I'm looking for some advise ~ a fellow who is a regular to the session I attend brought a micrphone and mic stand to the last session. He set it up and proceeded to pass it around to benefit the singers. (We have a mixture of singers and instrumentalists.) Not to re-hash the old discussion about singers vs. instrumentalists, my question is ~ how would I most tactfully ask him not to bring the amplification equipment back? All I can think to say is, "why the %$#@ would you think to bring that here??!!??" And should I ask this? As the session organizer, do I need to establish "policies" about such things? Personally, I'm an instrumentalist, not a singer, and play for my own selfish reasons, not to be an entertainer for the patrons who happen into the venue. Others' thoughts (who are not involved in this particular group) on this topic may be helpful. I always strive for fairness and equity. The mic changes the dynamics of the session... I don't know how to approach the situation. Thanks.
Could you not speak calmly & quietly to this dude & suggest that, as we all know, singers & instrumentalists mix just about as well as Oil & Water.
A session, as we all know here, only really works if it is one thing or the other & that it might work better for him if he brought his Mic along another night & encouraged any other singers to come along on that night too.
You could tell him to let all the musicians know too, just in case any of them woulkd want to join in that night.
I'm sure the publican wouldn't complain about getting an extra nights entertainment.
In Cushendall, in the Glens of Antrim, what they did was organise a once a month singers session, which works well now. On that monthly night they usually stop in the middle for a few tunes but the rest of the night is just songs.
While the weekly tune sessions are just that, reserved for tunes.
Good Luck
If the venue is a pub, you could "accidently" drop the mike into a pint of something with a high sugar content, like Red Bull, or every time it comes near you bang loudly on it and blow into it, TESTING ONE TWO......... Get the whistle player to play a few blasts of high d' .........He'll soon get tired of it.
You might tell him that it's a "slippery slope"--if the singers get amplification, the guitarists will want some too, and soon it becomes an arms race and you've got a rock band, not a session.
At our session, there is the occasional song--we play very quietly, or just sit and listen. It works for us.
The question is, why a microphone? The answer is -- to hear the singer. (assuming that the session enjoys having a song now and then) The problem is; why can't you hear the singers? The answer is usually because the pub is too loud. One solution is to have a mic set up, but I don’t like this idea for many reasons (some mentioned above) and this is how I decided to try handling the problem.
At our session here in SF we like the odd song here and there to break up the diddly die, but people talking in the pub made it impossible to hear the singing. I had no idea about what to do until on a visit to Ireland witnessed a pub go completely quiet when someone in the session called for a song. There was a "shush" sound that echoed around the room by punters until the room went quiet -- and then the singer could easily be heard and everyone in the pub enjoyed the song.
When I got back I thought I'd give it a try, but the odds were stacked against me. For one thing, US culture had no foundation for this, and in fact, Americans seem to be conditioned to listen to people singing as background music. (thanks to the advent of amplification) Luckily it was an Irish pub though, and at least some of the punters would be no stranger to the concept having grown up in Ireland, and I might get some help from them.
So realizing that it would be an uphill battle I decided to try it the first time with an exaggerated plea. I stood up and in a loud voice asked for everyone’s attention and said, “We’re going to have a song over here, and I think you’ll all enjoy it, but we need you to please be quiet or no one, including us here at the table, will be able to hear it. All I ask is that you be quiet for this one song… thanks.” Right away I heard the loveliest sound – it was the “shush” echoing around the room that I had hoped for. Then the singer sang a lovely song and the whole pub erupted in applause when she was through. I didn’t dare try another song during that night until near the end when a lot of folks had left and it quieted down a bit.
The next Sunday we repeated this with success, and as time went on I was able to drop the big plea and explanation. I still don’t dare try this too many times during the night so the punters wouldn’t think that they’d have to keep shutting their gobs all night long, but when someone has a song they’d like to sing we’re able to quiet down the punters by simply calling for a song. It’s something that took a while to condition the crowd for. Occasionally it’s harder on nights when people that are more interested in hearing themselves talk are in abundance, or they just don’t care, but we’ve enjoyed some success with this approach over all.
Like someone mentioned above, we do also have one night a month devoted to singing and the people that come to the pub on that night have to respect the singers or find another pub. But the tune session nights aren’t nearly as strict.
Hey there Button,
What a fine tradition to start up. Hope it keeps up, although one song a night is certainly no enough for me ( and I like to play tunes too).
What you need is Tom, the landlord of the Herschel Arms. Whenever a song starts up he yells something along the lines of "Will you all shut the f*ck up the lot of ye! If you want to talk there's another ****ing pub down the ****ing road!". It seems to have the desired effect.
The problem with our pub is that business hasn't recovered after the dot-com bubble inflated and then popped. It displaced a lot of the regular clientele from the neighborhood. Also, about 500 more Irish pubs have opened over the last several years around town, so telling people to go to another pub is out of the question. The publican does love the music though and is sympathetic with our cause, so he has no problem with our attempts at crowd control. We do have more than one song a night now; it was only in the beginning that we had to gently introduce the concept. If we had asked them at first to do something so removed from typical American bar behavior it would have turned them against us. We had to slowly add one or two more as time went on. I would say that in a 3 to 4 hour session, if we have a singer or two amongst us, we call for a song maybe four or five times at most.
I'm baffled by the original statement. Why did this guy, a regular you say, suddenly bring a mike one evening ?
He knew the set-up already, right ?
Did someone ask him to ?
Didn't the landlord object ?
Why didn't someone tell him to stick it....?
It's one little step from a session to a performance.......
setting up a microphone
setting up a microphone
I'm looking for some advise ~ a fellow who is a regular to the session I attend brought a micrphone and mic stand to the last session. He set it up and proceeded to pass it around to benefit the singers. (We have a mixture of singers and instrumentalists.) Not to re-hash the old discussion about singers vs. instrumentalists, my question is ~ how would I most tactfully ask him not to bring the amplification equipment back? All I can think to say is, "why the %$#@ would you think to bring that here??!!??" And should I ask this? As the session organizer, do I need to establish "policies" about such things? Personally, I'm an instrumentalist, not a singer, and play for my own selfish reasons, not to be an entertainer for the patrons who happen into the venue. Others' thoughts (who are not involved in this particular group) on this topic may be helpful. I always strive for fairness and equity. The mic changes the dynamics of the session... I don't know how to approach the situation. Thanks.
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by stacyrose
Re: setting up a microphone
Could you not speak calmly & quietly to this dude & suggest that, as we all know, singers & instrumentalists mix just about as well as Oil & Water.
A session, as we all know here, only really works if it is one thing or the other & that it might work better for him if he brought his Mic along another night & encouraged any other singers to come along on that night too.
You could tell him to let all the musicians know too, just in case any of them woulkd want to join in that night.
I'm sure the publican wouldn't complain about getting an extra nights entertainment.
In Cushendall, in the Glens of Antrim, what they did was organise a once a month singers session, which works well now. On that monthly night they usually stop in the middle for a few tunes but the rest of the night is just songs.
While the weekly tune sessions are just that, reserved for tunes.
Good Luck
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: setting up a microphone
If the venue is a pub, you could "accidently" drop the mike into a pint of something with a high sugar content, like Red Bull, or every time it comes near you bang loudly on it and blow into it, TESTING ONE TWO......... Get the whistle player to play a few blasts of high d' .........He'll soon get tired of it.
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Backer
Re: setting up a microphone
Hey Backer, that's not very nice! After all, singers have feelings too you know - don't they?
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: setting up a microphone
I love to have singers in a session, I thought the problem was the microphone!
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Backer
Re: setting up a microphone
Speak for yourself Backer!!
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: setting up a microphone
You might tell him that it's a "slippery slope"--if the singers get amplification, the guitarists will want some too, and soon it becomes an arms race and you've got a rock band, not a session.
At our session, there is the occasional song--we play very quietly, or just sit and listen. It works for us.
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by mickray
Re: setting up a microphone
The question is, why a microphone? The answer is -- to hear the singer. (assuming that the session enjoys having a song now and then) The problem is; why can't you hear the singers? The answer is usually because the pub is too loud. One solution is to have a mic set up, but I don’t like this idea for many reasons (some mentioned above) and this is how I decided to try handling the problem.
At our session here in SF we like the odd song here and there to break up the diddly die, but people talking in the pub made it impossible to hear the singing. I had no idea about what to do until on a visit to Ireland witnessed a pub go completely quiet when someone in the session called for a song. There was a "shush" sound that echoed around the room by punters until the room went quiet -- and then the singer could easily be heard and everyone in the pub enjoyed the song.
When I got back I thought I'd give it a try, but the odds were stacked against me. For one thing, US culture had no foundation for this, and in fact, Americans seem to be conditioned to listen to people singing as background music. (thanks to the advent of amplification) Luckily it was an Irish pub though, and at least some of the punters would be no stranger to the concept having grown up in Ireland, and I might get some help from them.
So realizing that it would be an uphill battle I decided to try it the first time with an exaggerated plea. I stood up and in a loud voice asked for everyone’s attention and said, “We’re going to have a song over here, and I think you’ll all enjoy it, but we need you to please be quiet or no one, including us here at the table, will be able to hear it. All I ask is that you be quiet for this one song… thanks.” Right away I heard the loveliest sound – it was the “shush” echoing around the room that I had hoped for. Then the singer sang a lovely song and the whole pub erupted in applause when she was through. I didn’t dare try another song during that night until near the end when a lot of folks had left and it quieted down a bit.
The next Sunday we repeated this with success, and as time went on I was able to drop the big plea and explanation. I still don’t dare try this too many times during the night so the punters wouldn’t think that they’d have to keep shutting their gobs all night long, but when someone has a song they’d like to sing we’re able to quiet down the punters by simply calling for a song. It’s something that took a while to condition the crowd for. Occasionally it’s harder on nights when people that are more interested in hearing themselves talk are in abundance, or they just don’t care, but we’ve enjoyed some success with this approach over all.
Like someone mentioned above, we do also have one night a month devoted to singing and the people that come to the pub on that night have to respect the singers or find another pub. But the tune session nights aren’t nearly as strict.
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: setting up a microphone
Hey there Button,
What a fine tradition to start up. Hope it keeps up, although one song a night is certainly no enough for me ( and I like to play tunes too).
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by MickyMan
Re: setting up a microphone
What you need is Tom, the landlord of the Herschel Arms. Whenever a song starts up he yells something along the lines of "Will you all shut the f*ck up the lot of ye! If you want to talk there's another ****ing pub down the ****ing road!". It seems to have the desired effect.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by JerryH
Re: setting up a microphone
SHOOT HIM..
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Titch {=/=}===++
Re: setting up a microphone
The problem with our pub is that business hasn't recovered after the dot-com bubble inflated and then popped. It displaced a lot of the regular clientele from the neighborhood. Also, about 500 more Irish pubs have opened over the last several years around town, so telling people to go to another pub is out of the question. The publican does love the music though and is sympathetic with our cause, so he has no problem with our attempts at crowd control. We do have more than one song a night now; it was only in the beginning that we had to gently introduce the concept. If we had asked them at first to do something so removed from typical American bar behavior it would have turned them against us. We had to slowly add one or two more as time went on. I would say that in a 3 to 4 hour session, if we have a singer or two amongst us, we call for a song maybe four or five times at most.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: setting up a microphone
Somewhere on the amplifier there will be a little knob, and if you unscrew it there will be a fuse inside.
Take the fuse out and beat it on the table until the little filament breaks, taking care not to break or crack the glass tube that the filament is in.
Wipe off the finger prints and put the fuse back. Repeat as necessary.
Just kidding...
stv
http://www.cdbaby.com/Culchies
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by stv culchie
Re: setting up a microphone
I'm baffled by the original statement. Why did this guy, a regular you say, suddenly bring a mike one evening ?
He knew the set-up already, right ?
Did someone ask him to ?
Didn't the landlord object ?
Why didn't someone tell him to stick it....?
It's one little step from a session to a performance.......
# Posted on September 14th 2005 by Guernsey Pete