Reel-to-reel Domination

[Dan Worrall]

Ah Dan, now ya went an' done it .

....oops! No slight intended, Mark, though I should choose my words more carefully. I guess Bluegrass and Irish fall prey to similar demons, from what I've seen. Being ultra-popular, they can attract a lot of speed-loving showboats. If your session has, as you say, the "chug-chugging of a locomotive" rather than the whoosh of a bullet train, it sounds like one I'd really enjoy (and will try to get to if I ever get up into those parts).

[Mark Evans]

hould choose my words more carefully. I guess Bluegrass and Irish fall prey to similar demons, from Being ultra-popular, they can attract a lot of speed-loving showboats.

 

 

Amen to that!

 

I confess to not attending any more open bluegrass jam sessions and avoiding certain invitation only jams where I know there be "wingnuts" aplenty.

[AnnC]

Some friends snd I set up a lovely 'anti-session' in the front bar of a pub during a local folk festival. The big back bar was infested with fast 'oirish' so we did anything and everything else..... Scottish, English, Welsh, Morris, 17th c dance, music hall singalong and even tangos. Just no irish apart from melodic O'Carolans at a respectable tempo. We had a smashing time and the bar staff enjoyed the different tunes, they said that the music from the other bar all sounded the same whereas ours was fun to listen to.

[Hooves]

Hooves, you say:

 

At one festival I attended I stopped to watch the "Sessions Tent", they were all playing the same tune, which is to be expected. I went and got a draft, wandered to another tent to watch some dancers, finished my pint, used the facilties, wandered back to the sessiosn tent and low and behold the same tune was droning out of the session tent in infinite monotony.

 

I've been peeved by the opposite at Irish sessions where musicians play two times through a tune only. If you are trying to learn something by ear at a session then 7 or 8 times is much better. Even if you know the tune, there is so much that can be done with how you play it that each time through is different, But I've been given the evil eye at many an Irish session for playing too many times through, that is until I figured out how to be polite in such situations... when in Rome you know.

 

 

Yes, I thought about that after posting (being somewhat sarcastic as you may have noticed), that the chaps may have been working out a tune, after all you have to start somewhere. At any festival which has the very broad term "Celtic" applied to it, I would expect enough differing interests to preclude instant tune mastery.

 

I respect the musicians willing to put thier talents on display, I frequent open-mic nights and appreciate hearing live music, even when its not from a virtuoso.

[Chris Timson]

Some friends snd I set up a lovely 'anti-session' in the front bar of a pub during a local folk festival. The big back bar was infested with fast 'oirish' so we did anything and everything else..... Scottish, English, Welsh, Morris, 17th c dance, music hall singalong and even tangos.

That's not an anti-session, that's just the sort of session we enjoy.

 

The Radway - famous for its "music from anywhere that's not green on the map" rule - only adopted this policy in self defence when a bunch of celtic diddlies moved in one Sidmouth and tried to take over.

 

Chris

[stuart estell]

I find that I pick up session tunes quite slowly, so if surrounded by people playing an unfamiliar tune at breakneck speed, I'm likely to just look bewildered (or more bewildered than normal) and slope off to find another beer...

[Woody]

....and slope off to find another beer...

So it's not all bad then

[geoffwright]

I suspect wall-to-wall reels is caused in part, by Comhaltas producing tune books for the kids, who then only play tunes in the book and tunes from the latest cds. Hornpipes, polkas and to a lesser extent jigs, have nearly become extinct in some Irish seshs.

 

I find that I pick up session tunes quite slowly, so if surrounded by people playing an unfamiliar tune at breakneck speed, I'm likely to just look bewildered (or more bewildered than normal) and slope off to find another beer...

Sorry, Stuart - if that was Swaledale, it was my fault.

[Michael Reid]

I suspect wall-to-wall reels is caused in part, by Comhaltas producing tune books for the kids, who then only play tunes in the book and tunes from the latest cds. Hornpipes, polkas and to a lesser extent jigs, have nearly become extinct in some Irish seshs.

Geoff, take a look at the recent Foinn Seisiún books and recordings from Comhaltas. There's a nice variety of tunes, with excellent representation of jigs (few hornpipes and polkas, however).

[geoffwright]

Maybe so Mike, but many branches have their own pad to keep the local "tradition" of reels going.

 

Also bear in mind that a wider selection of what we would class "traditional" repertoire is played for set dancing than would be found in the freer session environment.

Edited May 30, 2007 by geoffwright

[stuart estell]

I suspect wall-to-wall reels is caused in part, by Comhaltas producing tune books for the kids, who then only play tunes in the book and tunes from the latest cds. Hornpipes, polkas and to a lesser extent jigs, have nearly become extinct in some Irish seshs.

 

I find that I pick up session tunes quite slowly, so if surrounded by people playing an unfamiliar tune at breakneck speed, I'm likely to just look bewildered (or more bewildered than normal) and slope off to find another beer...

Sorry, Stuart - if that was Swaledale, it was my fault.

 

No, no, not at all Geoff! I found the sessions at Swaledale really enjoyable this year - but then I know most of the English tunes that get played there even if I couldn't tell you what half of them are called. The Irish ones I was happy to leave to other people - especially given that we had Kate MacNamara playing.

 

What I was really referring to was a session that's fairly local to me. It plays mostly breakneck Irish reels with the occasional breakneck Breton tune interspersed and I just can't make sense of it. Even with dots (which someone obligingly provided me with the one and only time I went down) everything blazed past so fast that my fingers hardly had time to catch up before they'd gone on to the next tune. Not much fun. I was invited to start a tune, so I played Sweet Jenny Jones, fairly steadily, in C. No-one joined in!

Edited May 30, 2007 by stuart estell

[Chris Timson]

Also bear in mind that a wider selection of what we would class "traditional" repertoire is played for set dancing than would be found in the freer session environment.

A smaller repertoire is played in the freer environment? That's very sad. It suggests some very closed minds.

 

Chris

[AnnC]

I was invited to start a tune, so I played Sweet Jenny Jones, fairly steadily, in C. No-one joined in!

Ooh ...... a lovely tune, haven't played it for months, I'll have to go and play it while it's still in the front of my mind.

[Frank Edgley]

It was about 15 years ago that I brought my comcertina to Ireland. I had quite a job finding sessions then, although I did find a few. When in Clare I tried to hook up with Chris Droney, but he was on the way to a funeral and wee were just passing through. He suggested I go to the Royal Spa (pub)in Lisdoonvarna as his son, Francis, would be leading the session that night. During the session, he asked me if I had been to any other sessions since being in Ireland, and I said I had played in one in Dingle (county Kerry). He said, "I suppose they play things like jigs, hornpipes and polkas there?" That night, I believe the only time we played anything other than reels is when I started them. He was kind enough to join in, however.

[bill_mchale]

Also bear in mind that a wider selection of what we would class "traditional" repertoire is played for set dancing than would be found in the freer session environment.

A smaller repertoire is played in the freer environment? That's very sad. It suggests some very closed minds.

 

Chris

 

Actually Chris, I would suggest that it suggests a local music culture. People who play for Dances need to have a decent number of tunes in a wide variety of idioms under their belt, where as in sessions people play what they like. Naturally this is going to vary from place to place.

 

It always amazes me when people criticize a session for being what it advertises itself to be. It doesn't happen often, but we get people who come into the Irish Session in J. Patrick's (an Irish Bar in Baltimore) and they get upset when they try to start an English or Civil War tune and no one jumps in or they get upset because we aren't doing sing alongs.

 

I will grant that there is a virtue in having multi-cultural music sessions, but on the flip side the mono-cultural music sessions (as someone referred to them) often play a vital role in keeping a musical tradition alive and thriving in a way that a mixed session simply can't. To a certain extent you are seeing that in Irish Music today where the regional distinctions in the music are slowly being replaced by a single cloud of Irish Music.

 

--

Bill

[yankeeclipper]

..I will grant that there is a virtue in having multi-cultural music sessions, but on the flip side the mono-cultural music sessions (as someone referred to them) often play a vital role in keeping a musical tradition alive...

 

There's a difference between monocultural and monotonous. Genuine Irish music is rich in variety, but "Irish" sessions locally seem limited to endless hypnotic, high-speed reel-to-reel monotony. In contrast, most Scottish music sessions manage to cover the gamut from slow airs and traditional songs (Lowland and Highland), to dances, pipe tunes and - occasionally - jigs and reels; monocultural, but still open and varied.

[Guest Peter Laban]

A smaller repertoire is played in the freer environment? That's very sad. It suggests some very closed minds.

 

Not actually true either, for the most popular set (in the West of Ireland at least) most figures are danced to reels, only one figure each for jigs and hornpipes against three, including the longest figure of the set, for reels.

[Mark Evans]

Genuine Irish music is rich in variety, but "Irish" sessions locally seem limited to endless hypnotic, high-speed reel-to-reel monotony.

 

Well, even in such a session there can be purpose. At Stone's the Reel-a-Rama times left me hanging out with the backers more often than I wanted. The ones I didn't know sounded very nice indeed. I was pushed to learn a couple a week and after a while there I am running along with the other lads an' lasses . When I was ready to come out of the texture with one well under my fingers and up to speed, I'd get a few grins and nods. Let's face it, reels are fun and makes an old dog feel he can learn new tricks.

 

An added side bonus has been improved facility and ornamentation that has migrated in my playing to Obi's Boys. Our mandolin player has even stopped by the Irish session to listen in so curious was he. The reels attracted him the most and there's stuff goin' on with his plectrum technique just from exposure.

Edited June 1, 2007 by Mark Evans