but play right handed - does that matter ? - oh, also my left eye has dominance - which is handy when I'm shooting.
Speeking of shooting, I naturally favour the right side of the line.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
There are only two seating rules. First, bodhran/bones/egg players sit in the lavatorium all night (and I mean in it, not on it). Second, the fiddle sits where he can't take the bloody harmonica player's eye out.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
i look left when i fiddle, but when i play concertina i've noticed an unreasoned but compelling tendency to look down to my right. can't see a reason for it - maybe its because left is my best ear.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Like The Silver Spear I instinctively plump for a corner, if I can get one.
This is so:
I can doze off without giving others the impression I am being violently unsociable;
I am less likely to wind two other players at the same time while cranking my box;
I can stop playing to pick my nose and eat it without too many noticing;
People will understand that it is physically beyond me to scramble out and buy a round. Corners get curiously hemmed in, it seems.
The only real disadvantage is, nobody can go and have a pee for me.
To do this, or buy the drinks that others have churlishly neglected to buy me, two strategies are of avail. The first is dubious, the second entirely reliable.
The first is to attempt to bound over the seats of spare chairs and stools. Almost invariably, the legs fly out in all directions and so do I. The pub can get new chairs, but they are careful to put the same wonky legs back on.
The second is to start playing some singularly sonorous and dismaying tune. It has an effect like the Kraken waking, or Tim Finnegan rising from the dead. The sessioners scatter like greased pigs to the bar, the bogs or the smoking area. To one or more of these places, I too can now resort. But if I leave it too long, I have to climb over them all to get back in again.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Ditto on the no flutes to my (a fiddler) left. We poke each other and they might dribble spit on me.
It's generally a bit tough figuring out a comfortable place to sit, because either I will bow a musician in the nose, or a drunk pub-goer will run into my bow. The first is bad for the nose, the latter bad for the bow.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
The periscope mirror in my bass drone resonator bothers the lady who sits on my right. Even so,
she insists on going to that same chair every session. "Naughty boy!" she giggles, as she she takes her seat; then slaps me on the nose. It's our little ritual.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I sit sideways as not to drip on anyone with my flute, or get hit in the face (again) with the fiddle bow. I make sure I kind of face the person to the right of me.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I look left always. With flute I have to sit at a sharp angle
to allow enough space for the person to my right; I have to look
left or else I'm staring at somebody's left ear.
With fiddle, I aim the scroll at whoever started the tune if I can
and look down the length of the fingerboard. I have to move
around on my chair to get my right arm set --- I'm always looking
left -- ish.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I don't like sitting on the bass side of box players if they're using the bass! And being a fiddle player I tend to be looking left - but not to see where my fingers go!!
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
A long-term well known face on the Glasgow secne turned up at a session once a few years back with what appeared to be a pasting table.
"er what's that you have there J-------?"
"well I was in last week and found myself sitting in the corner.
I realised how much better I could here myself and how much bettre the fiddle sounded... So I made myself my own corner"
J then proceeds to open up two tall and broad sheets of wood hinged together in the middle. Places them behind his chair and plays like that for the rest of the night.
The guy brought his own corner with him to the pub
No, I wasn't there, but some good friends of mine were. What's more knowing the fiddler in question, this is the perfect distillation of his eccentric tics.
Not really to do with which way to face, but a number of people mentioned a preference for corners, so i thought I'd mention the ideal solution: bring your own.
I like sitting at the left hand side of a row. Not so much for where I'm looking but because it naturally has the banjo pointing towards the session. and the headstock pointing away from other people.
@Jon all the left handed fiddlers I know play right handed, left handed fiddles being so rare. I hadn't thought about this until it came up in conversation but the prevailing opinion ws that fiddles strung backwards sound bad and it is too cramped to play the things strung the right way round left handed (although some folks do). Left handed flute players though are buy one get one free around here.
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I'm agreeing on several counts i.e. great thread, not sitting to left of flute, not with anyone closer than a couple of feet to my right (so I don't poke them) and usually in the same place as always so I can chat to the other (precious few) women between tunes. I will add that I'm in a good position to see the door, as I'm nosey enough to want to know who's in and hear any news from them. This prevents me from closing my eyes when playing, which I know helps me listen better, but hey ho at least I've stopped looking at my fingers, which I realized I did thanks to a discussion on here some time ago and now do look at the floor in case F___ is hovering with his camera. I can't believe I've managed to write and actually post - must be a slow day and a great thread...
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Surely there's no such thing as a left- or rihgt-handed fiddle. If you were stupid enough to cut one right down the centre, you would end up with two mirror (unplayable) halves. The only thing which makes "handedness" is a chinrest,
Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Last night at the Wig Museum a couple of players (a flute and a fiddle) were horse trading seats so as to sit in the optimum position for their particular purposes. We concluded that players of certain instruments prefer to look left and some to the right.
A fiddle player sitting on a chair will tend to look in a leftish direction that is to say along the length of the fiddle which sticks out to the left from the shoulder. All the bowing and holding the fiddle naturally points a fiddler to the left.
But a flautist sitting on the same chair will tend to look right on account of that’s where the flute and its gubbins points.
Six string devil botherers, ‘zoukists and the banjo boys will be the same as fiddlers. Pipers are fairly straight-on with maybe a hint of right hand bent. Whistlers seem to be right in the middle as are the various box players.
It makes sense that players of the same instrument will fit together nicely. If a flautist gets a fiddler on their right hand side there’s bound to be an amount of mutual collision and poking. A piper or box player may prefer a fiddle to his left and a fluter to his right.
Now if any of the musicians play in a left handed manner the above becomes more complicated...
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I don't know about left or right, but I prefer to be backed into a corner, as far from punters as possible.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I don't really look at anyone while I'm playing, so it doesn't matter much to me.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Jon: It's not so much what you look at (I play with my eyes closed 90% of the time anyway) it's more hearing the tunes and feeling you have enough space. It's dreadful trying to play at a session where there isn't enough space to adjust your wig.
TSS: a piano player's position id traditionally even better- back to the whole caboodle!
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Spoons and bones players generally look in the opposite direction to the hand holding the instruments. That's so they can pretend it was accidental when they punch you in the face.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I'm willing to contort myself in any position required in order to sit near the more consistent melody players - it also helps I am roughly the same size as a keebler elf.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Yhaalhouse, "Ragtime Piano Players Do It Upright" but I don't know which position Irish piano players use.
Laurence
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by fauxcelt
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
That's funny Jusa. I find myself staying near the tip of my bow in snug situations to avoid any nasty accidents.
...unless I'm seated to the right of a spoons or bones player and surreptitiously asked to have an accident.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
As a fiddler I look to the right. Otherwise I couldn't see the guitarist.
I prefer to have percussionists to my left so I can pull faces without them noticing.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by kuec
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I generally prefer to sit to the right of a fiddler, but that puts my box facing away from them. Best if they play left-handed, then - solves the whole problem.
As for the percussionists, I find it's best if I sit on one side of a wall, and they sit on the other.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Pipes and whistle - straight on - and I'm left handed but play right handed - does that matter ? - oh, also my left eye has dominance - which is handy when I'm shooting.
Speeking of shooting, I naturally favour the right side of the line.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by ormepipes
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I just need to be sure the drones aren't hitting someone's shins.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Marc C
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
There are only two seating rules. First, bodhran/bones/egg players sit in the lavatorium all night (and I mean in it, not on it). Second, the fiddle sits where he can't take the bloody harmonica player's eye out.
Great thread by the way.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Right about flutes and fiddles. I try to never sit on the left side of a fiddler or we do end up poking each other.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Bredna
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I don't worry about that, Marc. If people get kneecapped by the drones, it's their own damned fault.
The only thing I really worry about is the drippy end of a flute.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Ha ha!
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
i look left when i fiddle, but when i play concertina i've noticed an unreasoned but compelling tendency to look down to my right. can't see a reason for it - maybe its because left is my best ear.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by 'tinamatt
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Emily - I'm not worried about the drip playing the flute, I'm more worried about the stuff coming out the downstream side.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Yeah, that too. :P
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Like The Silver Spear I instinctively plump for a corner, if I can get one.
This is so:
I can doze off without giving others the impression I am being violently unsociable;
I am less likely to wind two other players at the same time while cranking my box;
I can stop playing to pick my nose and eat it without too many noticing;
People will understand that it is physically beyond me to scramble out and buy a round. Corners get curiously hemmed in, it seems.
The only real disadvantage is, nobody can go and have a pee for me.
To do this, or buy the drinks that others have churlishly neglected to buy me, two strategies are of avail. The first is dubious, the second entirely reliable.
The first is to attempt to bound over the seats of spare chairs and stools. Almost invariably, the legs fly out in all directions and so do I. The pub can get new chairs, but they are careful to put the same wonky legs back on.
The second is to start playing some singularly sonorous and dismaying tune. It has an effect like the Kraken waking, or Tim Finnegan rising from the dead. The sessioners scatter like greased pigs to the bar, the bogs or the smoking area. To one or more of these places, I too can now resort. But if I leave it too long, I have to climb over them all to get back in again.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
It's easy, just sit in the same place you always sit. It feels strange if you sit in the wrong chair.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by minijackpot
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Ditto on the no flutes to my (a fiddler) left. We poke each other and they might dribble spit on me.
It's generally a bit tough figuring out a comfortable place to sit, because either I will bow a musician in the nose, or a drunk pub-goer will run into my bow. The first is bad for the nose, the latter bad for the bow.
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by fiddletreegypsy
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
"I don't know about left or right, but I prefer to be backed into a corner, as far from punters as possible."
preferably with revolutionary war vintage earthworks and/or sharpened wooden stakes sticking out of the ground
# Posted on February 2nd 2011 by scordion
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
"But a flautist sitting on the same chair will tend to look right on account of that’s where the flute and its gubbins points."
As a flute player I tend to look to the left - across the flute rather than down it.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by kinga
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Same as kinga. And my general attitude is to twist my neck to avoid twisting my back - so I'll typically be looking well to the left of my chair
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by Tirno
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
It doesn't matter where I start off - I end up under the table anyway.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
The periscope mirror in my bass drone resonator bothers the lady who sits on my right. Even so,
she insists on going to that same chair every session. "Naughty boy!" she giggles, as she she takes her seat; then slaps me on the nose. It's our little ritual.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I am surprised no one has mentioned the direction I like to look--toward the floor!
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Flute player's depends what hand they play I like to keep away from the drips, - lol..
jim,,,
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by FIDDLE4
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
pah people who look at their fiddle to see where there fingers are meant to go are obviously amateurs who have no place at a session
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by I ♥ Dow
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I sit sideways as not to drip on anyone with my flute, or get hit in the face (again) with the fiddle bow. I make sure I kind of face the person to the right of me.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by pipersgrip
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I look left always. With flute I have to sit at a sharp angle
to allow enough space for the person to my right; I have to look
left or else I'm staring at somebody's left ear.
With fiddle, I aim the scroll at whoever started the tune if I can
and look down the length of the fingerboard. I have to move
around on my chair to get my right arm set --- I'm always looking
left -- ish.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by Hup
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I don't like sitting on the bass side of box players if they're using the bass! And being a fiddle player I tend to be looking left - but not to see where my fingers go!!
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by Tarrantella
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
A long-term well known face on the Glasgow secne turned up at a session once a few years back with what appeared to be a pasting table.
"er what's that you have there J-------?"
"well I was in last week and found myself sitting in the corner.
I realised how much better I could here myself and how much bettre the fiddle sounded... So I made myself my own corner"
J then proceeds to open up two tall and broad sheets of wood hinged together in the middle. Places them behind his chair and plays like that for the rest of the night.
The guy brought his own corner with him to the pub
No, I wasn't there, but some good friends of mine were. What's more knowing the fiddler in question, this is the perfect distillation of his eccentric tics.
Not really to do with which way to face, but a number of people mentioned a preference for corners, so i thought I'd mention the ideal solution: bring your own.
I like sitting at the left hand side of a row. Not so much for where I'm looking but because it naturally has the banjo pointing towards the session. and the headstock pointing away from other people.
@Jon all the left handed fiddlers I know play right handed, left handed fiddles being so rare. I hadn't thought about this until it came up in conversation but the prevailing opinion ws that fiddles strung backwards sound bad and it is too cramped to play the things strung the right way round left handed (although some folks do). Left handed flute players though are buy one get one free around here.
- Chris
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I'm agreeing on several counts i.e. great thread, not sitting to left of flute, not with anyone closer than a couple of feet to my right (so I don't poke them) and usually in the same place as always so I can chat to the other (precious few) women between tunes. I will add that I'm in a good position to see the door, as I'm nosey enough to want to know who's in and hear any news from them. This prevents me from closing my eyes when playing, which I know helps me listen better, but hey ho at least I've stopped looking at my fingers, which I realized I did thanks to a discussion on here some time ago and now do look at the floor in case F___ is hovering with his camera. I can't believe I've managed to write and actually post - must be a slow day and a great thread...
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by FiddleFi
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I know who you mean, Chris. That is something he would do, isn't it? Ingenious.
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by DrSilverSpear
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
"Bring your own corner" - nice one, Chris!
# Posted on February 3rd 2011 by nicholas
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Surely there's no such thing as a left- or rihgt-handed fiddle. If you were stupid enough to cut one right down the centre, you would end up with two mirror (unplayable) halves. The only thing which makes "handedness" is a chinrest,
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
soundpost, I think.
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by Ben Steen
http://www.violins.on.ca/luthier/soundpost1.html
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by Ben Steen
I like the final comment ~
To be continued.
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by Ben Steen
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
"Surely there's no such thing as a left- or rihgt-handed fiddle"
and then there's the bass bar...
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by prestonian
Re: Chairs, players, lfet or rihgt, is this dyslexia?
Every now & again I appreciate this forum;
http://derekmccormick.wordpress.com/category/12-the-bass-bar/
If I could only get through to the Wiz ...
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by Ben Steen
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
Did you ever hear the one about the dyslexic who walked into a bra?
# Posted on February 5th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Chairs, players, left or right looking, is there a pattern?
I keep my eyes closed and sit as far from guitars and bodhrans etc. as possible!
# Posted on February 8th 2011 by The Archivist