I’ve been curious about this for awhile, but held it off.
What is it like to play in sessions, is it easy to get into them?
Do you guys think I should go to sessions?
yes, you should go to session, leave your pipes at home, you ought to be able to judge when your skills as a piper will blend into a session. Bring a recorder, but be sure to ask permission before using it. Maybe take a whistle.
My own experience in session is by far a pleasant one as a piper, I tend to leave to drones off, especially if I didn’t start the set.
It depends on the session. Some are very beginner-friendly, others are less so. Most people won’t mind if you listen, only play on the tunes you know, and aren’t overly aggressive about starting sets in order to get “your” tunes in. The problem with the pipes, depending of course on how loud your reed is and how big or what else is in the session, is that you can’t hide easily. So if you are unsteady on the timing, people will know about it. Some sessions won’t care. Others might.
You can learn a lot from playing along with people who are better than you. It is worth checking out the session, maybe without bringing the instrument at first, in order to see what kind of level its at.
I rarely play the drones at a session because tuning them up in a pub is usually a massive pain in the arse and if there are guitars or bouzoukis, they just add to the general stramash, and not in a good way. If it’s a quiet pub and there are no accompanists, I might play them.
Hi.
Meuritt is correct. Take a recording device with you. Don’t bother too much about tweaking with recording levels or you will spend all your time “tweaking” and miss the enjoyment of a live session. Set once and then leave it.If you attend on a regular basis you should spot tunes that come up time and time again.
Get about five of these tunes under your belt and when you feel confident enough;join in. Don’t be afraid to ask the name of a tune either. If you then need the dots look it up on session.org or some other suitable web site.
If you attend on a regular basis and get your face known and then turn up one day with your pipes, the chances are you will be invited to play something of your own. Most sessions are friendly places anyway but listen watch for the first few visits and you will soon become aware of the unwritten rules.
The first time you play in a session the chances are you will be shaking like a “shi*eing dog” and playing way too fast for your fingers. Don’t worry about that though as we have all been there at one time or another and it’s all part of the learning curve.
Good luck.
Joining in on a tune at a session, and blending well with the other players, requires a high degree of musicianship and command of the instrument.
First and foremost you have to not only have an extremely good sense of timing (being able to play at a perfectly steady tempo) but also that rare ability to listen to the other players and meld your timing to theirs. It’s aggravating to the session to have somebody that’s rushing the tempo or dragging the tempo or simply all over the place rhythmically.
If you have great timing, much else will be forgiven! But you should also be well in tune with the rest of the players, something that’s often sadly lacking amongst pipers.
Another issue is that each session will not only have its own repertoire but also its own accepted version of each tune it plays. Showing up knowing one of the myriad other versions of a particular tune won’t help! You should learn their particular version.
Pipers are particularly difficult for sessions because you can’t seek in and out volume-wise like a flute or fiddle can. It’s “go/no-go”. So a piper really has to have his tunes down very solidly, while the flutist or fiddler can noodle quietly and pick up the tunes (or the version) as he goes.
All of these things is why I’ve rarely taken pipes to sessions, but rather the flute.
I would support everything said so far.
There was a good point made about the nature of the pipes in a session. One thing I often bemoan is that with the pipes, you are either all in or all out. I am often envious of fiddlers, for example, who can quietly feel their way through a tune they haven’t played for a while, before they remember it and lash into it in a fully audible way. We pipers don’t have that flexibility. So if you don’t have a command of the tune, sit out, or sit next to the box player for cover 
Also listening is important. The settings of tunes we pipers would play are often not the same as those that are played in a session. So never forget it is a group musical effort, and be ready to adapt your version of a tune to what is being played around you. Also know when to sit out even if it’s a tune you know. It you have three whistle players doing a set of tunes together on their own, just enjoy it rather than feeling the need to jump in and change the dynamic.
Ultimately, the best advice I could give is to be a nice and friendly person. A musician I play with regularly described it well to newbie at our session a few weeks ago. When you sit down at a session you are usually joining a group of people who all know each other and are friends. So you should join that group in the same way you would join a group of people sitting at a table just having drinks. Introduce yourself. Be patient and get a feel for the dynamics of the group. Figure out where you fit in. Etc. Playing in a good session is ultimately a social interaction as much as a musical one. We all make mistakes when playing, sometimes play too fast, etc. But people will be much more accepting and forgiving of those shared mistakes if they know you and enjoy your company.
But definitely don’t be put off. Personally, the social aspects of the music are central to my enjoyment of playing. And my experience in London anyway is that most people are always keen to have pipes in a session.
Rick.
There was one small session I went to last year (I was just in the audience). My Grandfather was in it, and they all seemed like pretty nice people. So I might take a look at that one. Honestly, I never really planned to go to any sessions, but when you put it that way, they sound nice! Do some people travel from place to place, going from session to session?
I actually mostly planned to quietly and mysteriously play in some local parks(Or maybe national ones), or busk with them (Which I might be doing next summer at our local farmers market).
I’m with pancelticpiper on this. I regularly play the pipes in sessions, and along with bad bodhran or guitar playing, to my ear, few things are more destructive to a session than a piper who really shouldn’t be there because of inability to play with a steady rhythm or have precise control of the instrument.
One might say the same thing about other melody instruments, but in my experience the volume and timbre of poorly played pipes, particularly in the area of poor flow or rhythm, can just toss a wet blanket over what could have been a nice session. The only thing worse is being the “other” piper in a session with such a player, the end result just sounds like stomping on ducks no matter what I do.
I guess what I’m saying is to be honest about your own playing ability and limit yourself to playing those tunes you really are able to play with consistent flow and rhythm. Doesn’t have to be complex or flashy, simple and precise is far preferable to hurky-jerky rhythm in a session context. Don’t play if you are stuck at “try”, keep working until you are at “do”.
I agree with eskin.
If your grandfather plays in that session, then play some more with your grandfather,
suss out the tunes that are played in that session, learn some, and then go with your
grandfather the first time. You both will probably enjoy it more.
Word up on everything so far.
Another thing is that you have sort of painted yourself into a corner by getting a C# chanter.. I know of Eb and C-sessions but C#… Hmm
Don’t forget the fringe benefit of the session groupies, they’re the members of the audience who only go to the session to get laid by the musicians.
RORY
Lots of good advice here, and the best of it is to leave your pipes at home at least the first time. If you start out listening (and recording), not only will you gain critical intel about that session’s repertoire, tune versions, tempi, and other things you need to know before playing yourself; also, even before you’ve played a note you will have communicated to the session’s regulars that you’re serious about wanting to blend in to their session, not ruin it. Few things do more for your credibility as a musician than to shut up and listen.
Once you gather the guts to dive in, it can help if you have a “quiet” reed, i.e., one that can be adjusted to play easier/quieter. But in no event should you ever “fake it,” i.e., attempt to mumble along on tunes you don’t know, by playing random notes. That drives people crazy. You can either play a tune at speed, or you can’t, in which case you must swallow your pride and go back to listening. No shame in just listening, ever!
I highly recommend Barry Foy’s book, “Field Guide to the Irish Music Session.” He knows of what he speaks.
Cheers,
Mick
…to answer your actual question: yes you should, because it’s fun socially, and a good incentive for working reels & jigs up to what the non-piping world considers normal speeds. If nothing else, it will give you something to shoot for.
Session playing is usually in a totally different style than we use in solo piping or even pipers-only sessions (tionoil etc.): be prepared to play things much faster than you’re used to hearing on your favorite piping recordings, and let go of improvisation/variation, which is obviously impossible for unison playing. (It’s a trade-off: what you lose musically, you gain socially. Plus it’s more danceable. 
)
I know a guy who’s working his way through all three Comhaltas CDs (“Foinn Seisiún” 1, 2, and 3), memorizing every single tune and working each up to tempo. I never thought those CDs were very interesting to listen to, but they give a good approximation of the session style, and the tune versions resemble what you’ll likely encounter in the field (much more so, sad to say, than what you’ll hear on recordings by piping greats 
).
Cheers,
Mick
Of course! Someone like me wouldn’t mind sitting back listening at all!
Do some players ever take “Turns” playing?
Do some players ever take “Turns” playing?
It really depends on the nature of the session. I have certainly played in or watched sessions where that seemed to be the norm. Everyone taking turns to start a tune, in one case I remember it being so formal as to go in a circle from one to the next. Although what is more common, and the practice at our sessions here in south London, is that the more senior players will invite or encourage newer players (whether a beginner player or just a new face at the session) to start a tune. That is not to suggest that newer players are only welcome to start a tune when asked, but more a recognition that most newer people tend to be shy about starting, so the more senior players provide encouragement and jump in quickly to the tune to support them playing it if they need it.
R
per last posting…Going round the group taking turns to play pieces begins to sound more like a folk club than a session. 
I like the analogy given about joining a group of people you don’t know who are having a conversation and appear to be already well-known to each other.
You can’t just walk into the middle of that and talk at them (whatever your conversational skill levels).
Its just plain rude !!
The only solos I’ve played in sessions so far have been the result of my being invited to start a tune (especially when nobody else wanted to ), and it turning out that nobody else knew it. Which is fine, I suppose, if it’s an honest mistake and the group seems to think it’s an interesting tune; but based on how you read their faces, you’re usually better off switching to something you’re reasonably sure that others know, certainly for the very next tune.
Cheers,
Mick
“Sessions” of Irish music with a group playing in ensemble only began after WWII, in London. I pointed out once that this is yet another aspect of sessions which is fascist in nature, leading to the amusing spectacle of half of my audience laughing uproariously and the other half being utterly appalled at what I was suggesting… 
Before then “hoolies” or “celidhing” or whatever you want to call it indeed would feature someone playing a tune solo, or maybe a duet; then someone else in the group would solo. Then you’d hear a song, or a story, or a recitive, etc. It was just a gathering of people, musicians and otherwise, for enjoyment.
I started another thread on Fiddle Tunes which is the primary reason I just take the banjo out anymore. You can get the hang of playing many of these tunes but I just don’t care any more, playing them on the chanter in a controlled fashion is even more tricky than stuff we can handle. Many modern compositions in Irish music are simply unplayable on the pipes too, and I sometimes wonder if in a few decades the pipes will be an obsolete instrument used only for “period music,” ala the clarinet in jazz or the recorder in classical music. But as long as people still want to play the Blarney Pilgrim that’s not likely to be the case, I suppose.
Would you say that we are a dying breed of musicians? Let’s compose some more tunes, then!
The place I live in has a music festival, I wonder if I could take pipes there… Hmmmmmm…
Anyways, you know what they say, the proof is in the pudding!
Or that might mean something else…