What makes a good session?

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue May 25, 2004 9:24 pm

Djm,

You would be surprised, very surprised at how slow some very good players will play. This summer a bunch of Chiffers and I were in Miltown Malbay, Ireland, and I got a recording of Peter Laban and his concertina friend and few others playing a few tunes in a dance. One fo the tune I recorded is the reel "Silver Spire". For a while I didnt really pay attention to the tune, 'cause I had other stuff to learn, and always assumed it was a jig. I sat down one day and located the tune, and realized it was in fact a very well played reel, played slowly but with great style.

Anyway, just a thought, I know this isnt what you're trying to say and I get your point, but just remember that playing faster really doesnt mean being better. It's always good to *know* that you can play fast and still play allright. If I had a Porsche, I'd be the type of guy who'd go at 50km/hour just to let people know I *could* go faster but I don't. Now, on the whistle, I do play too fast sometimes (a lot).

As you're saying, if you're stucked with one session, your choice is limited. Just move somewhere else!

brad maloney · Post by **brad maloney** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:01 pm

djm wrote:Az, I don't mean fast as in rushing. I mean faster than the less competent players (like me) can manage.

A mixed session can easily afford to slow down for the newer players once in a while, but many session players in my experience seem to take great offense at slowing down even for one tune.

If there is a choice of a slow/beginners session I would go to that, especially if one or two more experienced players were to get off their high horses long enough to help, but if there is only one session, where else can one go?

djm

Grasshopper, the river does not seek the horse. You need to get in touch with these players & try to make nice. You'll only get better by playing with people who are better than you.

eskin · Post by **eskin** » Wed May 26, 2004 9:07 am

IMHO, in the face of limited resources, people get nutty. Having a single session in town where beginners and more advanced players are just supposed to "get along" is like having a bowling league without handicaps where you expect those who bowl 85 are supposed to happily get along with those who average 240. Ain't gonna happen. Nobody has fun.

While not necessarily true for all players, some will take a request to slow down as the equivalent of "could you please throw a couple of gutter balls or miss that spare so we won't feel so unhappy that we can't bowl 240 like you". Not saying its right, but I can see how some people aren't going to take kindly to that request. They're out to have fun too, they aren't there to teach, and have every right to say "do your practicing at home, and come back when you can bowl 240 like the rest of us..."

Best to start another session that is oriented towards learning and recruit a session leader who understands that these newer players are the people that he/she is going to be playing with in in the pub sessions in 2-5 years...

We had the same situation here in San Diego many years ago. There was only one session. Lots of politics and disagreements. Now there are 4, soon to be 6, and everyone has a place to play. No more fighting, but it hasn't changed people's attitudes about "those nice people at the XXX session vs. those mean people at the YYY session". What matters is that everyone has a place they can go and have a good time.

herbivore12 · Post by **herbivore12** » Wed May 26, 2004 1:07 pm

eskin wrote:
those nice people at the XXX session

I want to go to that session. Not nearly enough XXX in ITM these days . . .

eskin · Post by **eskin** » Wed May 26, 2004 1:27 pm

That's funny, we joked the other night that we should have a session at the local strip club after a couple of girls from one of the popular clubs came through the pub handing out advertising cards...

Nude step dancing, bring it on!

Post by **Nanohedron** » Wed May 26, 2004 1:44 pm

Always a good idea to keep abreast with the times.

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed May 26, 2004 3:06 pm

Now you're just being cheeky ...

djm

Geordie Lynd · Post by **Geordie Lynd** » Wed May 26, 2004 5:32 pm

I like it when it's laid back enough that everyone can sit and listen to one player play alone once in a while. You can get some obscure tunes and a nice change of pace. Everyone playing at once is not the only kind of musical sharing.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Wed May 26, 2004 5:41 pm

Yep.

I also like that dynamic that happens when someone's soloing, and the next tune has one or two who know it as well, and then everybody on the next, for example. A very satisfying progression, groupwise.

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Wed May 26, 2004 7:35 pm

The Sporting Pitchfork wrote: Road trip to Seattle, anyone?

Seattle? No, San Francisco!

Glad you've seen the light and come back to the West Coast. Maybe we'll see you at one of the tionols out here...

Justine

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu May 27, 2004 4:37 am

I hear terms used on these boards describing session music like 'rip-raoaring' 'pounding' 'steaming' etc. Usually words I would not at any time assiociate with Irish music played well. A bit like that obsession with instruments that 'cut through' music rather than joining and mixing with it. Any thoughts on that side of things?

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Thu May 27, 2004 7:51 am

Hmmm... Steaming, pounding.... Are you sure they were talking about music, Peter?

djm · Post by **djm** » Thu May 27, 2004 7:56 am

Okay, Peter, I'll take the bait.

I get bored with ITM played too softly.

This is music to make men go mad. I like sex and violence in my ITM. It doesn't have to be fast, but it should definitely have drive to it.

I know there are people who reduce ITM to chamber music. I call them the "Tea Drinkers", people who would faint at the slightest suggestion of an exciting rhythm or passion in the music. They might spill their tea!

If the music doesn't set your toes tapping and your hips swaying its just not ITM for me.

djm

Baglady · Post by **Baglady** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:25 am

I just spent a lovely rare evening with the father of sessioning in Minnesota. A wonderful box player from Ireland who spends his winters here. He was doing his farewell round of the sessions before he was to fly off to Erin's green shore on Tuesday. People usually LEAVE MN when it gets cold. When questioned about this odd backward kind of behavior he just smiled and shrugged. He said he has to go back to keep his accent up.

He is our link to the pre-recording, music in the kitchen kind of playing which makes for a lovely session. And he says I play "lovely" so I'm his lapdog for life. The atmosphere is open and welcoming and you can lead off a set if you feel so inclined. But you know he is in charge. He sent a piper packing because he was out of tune. I wish he had been there a week earlier when a cittern player was tuned flat and nobody would tell him.

(Why didn't you say something?

Me? You know him better. Why didn't you tell him?)

Tune to the box that is there please.

What was funny was when said out of tune player growled.

"Can we all take a moment? It's sounding really bad."

We all looked at each other and fiddled about looking like we were tuning to the box's A. What can you do at that point but laugh to yourself and hope someone will clue him in.

Oh, I digress.

Anyway, It’s all good. Reels swingy or driving, Jigs lilting or pounding, a sweet set dance. Variety is what a session is about. You need to learn to submerge your ego and follow what the lead-off player is doing tempo, rhythm, variations, etc. And by lead-off I mean the one who starts the tune in case there might be some confusion.

As far as hearing yourself, Session playing is all about blending into a cohesive groove. As I learned from chorale singing and pipe bands, believe it or not, if you can't hear yourself, you are doing it right. If you want to stand out and be heard above everyone, start a band.

As I say over and over again. Session playing is it's own little niche. And each session is different. It has it's own set of skills and rules. And these are best learned at a session.

My favorite session is the one I am at, at the moment.

There are nights when that clueless, pony tailed guitarist comes in and starts banging bad chords at me so I can’t hear what key the lead is playing in so people start growling chord changes at me. But maybe the next time some grand guest player will come in and make every bit of it worthwhile.

It’s all good.

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:37 am

djm wrote: This is music to make men go mad. I like sex and violence in my ITM. It doesn't have to be fast, but it should definitely have drive to it.

I know there are people who reduce ITM to chamber music. I call them the "Tea Drinkers", people who would faint at the slightest suggestion of an exciting rhythm or passion in the music. They might spill their tea!

djm

That is ofcourse NOT what I am talking about but where do you find your sex and violence, in playing louder and faster or in a wel placed gracenote a long note in the right place, a variation that tears your heart out or a subtle texture to emphasize the phrase?

I would think in the latter. In the present An Piobaire Sean Donnelly quotes Breandan Breathnach's comment on Michael Gallagher's recording of the Collier's reel: 'There's spite in that' and compares it too Ennis' music that was equally 'testosterone driven'. Is that because they were teadrinkers as you call it? No that was because they had subtle ways of conveying agression, spite, tenderness and all other personal emotions that make good music. And I would say a session that has those qualities is the best, if maybe not the loudest.