I live in Amarillo, TX, which to my knowledge has no regular sessions, if any. So the chances of me going to one in the near future are slim to none. Still, you can never tell, so can someone explain the rules of etiquette? Like, do you just say “Hi!” and start playing? Do you hang around holding your whistle (or other instrument) and wait to be invited?
Try this:
http://www.murphyroche.com/Our_Sessions.htm
and also buy the book that’s mentioned near the bottom of that page:
Field Guide to the Irish Music Session
By Barry Foy
ISBN 1-57098-241-4
The field guide is good but beginners should take its advice with a grain of salt; it exaggerates some points and makes fun of others. It’s a good book to read after you’ve been to a few sessions and have a rough idea of what’s going on, as it will be much funnier then.
It depends upon the session you attend.
A good rule is to 1. listen a lot, if you know the tune well and can play at tempo and it is a big jam, it might be OK to just jump in.
If you get there early and meet the players as they come in and have a whistle in sight, they will probably get the idea you might play Irish music and introduce themselves and give you an idea of what goes on there.
Hi,
Usually, if you just heard about a session somewhere, you could simply go there as a spectator the first time. No hurry after all, just drink beer and listen to free music, then talk to the sessioneers after the show about next week.
After all, it always helps to know how a specific session works before joining in: who runs it, how they run it, if it’s open or closed or advanced or intermediate, whether they already have 5 of your instrument, etc.
It also helps to know what tunes are popular there, so you can practice those.
Caj
I clicked on the Murphy rosse web site and see “don’t ask for Danny Boy”
Why not?
Ignoramous
For one because it is one of the most ‘done to death’ songs in the Irish repertoire.
It also gives a que to all drunks who thus far have been quietly muttering into their glass to get up, stagger over to some unsuspecting musician, put their hand on their shoulder for balance and in their loudest voice sing half the lyrics. The slower the better of course… :roll:
…at least that’s what I have heard.
I’m usually out the door before that 
Cripes-- ya just brought back a horrid memory. Several years ago I went to the wedding of a VERY Irish couple and it was a gorgeous affair. Beautiful church wedding with a bagpiper leading the procession down the aisle. The reception was held at the Emma Willard School which you may have seen, as it was used as the set for the boy’s school in the Pacino movie Scent of a Woman. Again the piper led the newly married couple across the gorgeous campus into the spectacular reception hall ( a sort of mini-Hogwart’s looking place). The food was outstanding, catered by a certified master chef, and naturally the liquid refreshments flowed freely. A totally wonderful event… until the best man decided it was time to haul out Danny Boy.
Every verse.
Slowly.
'WAY off pitch… that part where the tune jumps up was so off it could shatter glass. Truly awful. Painful. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, but I don’t think that was due to the tender sentiments of the song…
My perennial favourite is “When Irish Eyes are Smiling”
I can only remember half the words and notes at the best of times. When I’m in my cups, it’s every man & woman for him/herself.
Better still, that Gaelic number, the English translation is something like “Please Miss, May I go to the toilet?”
I’d follow Caj’s advice - go along & listen, have your instrument with you in case, but don’t expect to join in the first week. Buy a round for the players. Buy another round. Edge closer. Show interest in the guy wrestling the octopus.
This may not apply to you, but in the session I attend I e-mailed the organizer before I went. This let him know what I played, level of experience, etc plus gave him a chance to let me know of any potential problems and give advice. It also allowed me to have a person to look for the first time I went. I think most of the sessions on sessioneer.org give e-mail addresses of the folks “in charge”.
Last night we had a few interesting points, including a woman who asked to sing Danny Boy. Normally the leader of our session would politely decline, but the woman was visiting from Australia, and was quite nice about asking (very appreciative of the music, etc). I sort of sighed, took my drink and went to talk with Tyghre. . .she started singing. . .and I immediately whispered to him “Jeez, shé started way too high…this is going to be awful” but “come ye back” was right on the mark. . .“Okay, she hit that. . .but she’ll never make the high note.” Well it rolled around, she nailed it, and it was pure and sweet and not bellowed and it was wonderful!
The lady who brought the alto recorder last week showed up with a concert flute this week, and when she started warming up, doing octave jumps, three people looked at her with alarm. . .and she never noticed or care. Again she ‘played along’ with everything, never knowing a note of anything, nor the rhythm, nor the concept of AABB x 3. She talked with me a bit, and told me that she plays classical one night a week, Klezmer another night, is looking for a Latin jam, and now she has the Irish too, and she plans to come every week. (moan) One wonders if she has any knowledge of any of the genre’s she’s maneuvering herself into. I want to suggest to her that she concentrate on any one of them and try to study it, not just assume that music is music.
But in our session unless you’re REALLY obnoxious, no one is going to say anything. And she isn’t obnoxious, just clueless. We had a full complement of ‘real musicians’ to carry the music last night (three fine fiddles, a concertina and piano accordion that all knew what the score was) three of us who have a clue, if not talent or much experience at a solid melody line, and three more backup instruments plus our fair share of percussion.
Please, go to your local session. . .for the first couple of times LISTEN, talk to people, ask questions. . .sure have your instrument available, and if you’re asked go ahead and play, or if you absolutely know a tune flat out and have listened enough to know that you won’t be hideously intrusive. . .
Tyghress, you’re going through the same pain I’m going through in my local session. Sometimes, some people are just not aware that there’s people around them, it’s as if they were in their own “bubble”.
Usually, in a session, when someone starts a set, that person leads the set. That means that if the person who started the set decides that a single reel is not played as single, well, you have to go with the set leader. It also means that you have to listen to the set leader when he goes to another tune. How many times did I have some people trying to hijack a set, but fortunately the guitarist knows his stuff and is following me, which forces the “bubble” people to wake up.
I had the most wonderful experience last summer in Ireland when I was playing with a band of 3 irish musicians who were very good but also who were very conscious of what was happening around them. I started a set of reels, and they happened to know the set (The Kilfenora Set). Well, first tune, they told me after, is usually played a single reel (one time each part). Well, I learned it as two times the first part, and one time the second part. Anyway, the most amazing thing, they were listening to me and actually played it the way I played it. After, they told me “hey your first reel is usually played single in Ireland”.
Anyway, that’s just an example of how great it is to be in a session where all of the participants actually care about their surrounding environment. You know, people who actually realize that they create discomfort with their freakin’ concert flute 
“Still, you can never tell, so can someone explain the rules of etiquette?”
I find this question fascinating, as in my experience, there are as many characteristics of sessions, with attendant etiquette, as there are characteristics of the people who attend them.
In my locality in the Pennine Hills of County Durham, there are many sessions which I could go to, each with its own particular character.
One seemed very cold and elitist until I joined a local band. When it became known that I played with a good class of musician, I was made extremely welcome, but this seemed a trifle hypocritical as I was the same player and person before I was allowed to enter the elitist hierachy.
Another one was very welcoming but, it was “de riguere” to pay homage to the self pronounced ‘star of the show’, an extremely accomplished pipe player. If you were not willing to play the game, you were rebuffed.
The best sessions are warm, friendly, encouraging, supportive, and fun.
If there were rules, I suppose the following would be helpful if not self evident:
Do not play too loud, out of tune , or out of time.
Do not talk whilst others are playing.
Wait to go to the bar/loo until the playing has stopped.
Most sessions play tunes far too fast, where speed is equated with accomplishment. I feel many tunes are murdered, with no time or place for nuances of tone or expression. Even if you are a rank beginner, a sympathetic session will ask you to start a set with a tune that you know, at a tempo that you can cope with. If this does not happen, find a better session where the musicians are supportive and not meglomaniacs on speed.
Good luck,
David
Tex - Stop! Saw your posts on the session.org site and it’s time to get off the net and on the freakin’ road! Lubbock is 2 hours south of you down I-27. The session starts at 6:30 pm, Fridays, Kluzo’s bar, 18th St. and Buddy Holly Ave. Take the 114 East exit, go about two blocks, turn right. See you there. If you get out of line, we’ll slap you gently at first. 
There’s a slow session every Saturday from 4 - 6 where you can learn tunes. Dance lessons run from 3 - 4 Saturdays. How immersed you wanna be?
steve
Mmm…I haven’t posted on session.org (I only registered there about two days ago), but I’m glad to know about the sessions at Klusoz. I’ve been there a few times to watch my old friend Susan play with her band. I’m working Friday nights for the next few weeks, but maybe I could make one of the Saturday sessions. Thanks Steve!
Hmm. I dunno. My ESP doesn’t usually work that well, so I must be confused. Anyway, the point is that you’re welcome at the session. Folks have given you some pretty darn good advice regarding etiquette, and we practice it. Focused observation seems to work really well. The fact that you are aware there are a few protocols will take you far.
Susan was almost always gracious enough to invite me up on songs. Particularly enjoyed playing with them on “Ahead of Time.” Gary and the rest of the band were pretty enthusiastic.
The Saturday slow sessions are one block east of University Ave on 16th St. at the Canterbury Center (south side of the street), 4 pm. One or two of us will often show at 3 pm to play for the dance class, same place. If you would like a contact phone number, drop me a note off-list and you got it. I think Suze will vouch for me.
Well (ya, I know, deep subject…) here in the center of the wierd midwest our itty-bitty hoolie / jam session must be sort of different. We just “go around the group” that shows up, whether we have 5 or 20 show up (yep, we’ve never had more than 20 at once, normally no more than 10).
So, basically it doesn’t matter who you are here, everyone just calls out a song or tune at some point. If somebody / nobody else knows it, everyone just chords along and highlights here and there. Works out rather well. We’re up to about 10 regulars now and 15 or so at mid month, and we’re all learning new stuff from eachother and putting it down in eachothers tune/songlists, so next week we have even more cool stuff to play around or practice up with.
I like it, and everyone at the hoolie seems to like it. And since I’m the one that started the hoolie, I insist that it’s on open hoolie and that’s the way it goes so that’s that then now isn’t it?
I would agree on not just jumpin into the middle of a song out of politeness and respect for others, other than that, I would think simply asking to sit in shouldn’t be big deal as long as you feel confident about it.
One hilarious event that reocurrs is everyone wants me to keep playing Rolling In the Ryegrass and we can all do it together and it sounds great at a reasonable pace, but when I play it up to speed like they want me to everyone still gets way off after a bit… The drummer will pause when she misses a beat, and when she comes back in shes way slow or fast and I’m bad to drop into it. I still gotta learn to force myself to tune out the rest of the band when necessary!
It’s awesome! We’re a bunch of learners with a majority of professinal players that play with local folk bands and stage performers. How lucky am I? What a deal.
Ok, I’ll shut up now. 
Take care,
John
Maybe your ESP is working…maybe I WILL post on the session.org board. (insert spooky music here)
Hm - is this meant to be general niceness, or do people just not care about clueless people? I imagine that woman sitting down elswhere with Irish musicians, and being told the story of the lady in Neighbourtown with the recorder and Boehm flute, who’s sooooo clueless but just doesn’t notice anything around her, but the session regulars don’t tell her because that wouldn’t be nice… and slowly realising that they are talking about her. That would be cruel.
Sonja
Well, I’d say that it should be her duty to ask and check about session etiquettes before invading a session. It’s the same when you visit other cultures, the right thing to do is to inform yourself about what’s right and what’s wrong in that other culture, and try to adapt.
So, for people who lack the desire to learn about their environment before trying to shape it, like the lady in the example, I don’t see anything cruel about what you described. They really brought it upon themselves.