First Session Report - Wow!

[stefeb]

Just got back from my first Irish Session. It was everything everyone here said it would be and much more.

The leader was a mandolin/guitar player, and we got to chat before everyone else arrived. After talking with her I felt at ease.

There were six fiddle players, three penny whistles, and a Bourham (sp?) player.

One comment right away, fiddles are loud!

The first hour was a tempo that everyone was comfortable with. When it came to my turn to start a tune I picked Boys of Bluehilll, which some of the other players had mentioned. The leader told me to play at whatever speed I was comfortable with, and I did. It was great. Everyone joined in, and there I was playing with other musicians. Who woulda thunk it?

The leader did an excellent job encouraging everyone as they played and had a kind word to say about each players tune, approach to the tune, the sound of their instrument, etc.

There were a lot of tunes I was familiar with, but did not know how to play, so I know learning them will not be too difficult.

Regarding the tunes, the leader said, "If you don't know a tune, but can play one note, go for it." Well, for the most part I just listened, but as I was watching the leader play the mandolin (a 1914 Gibson) I mimicked her left hand and did occasionally hit a correct note with her. I made sure I was certain of the note before I played it.

I led another song later in the session, Fisher's Hornpipe, which went well.

The second hour was at a faster pace, and on the few songs I knew I was not that far off as far as speed goes. That was encouraging to me.

All in all, I had an excellent time, and am looking forward to my next session, And, man, did I learn a lot about the feel of Irish music. I've listened to tons of CDs, but nothing compares to sitting down with fellow musicians, and playing/listening with them. It was great.

About the volume. As I mentioned, and all of you know, fiddles are loud, but I was still able to hear the leaders mandolin, and mine as well. I don't think I was playing louder intentionally, but the mandolin could be heard by me, and I'm sure by the other players.

The people were all very friendly, and treated me as if I'd been going there for months.

I must say, the leader's attitude, and encouragement were a real plus.

One other thing...Do all fiddle players like to play fast? Or, is playing the fiddle fast (not well) easier than playing the mandolin fast?

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I know it was long, but I just wanted to share my first session with you all.

[Bertram Henze]

Congratulations - you've entered a bigger world.

Boys of Bluehill is indeed a good starter (hornpipes generally seem to be good mandolin tunes because of their pointed rythm - you should try Chief O'Neill's).

Volume: fiddles are loud only until someone with uillean pipes comes in, but even those become background noise when someone with scottish smallpipes starts his engine; still, that's nothing against a scottish war pipe set, but nobody plays a session with those.

Speed: speed is a matter of personal preference rather than of instrument type. But yes, fiddle is easier to speed up than mandolin because there is much less left-hand pressure needed (no frets) and much less right-hand dexterity (no pick).

Feel of Irish music: Yes, life is live.

[steve V. johnson]

Hey Congratulations! I'm really glad you had a good time!

"... a Bourham (sp?) player." It's spelled "bodhran" but you have the pronunciation pretty well down. BOW-rahn, with bow like the front of a boat.

" ... nothing compares to sitting down with fellow musicians, and playing/listening with them."

Amen to that!! Welcome to the good times! One of our sessions is in just a couple hours! Woohoo!!

All the best,

stv

[RolandTumble]

About fiddles & speed:

I do Scottish Country Dancing, and our demo team dances to live music (even for practice--yay!). We've got a father (guitar) & son (fiddle/mandolin) team that's been playing for us for about three years now. Brian (son) does tend to speed up, and that tendency is worse when he's on mando than on fiddle.

Also, I've played fiddle a bit myself, & I don't think it's at all accurate to say that it takes "much less" right hand dexterity. Bowing is an entirely different motion than picking, and is in fact somewhat slower by nature, since it has to come largely from the elbow rather than the wrist. It's lots harder to single-bow quickly than to pick quickly--but, in compensation, you can slur (hammer/pull) 'til the cows come home without loss of string energy (volume).

[steve V. johnson]

An old fellow playing for a country ceili dance in the southwest of Ireland once told me that the tempos are set by the eldest or slowest dancer.

<GGG>

stv

[MandoJon]

country ceili dance

Since we're doing celtic spellings in this thread shouldn't that be "ceilidh" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif (pronounced kaylee)

I guess setting the tempo to the oldest and slowest dancer saves the need for a medic to stand-by. Though, at all the ceilidhs I've been to the tempo was set by how malicious the band leader felt and most recently included deliberately racheting up the speed during things like The Hooligan's Jig (that's a dance, not a tune BTW) until most of us felt sick from the physical effort - but then if you're going to voluntarily dance to anything with the word 'hooligan' in the title then I suppose you can't complain (I can't help asking for that dance though... it's adictive in its brutality).

[Bob DeVellis]

I've been told by a group of dancing masters who were running Irish step dance lessons at Gaelic Fest one year that the best dancers have slower music than less skilled dancers because the more accomplished incorporate many more ornaments into their dancing while the others just go through the basic steps without all the elaborations. I found that a nice analogy to mandolin -- you can either smoke through it in stripped-down fashion or play at a more deliberate pace with lots of tasteful little ornaments and nuances. Of course, there are a very few who can achieve speed and nuance simultaneously.

These dancers, who just happened to be assigned to the same dorm floor as I was, were an interesting lot. One woman who'd been dancing since age 3 (about 30 years) had a layer of callus on the soles fo her feet that you would not believe -- a solid yellow rind. She could walk barefoot over broken glass, I'm sure, with no problem. One of the old timers pointed out that, say what you will about Riverdance, it had provided professional work for a whole slew of young people (including two of his kids in the original company) who would either have given up dancing at age 20 or so, or would have become dance teachers themselves. I guess the latter was seen as something of a let-down for really good dancers. The whole bunch of them had impeccable rhythm, as you'd expect.

[MandoJon]

the best dancers have slower music than less skilled dancers because the more accomplished incorporate many more ornaments into their dancing

So that's why the guy speeded up when I was dancing with my mates! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[steve V. johnson]

bobd sez:
"One of the old timers pointed out that, say what you will about Riverdance, it had provided professional work for a whole slew of young people (including two of his kids in the original company) who would either have given up dancing at age 20 or so, or would have become dance teachers themselves."

And it's the same for a lot of great young musicians who filled the various touring companies (there were a -bunch- of those!) over time! I've heard of (and from) a lot of fine players who got wonderful breaks from their Riverdance experiences and were able to make good from that.

I used to ridicule it, but I heard such respect for the process from old folks out in the back country in Ireland that I learned a new perspective on it. Individual sean nos dancers will make jokes about the dancing from time to time, but overall from the folks I've met, Michael Flately is seen as having created a very productive industry from folk roots.

stv

[jbrwky]

Isn't it funny how we can make fun of ourselves. It's something about power and feeling better than someone else. We find a thousand ways to distance ourselves from each other. I've seen so many opportunities to connect at ceilis or jams wasted by judgementalism. My advice is play the music, practice, help each other.