Session Etiquette
What is a session?
An Irish Session is a gathering of musicians playing
traditional Irish music (occasionally including other Celtic genres such as
Scottish, Brittany, Cape Breton, and French Canadian) on traditional Irish instruments.
Traditional Irish music is made up of dance tunes such as reels, jigs,
hornpipes, slides, and a few other miscellaneous forms including polkas, set
dances, airs and songs (although songs are infrequent at the EOWS session). It
is not so much a performance but a sharing of traditional tunes among the musicians
and those who care to listen. The instruments might include fiddle, flute,
accordion, uilleann pipe, concertina, tenor banjo, whistle (a.k.a. penny whistle,
tin whistle), mandolin, bodhrán, guitar, and sometimes piano. An Irish Session
is not a "jam session".
Etiquette
If you are new to the session it is advised that you
approach the session leader(s) and ask permission to sit in. Melody instruments
should stick to the melody of the tune that is being played. There is of
course, plenty of room for individual embellishments (ornamentations) within
the framework of the tune. In almost all cases, it is really not acceptable to
do improvisation on a melody instrument at an Irish Session. If you're not
familiar with a tune being played at a Session and are trying to learn it, try
to play very quietly, so as not to disrupt the flow of the tune.
Disrupting the tune by playing “around” the melody (i.e. playing notes in the
same key, but not the particular melody) is also known as “noodling”, which is
generally annoying to those playing the actual melody. It is advised that you
sit and listen so that you can become familiar with the tune. It is acceptable
to record the tunes so that you can learn it on your own time.
The melody is the priority in a session, while the
melody may be accompanied by rhythm on bouzouki, guitar, and/or bodhrán.
However there should not be more than one of each rhythm instrument being
played at one time, so as not to overwhelm or distract from the melody. The
rhythm instruments are there to compliment the melody and to enhance the rhythm,
which is also a key component of traditional Irish music, being that the tunes
are usually dance music (reels, jigs, slip jigs, slides, hornpipes, polkas)
where the dancers use their feet to beat out the rhythm of the dance.
Tunes are usually grouped into sets. Frequently these
sets consist of particular tunes played in a particular order. There are sets
that are traditionally grouped tunes, wherever you go in the world, while other
sets are particular to an individual session. The tunes that are played in a
session are usually verbally agreed upon before starting them so that there is
some communication about what is being played next. It is not advisable to just
launch into a tune without any communication. Paying attention to what the
session leader(s) are communicating cuts down on chaos in the session. Tunes
are usually played in a straightforward manner, which means that there is no “arrangement”
which varies from the traditional tune, such as what a band might do to link
tunes together with bridges during a performance.
If you have a tunable instrument (stringed, flute,
most whistles) you should tune it so that you are not distracting from the
melody. If you are playing with a non-instantly-tunable instrument such as an
accordion, it is advisable that everyone tune to them, assuming they are reasonably
close to being in tune.
The point of a Session is to have fun. If everyone abides by the usually unspoken etiquette guidelines, it leads to a more enjoyable time for all participants.
Further discussion on Irish Session Etiquette
http://groups.msn.com/TraditionalIrishMusic/sessionsetiquette.msnw
http://pweb.jps.net/~jgilder/seisiun.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_traditional_music_session
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Irish-Music-Session/dp/1568331940