I've just been messing around with the database here to try and find out what's the most and least popular day of the week for sessions to take place. Some very curious results came out of this little exercise. One thing that came up time and again was that the tallied results on my calculator were not the same as the results obtained by a search here. I suspect this is due to pubs with multiple session-days, and also the day not clearly specified in the entry. Jeremy? Any thoughts?
First things first, here's the results for the whole dataset, ie, for the whole planet, as we know it, musically:
_Global_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
I then wanted to compare "the big 3" session "countries" to see if this trend is consistent. Those are USA, Great Britain (ie, minus N. Ireland) and all-Ireland (ie, plus N. Ireland). Sorry, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, etc., but the numbers of sessions posted by these countries just doesn't compare to the big 3 - feel free to post on this thread for your own country. Again the total number of sessions tallied by my calculations is different from that which you would obtain by doing a search here.
_USA_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
The best place to be for a session any day of the week is Ireland.
The best place to be on a Sunday is the USA - 45% of all sessions in the USA take place on a Sunday - according to this dataset. And the worst place to be on a Saturday is Great Britain - only just over 5% of all sessions listed here take place then.
The main thing that would skew the data I think is the size of the town.
You will struggle to get a session after Thursday and before Sunday afternoon in any biggish town but it could be more common at those weekend times in small villages which are not particularly busy otherwise on a Friday night.
There are Friday night sessions around here but you have to travel out of town.
So you would naturally intuit, Bren - but how come USA, the most urbanised cohort in the sample, has loads of Sunday sessions wrt anywhere else, inc. The Rest of the World?
Danny, I would guess that, with their work ethic, our friends in the USA are too jacobed during the week, so they tend to reserve their leisure activities for the one day of the week they're likely to have free - Sunday.
Trevor
My 5-week intensive session study of sessions in Ireland corroborates your research, Rab. It consisted of a grueling schedule of sessions every night -- and sometimes up to four in one day. My conclusions are the same as yours. To bad we can't have a scientific researcher's conference somewhere and get together for pints and tunes. Isn’t science great? *hic*
That was my feeling, Trevor. There is also the general trend that Sundays can have 2 potential session sittings - Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening, but the results from GB and Ireland don't bear this out.
All this came about as I was musing "when is a *normal* day for a session?" I had always thought Thursday, yeah deffo, and Monday, no nay never, and I had no idea that Sunday would be so popular...or maybe the USAian results skew the total....
I don't think Sundays are only more popular in the US. In Ennis, Sunday is a popular day for sessions as well. I remember going from pub to pub and participating in 3 out of 4 sessions that happened in succession. (not during the festival) Also, Dublin had sessions starting at 1 pm and going till half 1 in 2-hour segments each on Sundays.
...Yeah, well, USA probably does skew the result as USA accounts for 36.4 of all sessions posted here. So its high Sunday session activity will have an impact.
Jack, I'm only working on the dataset as posted here. The "real world" is surely much different. I also have been on Dublin session crawls that started at 1.00pm and ended at 3.00am. As for fleadhs and festivals...thankfully I can't remember most of the fine details but the big lumps of memory that do come back are 12-hour-plus-shifts, non stop playing.
I wouldn't take this data analysis too seriously, but it is poignant that USA loves Sunday sessions.
Sorry, I've just noticed a typo in my original presentation of the dataset. I typed in 214 for the total number of sessions in all-Ireland, that should be 181. I must have typed in the UK figure twice. If you do the calculations, you will notice that everything else is worked out correctly.
Our local Irish Club session is on a Monday night.
When I first came along I asked why they picked Monday.
The very Irish answer was because it clashed with the least number of other events and sure no-one goes out on a Monday night.
So why would they go to a session??
Having sessions on Sun-Thurs lets the bands with cover charges work the largest crowds - also, the musicians who play gigs and sessions both aren't out working. Sunday evening (the most common time for sessions) isn't a big pubgoing time here - but the people who *really* enjoy traditional music will make the point of going. Joe Sixpack will go drink on Saturday no matter what kind of music is playing. It's just pragmatism and good economic sense.
How about ratios of instruments? We would need sessioneers to submit the typical line-up of their sesh. This could then be cross-referenced against location, days of the week etc. and any other demographical data we fancy!
Yeah, but what hypothesis are you wanting to test or what do you want to find out? Do you think there's a correlation coefficient between location and instruments played? Hmm...I suppose you could do some non-parametric testing....
Bren: from what you've said, I'm quite glad I didn't make it to the Sunday night session - I happened to be in Aberdeen for the weekend, and we'd talked about going to the session, but I had to take the 7:55am train south this morning, and I don't think I'd have made it! Next time, perhaps! - I anticipate being up there a reasonable amount in the future.
Anyway I've already been spoilt rotten with a couple of brilliant sessions over the last week, one in Newcastle on Tuesday, the other a house session in Edinburgh on Friday (note attempt to keep on topic by mentioning days of week). Best thing is I managed to record some of the tunes, more fuel for the fire!
Maybe we should ask Jeremy to build a "Profile" page or something, where people could fill in fields about age, preferred session night, instrument(s), and how much cash they could contribute for a bigger server. Then we could have more stats, which are a great way to while away the hours.
Never mind golf... (see Cúlán thread) - if it's stats you want, there's always cricket. Stats heaven. I do realise there won't be many takers on an Irish traditional music forum...
Gzeg. Brilliant, lets do it. Never mind the begrudgers, give the people what want, stats. Then when we have enough, we can manipulate and massage them to inform our arguments on this site!
You shoulda come in Rog, it was a cracker last night..
At least you coulda slept on the train - I was at work by 8..
As well as our own local Aberdonian, Australian, Corconian, Glaswegian and East Anglian players we had some great inabootcomers from Orkney and god knows where else, and Sheffield.
It would seem that on Saturday nights, in England anyway, the local boozers are generally sacrosanct to all the drop-ins and regulars who come out that night if any, and fill up most or all of the space: they'd probably not be happy if diddly-diddlies claimed half a room on that particular night, and the landlord would reasonably put his regulars and expected drop-ins first.
(If all and sundry thought an Irish music session in their local was the high point of their week, and/or the sessioneers could prove their financial value to the pub by dramatically out-drinking regulars and pub-crawlers alike, then things might be different...but all told, I'd personally sooner come out on a quieter night of the week.)
Given the amount of alcohol sometimes consumed in sessions - I guess more so at the weekends - do you have stats on which nights of the week are least harmful to one's physical and mental health?
Wow! well, this is certainly one way to reignite an old thread! No doubt you folks were browsing the Newest Comments tab then thought to read the whole thread. Thanks for the new comments. I agree Nicholas, the stats are skewed. Maybe I could do a new thread now as there are a hell of a lot more sessions logged here now....erm... if I find the time....
benhall.1, I have no data on alcohol consumed at sessions. Tell you what's bad for my mental health - trying to play in a session where there are crap garullous players mouthing off and all the punters getting drunk and you can't hear yourself play...I don't suppose that helps you obtain an answer though.....
Sessions per day of the week.
Sessions per day of the week.
OK, folks, Geek of the Week here.
I've just been messing around with the database here to try and find out what's the most and least popular day of the week for sessions to take place. Some very curious results came out of this little exercise. One thing that came up time and again was that the tallied results on my calculator were not the same as the results obtained by a search here. I suspect this is due to pubs with multiple session-days, and also the day not clearly specified in the entry. Jeremy? Any thoughts?
First things first, here's the results for the whole dataset, ie, for the whole planet, as we know it, musically:
_Global_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
Monday.............90.....................................10.2
Tuesday..........119....................................13.5
Wednesday.....140....................................15.8
Thursday.........150....................................17.0
Friday................97.....................................11.0
Saturday...........83......................................9.4
Sunday.............205...................................23.2
Total.................884....................................100
I then wanted to compare "the big 3" session "countries" to see if this trend is consistent. Those are USA, Great Britain (ie, minus N. Ireland) and all-Ireland (ie, plus N. Ireland). Sorry, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, etc., but the numbers of sessions posted by these countries just doesn't compare to the big 3 - feel free to post on this thread for your own country. Again the total number of sessions tallied by my calculations is different from that which you would obtain by doing a search here.
_USA_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
Monday............31.....................................10.5
Tuesday..........38.....................................12.9
Wednesday.....36.....................................12.24
Thursday.........46.....................................15.66
Friday...............21.....................................7.14
Saturday..........25.....................................8.5
Sunday.............97....................................45.0
Total.................294..................................100
_Great Britain_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
Monday............26....................................12.15
Tuesday..........32....................................14.95
Wednesday.....46....................................21.5
Thursday.........46....................................21.5
Friday...............18....................................8.4
Saturday..........11....................................5.14
Sunday............35....................................16.4
Total.................214..................................100
_All-Ireland_
Day______Number of Sessions____%age of *tallied* total
Monday............14....................................7.7
Tuesday..........23....................................12.7
Wednesday.....27....................................14.9
Thursday.........36....................................19.9
Friday...............33....................................18.2
Saturday..........25....................................13.8
Sunday............23....................................12.7
Total.................214..................................100
And finally, comparing all 4 datasets (%ages only):
Day_________Global_______USA_________GB_____Ireland
Monday...........10.2...............10.5.............12.15.........7.7
Tuesday..........13.5................12.9............14.95.........12.7
Wednesday....15.8................12.24..........21.5...........14.9
Thursday.........17.0................15.66..........21.5...........19.9
Friday..............11.0................7.14............8.4.............18.2
Saturday..........9.4...................8.5............5.14...........13.8
Sunday............23.2................45.0............16.4...........12.7
Total.................100.................100..............100...........100
Conclusions?
The best place to be for a session any day of the week is Ireland.
The best place to be on a Sunday is the USA - 45% of all sessions in the USA take place on a Sunday - according to this dataset. And the worst place to be on a Saturday is Great Britain - only just over 5% of all sessions listed here take place then.
Any views/contributions?
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
The main thing that would skew the data I think is the size of the town.
You will struggle to get a session after Thursday and before Sunday afternoon in any biggish town but it could be more common at those weekend times in small villages which are not particularly busy otherwise on a Friday night.
There are Friday night sessions around here but you have to travel out of town.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Bren
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
"The best place to be for a session any day of the week is Ireland." I already knew this.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
So you would naturally intuit, Bren - but how come USA, the most urbanised cohort in the sample, has loads of Sunday sessions wrt anywhere else, inc. The Rest of the World?
Beats me.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Ah Jack - we cross posted - yes, but it's nice to see it proven by "Scientific Method!"
:~}
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Danny, I would guess that, with their work ethic, our friends in the USA are too jacobed during the week, so they tend to reserve their leisure activities for the one day of the week they're likely to have free - Sunday.
Trevor
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
My 5-week intensive session study of sessions in Ireland corroborates your research, Rab. It consisted of a grueling schedule of sessions every night -- and sometimes up to four in one day. My conclusions are the same as yours. To bad we can't have a scientific researcher's conference somewhere and get together for pints and tunes. Isn’t science great? *hic*
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
That was my feeling, Trevor. There is also the general trend that Sundays can have 2 potential session sittings - Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening, but the results from GB and Ireland don't bear this out.
All this came about as I was musing "when is a *normal* day for a session?" I had always thought Thursday, yeah deffo, and Monday, no nay never, and I had no idea that Sunday would be so popular...or maybe the USAian results skew the total....
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
I don't think Sundays are only more popular in the US. In Ennis, Sunday is a popular day for sessions as well. I remember going from pub to pub and participating in 3 out of 4 sessions that happened in succession. (not during the festival) Also, Dublin had sessions starting at 1 pm and going till half 1 in 2-hour segments each on Sundays.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
...Yeah, well, USA probably does skew the result as USA accounts for 36.4 of all sessions posted here. So its high Sunday session activity will have an impact.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Jack, I'm only working on the dataset as posted here. The "real world" is surely much different. I also have been on Dublin session crawls that started at 1.00pm and ended at 3.00am. As for fleadhs and festivals...thankfully I can't remember most of the fine details but the big lumps of memory that do come back are 12-hour-plus-shifts, non stop playing.
I wouldn't take this data analysis too seriously, but it is poignant that USA loves Sunday sessions.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Maybe it's because Americans are so religeous.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Phantom Button
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Sorry, I've just noticed a typo in my original presentation of the dataset. I typed in 214 for the total number of sessions in all-Ireland, that should be 181. I must have typed in the UK figure twice. If you do the calculations, you will notice that everything else is worked out correctly.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Our local Irish Club session is on a Monday night.
When I first came along I asked why they picked Monday.
The very Irish answer was because it clashed with the least number of other events and sure no-one goes out on a Monday night.
So why would they go to a session??
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Donough
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Danny. When do you work?!...
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Leftheris
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Ouch! Simon!
I did that last night around 12.30am, so I wasn't at work then. Just to put the record straight.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Monday session here in Aberdeen. and very popular Sunday night one, hence my sleepy head this morning
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Bren
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Having sessions on Sun-Thurs lets the bands with cover charges work the largest crowds - also, the musicians who play gigs and sessions both aren't out working. Sunday evening (the most common time for sessions) isn't a big pubgoing time here - but the people who *really* enjoy traditional music will make the point of going. Joe Sixpack will go drink on Saturday no matter what kind of music is playing. It's just pragmatism and good economic sense.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by reenactor
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Danny, you scare me sometines
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Cath
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Hey Bren - I thought you looked a bit rough. Those Sunday sessions must be due to all the Americans in Aberdeen cos of the oil business up there.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
That's the Saturday night Bluegrass Pickin' Parlour Party you're thinking of Danny.
Yee ha!
(The US oilmen about all left in the 1980s when they changed the US tax laws and brought in compulsory written well safety tests)
You need to be :
unemployed
a fulltime musician
on a shift pattern
on holidays
taking a sickie
young
or just really thrawn
to make both the Sunday & Monday night sessions
we seem to have plenty in the first two categories (interchangeable really).
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Bren
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Danny you obviously don't have enuf to do....or its the result of playing with flies all day!
Are you going to the Compasses on 19th? FREE lift!!!!
Sarah
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Sarah the Flute
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Boo-hoo. No-one likes my stats.
Sarah - it's on a Sunday isn't it? Will there be any Americans at it?
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Top stats Danny.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Leftheris
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Wow! you really think so? I'll do more if you want!
I promise!
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Yes, they're lovely stats. Very pretty.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Q
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
How about ratios of instruments? We would need sessioneers to submit the typical line-up of their sesh. This could then be cross-referenced against location, days of the week etc. and any other demographical data we fancy!
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Leftheris
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Compasses are indeed a Sunday....can't move for Americans!!!!
Wot about ....
Does the starting letter of the name of a Session Venue influence the day on which it takes place.
This is a very librariany statistic!!!!!
Sarah
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Sarah the Flute
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Yeah, but what hypothesis are you wanting to test or what do you want to find out? Do you think there's a correlation coefficient between location and instruments played? Hmm...I suppose you could do some non-parametric testing....
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
What was that about lies, damned lies, ... ?
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Wuhoo
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
It would certainly be a lie if I told you I was able to remember how to do non-parametric testing, that's for sure.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
When are we going to see the multi-dimensional spreadsheet?
Trevor
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
I demand a PowerPoint presentation. With pie-charts and bar-graphs and really horrible clip-art.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Nell
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Dunno about the science, I just want to see more lovely stats.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Leftheris
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Bren: from what you've said, I'm quite glad I didn't make it to the Sunday night session - I happened to be in Aberdeen for the weekend, and we'd talked about going to the session, but I had to take the 7:55am train south this morning, and I don't think I'd have made it! Next time, perhaps! - I anticipate being up there a reasonable amount in the future.
Anyway I've already been spoilt rotten with a couple of brilliant sessions over the last week, one in Newcastle on Tuesday, the other a house session in Edinburgh on Friday (note attempt to keep on topic by mentioning days of week). Best thing is I managed to record some of the tunes, more fuel for the fire!
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by rog
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Maybe we should ask Jeremy to build a "Profile" page or something, where people could fill in fields about age, preferred session night, instrument(s), and how much cash they could contribute for a bigger server. Then we could have more stats, which are a great way to while away the hours.
Thanks Danny! That was fun.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Never mind golf... (see Cúlán thread) - if it's stats you want, there's always cricket. Stats heaven. I do realise there won't be many takers on an Irish traditional music forum...
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Nell
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Gzeg. Brilliant, lets do it. Never mind the begrudgers, give the people what want, stats. Then when we have enough, we can manipulate and massage them to inform our arguments on this site!
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Leftheris
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Blasted statisticians. ;)
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Zina Lee
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
You shoulda come in Rog, it was a cracker last night..
At least you coulda slept on the train - I was at work by 8..
As well as our own local Aberdonian, Australian, Corconian, Glaswegian and East Anglian players we had some great inabootcomers from Orkney and god knows where else, and Sheffield.
# Posted on December 13th 2004 by Bren
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
"78% of thesession members like to play The Kesh Jig" on Tuesday night in a tub full of beans and smoking left-handed tobacco."
Friends say "not surprised".
# Posted on December 14th 2004 by Gzeg
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
81% of all statistics are lies, like this one
Trevor
# Posted on December 14th 2004 by lazyhound
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Trying this out:
C:\Documents and Settings\spkadam\My Documents\Sessionspercountry.htm
# Posted on November 8th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
hmmm.......
# Posted on November 8th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
It would seem that on Saturday nights, in England anyway, the local boozers are generally sacrosanct to all the drop-ins and regulars who come out that night if any, and fill up most or all of the space: they'd probably not be happy if diddly-diddlies claimed half a room on that particular night, and the landlord would reasonably put his regulars and expected drop-ins first.
(If all and sundry thought an Irish music session in their local was the high point of their week, and/or the sessioneers could prove their financial value to the pub by dramatically out-drinking regulars and pub-crawlers alike, then things might be different...but all told, I'd personally sooner come out on a quieter night of the week.)
# Posted on November 8th 2006 by nicholas
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Dan
Given the amount of alcohol sometimes consumed in sessions - I guess more so at the weekends - do you have stats on which nights of the week are least harmful to one's physical and mental health?
# Posted on November 8th 2006 by benhall.1
Re: Sessions per day of the week.
Wow! well, this is certainly one way to reignite an old thread! No doubt you folks were browsing the Newest Comments tab then thought to read the whole thread. Thanks for the new comments. I agree Nicholas, the stats are skewed. Maybe I could do a new thread now as there are a hell of a lot more sessions logged here now....erm... if I find the time....
benhall.1, I have no data on alcohol consumed at sessions. Tell you what's bad for my mental health - trying to play in a session where there are crap garullous players mouthing off and all the punters getting drunk and you can't hear yourself play...I don't suppose that helps you obtain an answer though.....
# Posted on November 9th 2006 by Key Maniac Lad