Chiff and Fipple Forums

yes, flute - i'm not 100% sure about my estimate, although recently i've been trying to compile a list as a reference/aide-memoire which will hopefully provide a more accurate figure

About 6 songs, thanks to my instructor.

But I have only been playing a little over a year... give me time!

Now, if you count guitar, several hundred.

The size of repertoire of some of the regular session players amazes me.

I used to go to a two-week music camp every summer, with big sessions every night, and oftentimes I wouldn't hear a certain tune again for the whole camp. Each night's session would go on, what, 8 hours or so?

When the massive size of these people's repertoires fully struck me was one night when they got onto playing nothing but polkas in D. They played them for an hour or so, polkas in D, each one played three times. Not sure how many it was, but it was a ton!

Another night they got onto playing nothing but tunes in B minor. They played loads of reels, but when it came to jigs they seemed to be stumped. Then a fiddler went into a "big" jig in D (four parts, I think) that had the last part in B minor, which I learned and still play (though nobody else seems to know it around here).

One way to get a sense of what are the most commonly played session tunes is to go onto thesession and rank the tens of thousands of tunes there by most commonly included in member's tunebooks. I did that once. Of the 100 most-common tunes I knew all but a couple, and of the next 100 I knew 80 or so... yet I can sit in a session for hours and not hear a single tune I know!

I think it's hard to maintain a big repertoire unless you regularly attend sessions. What I did was to write out the first 2 bars of every tune I knew and put these music-sheets in a practice folder and play through all the tunes as often as I could. The problem then was that there are loads of reels in A minor that have very similar 2nd parts! So I had to write out the beginning of the 2nd parts too, on those. Ditto several reels in D Major.

pancelticpiper wrote:The size of repertoire of some of the regular session players amazes me.

I used to go to a two-week music camp every summer, with big sessions every night, and oftentimes I wouldn't hear a certain tune again for the whole camp. Each night's session would go on, what, 8 hours or so?

When the massive size of these people's repertoires fully struck me was one night when they got onto playing nothing but polkas in D. They played them for an hour or so, polkas in D, each one played three times. Not sure how many it was, but it was a ton!

Another night they got onto playing nothing but tunes in B minor. They played loads of reels, but when it came to jigs they seemed to be stumped. Then a fiddler went into a "big" jig in D (four parts, I think) that had the last part in B minor, which I learned and still play (though nobody else seems to know it around here).

One way to get a sense of what are the most commonly played session tunes is to go onto thesession and rank the tens of thousands of tunes there by most commonly included in member's tunebooks. I did that once. Of the 100 most-common tunes I knew all but a couple, and of the next 100 I knew 80 or so... yet I can sit in a session for hours and not hear a single tune I know!

I think it's hard to maintain a big repertoire unless you regularly attend sessions. What I did was to write out the first 2 bars of every tune I knew and put these music-sheets in a practice folder and play through all the tunes as often as I could. The problem then was that there are loads of reels in A minor that have very similar 2nd parts! So I had to write out the beginning of the 2nd parts too, on those. Ditto several reels in D Major.

Indeed, I think the more sessions you go to, the better your ear develops?

There is one pub near me which has sessions, maybe I could hop over there just to listen. Since I play a C# set I'd probably just sit back & listen.


Although I do have a whistle in C, and they do have "Open mic" nights. Hmmm...

It's not the size that matters... it's what you do with it

Patrick D'Arcy wrote:It's not the size that matters... it's what you do with it

For sure if there's a player who sits quietly for hours then unleashes one mighty tune everyone will think "now there's a massive player!".

If a players blasts away at every tune all night, the ones he has down and the ones he doesn't, regardless, one might go away thinking "that's not much of a player".

Yet usually (as it seems to me) it's the best players that have the largest repertoires, and who know the currently-trendy tunes.

pancelticpiper wrote:Yet usually (as it seems to me) it's the best players that have the largest repertoires, and who know the currently-trendy tunes.

Or who determine what the currently-trendy tunes are, because they play them so well, everyone else wants to learn them.

pancelticpiper wrote: it's the best players that have the largest repertoires.

Theres always an exception , famously Eddie( the kid) Joyce had a small repertoire ,but the tunes he did play he played brilliantly .

RORY

Patrick D'Arcy wrote:It's not the size that matters... it's what you do with it

Yea! That David Power fella is allways going on about his 18 inch Moloney . But saying that least he knows how to use it.

RORY