I am hoping to join a real session soon, and I’m wondering how people handle the differing tune versions when they play in a session. Often the tune you learned is not precisely the tune that is played and this used to throw me off. Do you go ahead and play the notes as you learned them (which usually fit just fine anyway), or do you try to adjust to the version that is being played? And if you are a good enough player to vary the tune with each repeat, how is that accepted by other players?
Enquiring minds, and all that.
Most people - unfortunately - don’t concern themselves with such fine points and just jump in and play the tune the way they know it, regardless of what anyone else is doing.
Often this works well enough, if the tune is a standard, or if you already know how the tune is played in that particular session.
But not always. A good idea, which I’ve observed in many top players, is that when someone you don’t know starts a tune, you listen to the tune one complete time through to make sure your version is compatible, or to see how the player handles various uncertainties (e.g. some tunes are played with or without repeats, or with F-naturals or F-sharps, depending on the setting). Then on the second time you can choose whether to join in or not.
As for variations, when a number of people are playing together it’s probably a good idea not to launch into anything too fancy and grand, but minor variations are to be expected and encouraged.
When you get more confident, and you’re in a smallish session with people whose music inspires you, adapting what you play to fit in better with them, to create something new together on the fly, is simply the greatest buzz going.
The ideal of a good session is ‘playing as one’ playing as tightly together as you possibly can. This leaves no room for different versions although variation within the context is part of the game. It doesn’t mean either that everybody is playing exactly the same notes, there is room to fill in the gaps in eachother’s playing, different instruments have slightly different approaches. It is very important though that the rhythm and phrasing sits in well with the other players, the whole thing should be steady. At least this is the way with the sessions in the area where I live. [and I suppose it is good to realise that as it is more often than not just this very quality that is lacking in musicians learn their music outside the tradition, one of those things that is completely natural when you grow up with it but initially hard for people who come to it from the outside]
In general it’s a good idea to know a few variants of the tunes you play so you can lock into whatever version comes around. Listen closely to what is going on in the session around you and adapt to it as you go along, a session is after all more than a bunch of people playing the same tunes at roughly the same moment. Or that’s the way it should be anyway. Be flexible and react to the dynamics of the whole thing. If you are uncertain, sits next to a steady, strong player lock into his or her playing, especially when there’s someone in the session pulling at the rhythm and the speed of things, lock the music together to keep it steady
Wow - comprehensive answers indeed. Thanks.
Tonight I’m going to go just to listen, and I’ll keep in mind what you guys have said.