I'm new to you all, and to ITM. My background is classical stuff--played with written music, and alone--not much fun at this point in my life. The people I've started playing with do folk music--mostly Appalachian, but Irish and Scottish tunes as well. The guitar I do there is in standard tuning, and I mostly do arpeggiated chords, harmony lines, bass runs, some solid chords...
If I would ever get up the nerve to play at a session, what kind of guitar accompaniment would I do? What kind of guitar do you all like to hear? (I've read the threads about guitar players blasting in and being obnoxious. I am pretty well behaved, and take hints well.)
So...assuming I would know the tune (I'm learning! There's lots!)--would I be doing fingerpicking--of arpeggiated chords, or of harmony lines? Solid chords? but better in DADGAD? Why? Because it makes it sound more modal? Fingerpicking the melody? which seems wrong since if so many other instruments have the melody couldn't I/shouldn't I be doing harmony of some sort?
Someone who knows music history told me last weekend that when polyphony started showing up in Europe during the Renaissance it never got as far as the Western lands, which is why Irish music stayed just as melody lines....and therefore why harmony is frowned upon.
Looking forward to learning more and getting braver--
Thanks for a great site. It's hard to find people close by in the 3-D world who feel as strongly about music as you all do. I appreciate you all being here--
Hi Gena! Welcome to The Session! We just had a thread about this, let's see...here it is, http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/3113 -- let us know if that doesn't start answering some questions for you, we've a plethora of good backers here...
Thanks Zena!! I'll definitely check out the Doyle video. I have Chris Smith's Mel Bay book, but the visual will help put things together. I saw Lunasa earlier this month--maybe next time I see them I'll know more about what Henessey was doing...
Gena, welcome and good luck to you in this. I'm sure you're going to have a lot of fun.
You say fingerpicking the melody seems wrong since so many other instruments have the melody... I'm not sure I agree. Others might frown on this, and I haven't actually tried it or seen it in sessions, but I think guitar melody lines would work great in a quieter session. Especially if there's already sufficient chord accompaniment going on.
Flatpicking would probably have more bite to it than fingerpicking. Check out how Arty McGlynn blended his guitar in with Patrick Street - chords sometimes, melody others, and you'll see what I mean.
Oh, Rog -- I'm waiting for *£($! Network Solutions to let go their deathgrip on my domain name, damn their hides. It's my last NS domain, and I want it out of there! It'll come back up sooner or later...
Thanks Grego--and speaking of Stratocasters--
no, no risk of me actually bringing anything electric anywhere-- but I do like to listen to it sometimes. How do you all feel about bands that heavily put electronics or synthesizers into their mix? Like Peatbog Faeries? Kila?
Just came from a Kíla concert here in Oz - not a synth to be seen (OK, ...yeah... there was some bass guitar....) other than that miked up trad instruments only (...weeeeelll, OK - except for the djembe - i'll grant you it's not strictly ITM) OMG what a night!!! (ach is mór an teanga liom agus ni mhinic a thagann bannaí ceoil dá lethéid anseo!)
Welcome to The Session, gena, and to the sub-species of backers!!!
My (only) strong opinion is that any tuning is OK, as long as it is played well.
I'd not agree that fingerpicking is less valid than flatpicking (maybe because I'm fingerpicking), it's just fingerpicking is less popular - but hey, who said we're to be mainstream? Both have certain advantages over the other, but - flatpicking is less explored... see the hint?... aw right, I'm being biased now *grin*.
True, 'tis difficult to play a melody on a guitar during a pub sesh, but there are other sessions as well. Learning tunes has one more great advantage - you learn more about what you play. Soon you'll see that your backing technique and theory of playing ITM will greatly impove. I cannot stress too much the importance of learning melody.
Third thing - be careful. Backers are the spice of ITM, but as such they have a great potential to disrupting a good session. From what I read, you are not an overbearing type, and that's only good for you I suppose somewhere in this site you'll find all the resources you need about the session etiquette.
Anyhoo, have great fun, learn, contribute and play. Great pleasure meeting you - for once I had a chance for some patronising mentoring. Always happy to help
Lots of good advice here, so let me add one more bit. Do you know a few other Irish traditional musicians you could jam with outside of a session? You know -- go over for an afternoon or evening, have a little potluck supper, and jigs and reels for afterwards.
This is a good way to get some more familiarity with the music in a setting that might be rather less intimidating than a session. Hopefully, you can also build a rapport with a couple of musicians which might sit you in good stead when all of you go to a session.
Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I'm getting Doyle's video--(anyone see Al Petteway's video?) and am trying to figure out a way to hook up with some folks sort of nearby that I think used to do Irish jams every so often. Thanks, sts. Janek, I'm glad your strong opinion is that any tuning is okay. Harder to convince my left hand to do new stuff than it is the right...
If its accompaniment you want to go for forget fingerpicking-you wont be heard in 90% of the places you may end up playing in.Use a plectrum and try to get your rhythm together-you can play melodies with a plec too.I cant imagine accompanying a fast jig or reel without 1.
If you enjoy fingerpicking tunes -keep it up.Check out someone like Tony McManus to see how far you can take it in this style(hes a mean flatpicker too).
Good Luck-Its not always easy to start these kind of things( I remember my first session-the horror!!) but it is worth every bit of effort.
The Doyle vid should point you in the right direction
I have to disagree.....I am a fingerpicker, and pretty darn loud....not obtrusive (so am told!) but quite audible. I use a thumbpick, which really helps. I use dropped D for backing, Sometimes hit chords, but mailny partial chords,reconfigured, but the beauty of it is you can pick out some of the melody notes with that thumbpick and instead of fully chording, hit other appropriate strings with the other fingers.
I get great volume out of the instrument, and currently use a big Larrivee for sessions, but get equal volume out of a little Martin OM21. The fingerpicking blends in well at a session and can certainly be heard. Play along with CDs you like at home until you can get ups the speed. I have been playing this way in ITM for nearly 30 years, both professionally (back in the old days in NYC was working all the time)and in sessions,and few have objected....just two or so, who suggest learning to play like Doyle. I wouldn't know what to do with a flatpick if you handed me one....
When playing melody, I go to DADGAD. Esp. the O'Carolan tunes.....yummy. I do a bunch of regular tunes too....and what's nice, you get the thumb doing a drone as you play melody notes with the fingers. Or reverse it, sometimes melody with thumb and brush the sympathetic higher strings with fingers.....being from a classical background you already can do this. If you learn some tunes, people will be happy to be quiet and listen as a rule when you play them. In DADGAD you may be changing the key for some of them anyway, if doing a 'listening' piece.
You are lucky to be so well trained, I am musically illiterate, cannot seem to learn to read music or tablature and retain it. I think we need more fingerpickers in ITM......you can get as full a sound as any flatpicker in my opinion if done with enough punch, which comes with confidence and practice.
I agree. I get just the same volume when fingerpicking and flatpicking, and I think it is not because I am a lame flatpicker.
The difference is in the character of sound, that's all, and it doesn't matter really after the third pint (we were discussing that lately, were we not).
Still, I didn't manage to emulate certain effects you can get with flatpicking... That's why I'm doing my best to learn to use plectrum when backing.
I guess its a question of dynamics also.Pretty much every trad guitarist I know uses plecs for accompaniment-try both methods and see which one works for you.
Its all good.
I am exposing my ignorance here, but it won't be the last time...
When you say "plectrum" do you mean a triangular flatpick? (plastic)
If you say "thumb pick" is that the plastic thing that wraps around you thumb? (again, don't laugh)
and if the thumb has its own pick what are the other fingers doing?Brushing the strings with the back of the nails? Plucking them WITH nails? (which I only have short ones of) Plucking them with the pads of the fingers? which would be a different sound than the thumb plucked notes. Does that matter?
I have tried all finger picks (like Leo Koettke on his 12 string) and couldn't do it at all. I felt like I had a gorilla hand or something. You all are not suggesting anything like that, right? And those picks were metal. You mean plastic, I think?
And am I learning DADGAD because of the drones and the modal 5th's sound?
Thanks again for all your info and support. What a nice bunch of people you are, and funny!
Gena, you're right about the thumbpick and plectrum definitions.
Also, I agree about fingerpicks - don't know how people can abide them! I play with bare fingers (my nails are generally too short to get much value out of them,) a plectrum for flatpicking, or a hybrid of the two - and I think this last is the most fun.
With the hybrid technique, you grasp a plectrum with your thumb and first finger, and then use the second and third to fingerpick. This allows you to quickly switch between strumming, flatpicked lightning-fast runs, and fingerpicking. Paul Brady used this as standard practice when he played ITM and folk stuff (before he became a rock icon.)
Heh, one of the reasons I don't play bluegrass banjo much any more (besides people taking one look at my toothless grin and asking if I'm that kid that played in the Deliverance movie) is the discomfort of the picks. You can shape the metal finger picks to fit, but the wrap-around flanges still bite into my cuticles, and the thumb pick turns my thumb purple within 10 minutes.
No, no, by "fingerpicking" I meant playing with bare fingers reinforced with 100% natural nails, just as you do in classical playing. I have the same sensation as you do when trying fingerpicks on.
Flatpicking and fingerpicking at once... Have to try that one. Must be quite challenging to learn.
You are learning DADGAD because of the haunting, appealing sound, drones, modal 5th sound, and great easiness of playing Irish music. But of course, you don't want to stay on banging down a simple I-IV-V progression and want to explore all possibilities of this kind of tuning.
Oh, no fingerpicks for me, just slightly longer nails on right hand. Plastic thumbpick gives good loud bassline. The fingers are also picking the other strings, sometimes brush if I get lazy or tired! Or for the effect of stressing something. Hard tunes to back, like slides and polkas I do a lot more strumming with the fingers though. The more notes in a bar (correct me if wrong terms, I don't read music) the harder to fingerpick and keep up speed, which equals a little more strumming with the fingers....as in a jig that will have six notes, as opposed to a reel that has four it is harder to keep up in the jig while picking, so I may occassionally lapse a bit and strum a little more often....sometimes with the thumbpick used as a flatpick. Fingerpicking I find is more work that straight strumming, but it's just what I like, so I do it.
If you practice enough it should become 2nd nature after a while, I never even think much about what's going on anymore, it just flows. With your background you should be able to get to that place where you just flow with the music. Maybe some of those slowdowner programs and a few fiddle CDs to practice with will have you there in no time!
The Doyle video arrived today (!) The Fates will not have me waste time, apparently.
I thank you all again for your suggestions and info. I found the BBC play along session from another thread. So I'm set in the electronic world (and soon to enter the real world too, I'm sure)...
We have a regular DADGAD guitarist/bodrhan player at our session, and he needs a "roller" capo to change keys quickly, as it is a tuning stongly biased towards the key of D.
I couldn't get on with the fingerpicks either, only found out much later they are mainly used by 5-string banjo pickers, much prefer nails. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't holding a flat-pick AND finger-picking known as "chicken-picking" in country music ?
Bearing in mind that one never knows/can join in with everything at any session anyway, just start slowly and see what fits. After all, nobody was playing any guitar in irish sessions 100 years ago, it has evolved.
what to play on the guitar in a session?
what to play on the guitar in a session?
I'm new to you all, and to ITM. My background is classical stuff--played with written music, and alone--not much fun at this point in my life. The people I've started playing with do folk music--mostly Appalachian, but Irish and Scottish tunes as well. The guitar I do there is in standard tuning, and I mostly do arpeggiated chords, harmony lines, bass runs, some solid chords...
If I would ever get up the nerve to play at a session, what kind of guitar accompaniment would I do? What kind of guitar do you all like to hear? (I've read the threads about guitar players blasting in and being obnoxious. I am pretty well behaved, and take hints well.)
So...assuming I would know the tune (I'm learning! There's lots!)--would I be doing fingerpicking--of arpeggiated chords, or of harmony lines? Solid chords? but better in DADGAD? Why? Because it makes it sound more modal? Fingerpicking the melody? which seems wrong since if so many other instruments have the melody couldn't I/shouldn't I be doing harmony of some sort?
Someone who knows music history told me last weekend that when polyphony started showing up in Europe during the Renaissance it never got as far as the Western lands, which is why Irish music stayed just as melody lines....and therefore why harmony is frowned upon.
Looking forward to learning more and getting braver--
Thanks for a great site. It's hard to find people close by in the 3-D world who feel as strongly about music as you all do. I appreciate you all being here--
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Hi Gena! Welcome to The Session! We just had a thread about this, let's see...here it is, http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/3113 -- let us know if that doesn't start answering some questions for you, we've a plethora of good backers here...
Hope to hear from you often!
Zina
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Oh, and http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/3098
and
http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/3084
and a VERY oldie but goodie,
http://thesession.org/discussions/display.php/141
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Thanks Zena!! I'll definitely check out the Doyle video. I have Chris Smith's Mel Bay book, but the visual will help put things together. I saw Lunasa earlier this month--maybe next time I see them I'll know more about what Henessey was doing...
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
pity, i tried to look at (from that old thread): http://www.zinalee.com/sounds/butterfly.mp3 but the link had rotted away... what happened to zinalee.com then?
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by rog
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Gena, welcome and good luck to you in this. I'm sure you're going to have a lot of fun.
You say fingerpicking the melody seems wrong since so many other instruments have the melody... I'm not sure I agree. Others might frown on this, and I haven't actually tried it or seen it in sessions, but I think guitar melody lines would work great in a quieter session. Especially if there's already sufficient chord accompaniment going on.
Flatpicking would probably have more bite to it than fingerpicking. Check out how Arty McGlynn blended his guitar in with Patrick Street - chords sometimes, melody others, and you'll see what I mean.
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by grego
(... However, unlike Arty, you'ld probably be wise to leave the Stratocaster at home.)
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by grego
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Oh, Rog -- I'm waiting for *£($! Network Solutions to let go their deathgrip on my domain name, damn their hides. It's my last NS domain, and I want it out of there! It'll come back up sooner or later...
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Thanks Grego--and speaking of Stratocasters--
no, no risk of me actually bringing anything electric anywhere-- but I do like to listen to it sometimes. How do you all feel about bands that heavily put electronics or synthesizers into their mix? Like Peatbog Faeries? Kila?
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Fun stuff when I'm in the mood, but not my thing, really.
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Just came from a Kíla concert here in Oz - not a synth to be seen (OK, ...yeah... there was some bass guitar....) other than that miked up trad instruments only (...weeeeelll, OK - except for the djembe - i'll grant you it's not strictly ITM) OMG what a night!!! (ach is mór an teanga liom agus ni mhinic a thagann bannaí ceoil dá lethéid anseo!)
siobháinín
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by siobhanin
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Welcome to The Session, gena, and to the sub-species of backers!!!
My (only) strong opinion is that any tuning is OK, as long as it is played well.
I'd not agree that fingerpicking is less valid than flatpicking (maybe because I'm fingerpicking), it's just fingerpicking is less popular - but hey, who said we're to be mainstream? Both have certain advantages over the other, but - flatpicking is less explored... see the hint?... aw right, I'm being biased now *grin*.
True, 'tis difficult to play a melody on a guitar during a pub sesh, but there are other sessions as well. Learning tunes has one more great advantage - you learn more about what you play. Soon you'll see that your backing technique and theory of playing ITM will greatly impove. I cannot stress too much the importance of learning melody.
Third thing - be careful. Backers are the spice of ITM, but as such they have a great potential to disrupting a good session. From what I read, you are not an overbearing type, and that's only good for you
I suppose somewhere in this site you'll find all the resources you need about the session etiquette.
Anyhoo, have great fun, learn, contribute and play. Great pleasure meeting you - for once I had a chance for some patronising mentoring. Always happy to help
Janek
# Posted on March 22nd 2004 by EastPole
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Lots of good advice here, so let me add one more bit. Do you know a few other Irish traditional musicians you could jam with outside of a session? You know -- go over for an afternoon or evening, have a little potluck supper, and jigs and reels for afterwards.
This is a good way to get some more familiarity with the music in a setting that might be rather less intimidating than a session. Hopefully, you can also build a rapport with a couple of musicians which might sit you in good stead when all of you go to a session.
# Posted on March 23rd 2004 by sts
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I'm getting Doyle's video--(anyone see Al Petteway's video?) and am trying to figure out a way to hook up with some folks sort of nearby that I think used to do Irish jams every so often. Thanks, sts. Janek, I'm glad your strong opinion is that any tuning is okay. Harder to convince my left hand to do new stuff than it is the right...
# Posted on March 23rd 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Hey, just remember that Irish musicians don't "jam"...we "session". I don't know why.
# Posted on March 23rd 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
If its accompaniment you want to go for forget fingerpicking-you wont be heard in 90% of the places you may end up playing in.Use a plectrum and try to get your rhythm together-you can play melodies with a plec too.I cant imagine accompanying a fast jig or reel without 1.
If you enjoy fingerpicking tunes -keep it up.Check out someone like Tony McManus to see how far you can take it in this style(hes a mean flatpicker too).
Good Luck-Its not always easy to start these kind of things( I remember my first session-the horror!!) but it is worth every bit of effort.
The Doyle vid should point you in the right direction
# Posted on March 23rd 2004 by JimR
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Try Silent Night.
# Posted on March 23rd 2004 by geoffwright
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
I have to disagree.....I am a fingerpicker, and pretty darn loud....not obtrusive (so am told!) but quite audible. I use a thumbpick, which really helps. I use dropped D for backing, Sometimes hit chords, but mailny partial chords,reconfigured, but the beauty of it is you can pick out some of the melody notes with that thumbpick and instead of fully chording, hit other appropriate strings with the other fingers.
I get great volume out of the instrument, and currently use a big Larrivee for sessions, but get equal volume out of a little Martin OM21. The fingerpicking blends in well at a session and can certainly be heard. Play along with CDs you like at home until you can get ups the speed. I have been playing this way in ITM for nearly 30 years, both professionally (back in the old days in NYC was working all the time)and in sessions,and few have objected....just two or so, who suggest learning to play like Doyle. I wouldn't know what to do with a flatpick if you handed me one....
When playing melody, I go to DADGAD. Esp. the O'Carolan tunes.....yummy. I do a bunch of regular tunes too....and what's nice, you get the thumb doing a drone as you play melody notes with the fingers. Or reverse it, sometimes melody with thumb and brush the sympathetic higher strings with fingers.....being from a classical background you already can do this. If you learn some tunes, people will be happy to be quiet and listen as a rule when you play them. In DADGAD you may be changing the key for some of them anyway, if doing a 'listening' piece.
You are lucky to be so well trained, I am musically illiterate, cannot seem to learn to read music or tablature and retain it. I think we need more fingerpickers in ITM......you can get as full a sound as any flatpicker in my opinion if done with enough punch, which comes with confidence and practice.
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by irisnevins
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
I agree. I get just the same volume when fingerpicking and flatpicking, and I think it is not because I am a lame flatpicker.
The difference is in the character of sound, that's all, and it doesn't matter really after the third pint (we were discussing that lately, were we not).
Still, I didn't manage to emulate certain effects you can get with flatpicking... That's why I'm doing my best to learn to use plectrum when backing.
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by EastPole
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
I guess its a question of dynamics also.Pretty much every trad guitarist I know uses plecs for accompaniment-try both methods and see which one works for you.
Its all good.
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by JimR
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
I am exposing my ignorance here, but it won't be the last time...
When you say "plectrum" do you mean a triangular flatpick? (plastic)
If you say "thumb pick" is that the plastic thing that wraps around you thumb? (again, don't laugh)
and if the thumb has its own pick what are the other fingers doing?Brushing the strings with the back of the nails? Plucking them WITH nails? (which I only have short ones of) Plucking them with the pads of the fingers? which would be a different sound than the thumb plucked notes. Does that matter?
I have tried all finger picks (like Leo Koettke on his 12 string) and couldn't do it at all. I felt like I had a gorilla hand or something. You all are not suggesting anything like that, right? And those picks were metal. You mean plastic, I think?
And am I learning DADGAD because of the drones and the modal 5th's sound?
Thanks again for all your info and support. What a nice bunch of people you are, and funny!
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Gena, you're right about the thumbpick and plectrum definitions.
Also, I agree about fingerpicks - don't know how people can abide them! I play with bare fingers (my nails are generally too short to get much value out of them,) a plectrum for flatpicking, or a hybrid of the two - and I think this last is the most fun.
With the hybrid technique, you grasp a plectrum with your thumb and first finger, and then use the second and third to fingerpick. This allows you to quickly switch between strumming, flatpicked lightning-fast runs, and fingerpicking. Paul Brady used this as standard practice when he played ITM and folk stuff (before he became a rock icon.)
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by grego
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Heh, one of the reasons I don't play bluegrass banjo much any more (besides people taking one look at my toothless grin and asking if I'm that kid that played in the Deliverance movie) is the discomfort of the picks. You can shape the metal finger picks to fit, but the wrap-around flanges still bite into my cuticles, and the thumb pick turns my thumb purple within 10 minutes.
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by Will CPT
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
No, no, by "fingerpicking" I meant playing with bare fingers reinforced with 100% natural nails, just as you do in classical playing. I have the same sensation as you do when trying fingerpicks on.
Flatpicking and fingerpicking at once... Have to try that one. Must be quite challenging to learn.
You are learning DADGAD because of the haunting, appealing sound, drones, modal 5th sound, and great easiness of playing Irish music. But of course, you don't want to stay on banging down a simple I-IV-V progression and want to explore all possibilities of this kind of tuning.
Am I not right?
*innocent grin*
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by EastPole
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Oh, no fingerpicks for me, just slightly longer nails on right hand. Plastic thumbpick gives good loud bassline. The fingers are also picking the other strings, sometimes brush if I get lazy or tired! Or for the effect of stressing something. Hard tunes to back, like slides and polkas I do a lot more strumming with the fingers though. The more notes in a bar (correct me if wrong terms, I don't read music) the harder to fingerpick and keep up speed, which equals a little more strumming with the fingers....as in a jig that will have six notes, as opposed to a reel that has four it is harder to keep up in the jig while picking, so I may occassionally lapse a bit and strum a little more often....sometimes with the thumbpick used as a flatpick. Fingerpicking I find is more work that straight strumming, but it's just what I like, so I do it.
If you practice enough it should become 2nd nature after a while, I never even think much about what's going on anymore, it just flows. With your background you should be able to get to that place where you just flow with the music. Maybe some of those slowdowner programs and a few fiddle CDs to practice with will have you there in no time!
# Posted on March 24th 2004 by irisnevins
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
The Doyle video arrived today (!) The Fates will not have me waste time, apparently.
I thank you all again for your suggestions and info. I found the BBC play along session from another thread. So I'm set in the electronic world (and soon to enter the real world too, I'm sure)...
# Posted on March 26th 2004 by gena
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
Yay, Gena! Let us know how you get along...!
# Posted on March 26th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: what to play on the guitar in a session?
We have a regular DADGAD guitarist/bodrhan player at our session, and he needs a "roller" capo to change keys quickly, as it is a tuning stongly biased towards the key of D.
I couldn't get on with the fingerpicks either, only found out much later they are mainly used by 5-string banjo pickers, much prefer nails. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't holding a flat-pick AND finger-picking known as "chicken-picking" in country music ?
Bearing in mind that one never knows/can join in with everything at any session anyway, just start slowly and see what fits. After all, nobody was playing any guitar in irish sessions 100 years ago, it has evolved.
GP
# Posted on March 29th 2004 by Guernsey Pete