Or sing ‘The Boxer’ 
What have you been smoking up there in the mountains Mitch? 
Hmm, do the reels start playing in 11/8 when you’re tripping?
“Purple Haze…”
Loren
my friends, I think you take it too seriously 
I mean… I know that I will never swim as fast as Michael Phelps, but this is not a problem!
I like to swim, and I do it occasionally, but not with the aim to take part to the next olimpic games!
For most of us (at least for me) playing the whistle is just an hobby. Slow down, relax, take it easy! Do it for the sake of doing it, not to be the fastest at your local session
Yes, that’s a nice thought, but one must fit in with the session, not the other way around…
Loren
Please don’t intentionally mis-characterize what I (or other posters) said. It is rude and adds nothing to the discussion.
– Scott
Before you start calling me rude (which is rude in itself) : where did I go wrong ?
And off-key at that. 
Hey, Peter, I know how you can really shake up your next session:
Start ‘Sleepwalk’. 
Slan abhaile,
Jim
A while ago, over on the fiddle-l list, somebody kicked up some dust by suggesting that heading off for sessions wasn’t very productive for relatively new players, that they’d be better off getting together with a few other musicians regularly and working on a few tunes, at least if the goal was to develop musicianship. Although I enjoy the casual sessions I get to–the social part, hearing new tunes or new players–I think I learn more from the times I’ve spent with a couple other players, when we can run through tunes a bunch of times, try different tempos, really hear each other and respond to what we’re hearing. It helps give practicing more focus too, to know what tunes are going to be played and what I need to work on to get them closer to right.
I didn’t have a chance to respond to this point yet, but I find it strange (and frankly a bit condescending) that a it is implied here that people whose highest priority is the music (professionals, I guess) are unwelcoming. It’s not my experience. On the contrary. I go to a clouple of sessions in NYC (where you’ll find a lot of top notch musicians playing out) and they are really very welcoming and friendly. I was shy at first (not being a good player by any strech of the imagination) but was actively encouraged by those whose highest priority was the music. One guy said: “Come out and have some tunes. We don’t mind having beginners there, as long as they don’t want to start every set.” Another time I called a professional musician first to ask if it would be okay for me to sit in on a particular session, again I was encouraged to come and “have some tunes.” When I got there I found that it was just three professionals who have recorded and who teach at workshops etc., and me. I took they guy I knew to the side and asked whether he was serious that I could join in, knowing that I had little to add to the music, and that I would be happy to just listen. He was almost offended by the suggestion that they would mind having me there. So I sit in the session and listen when I don’t know the tunes (many if not most of them), and I join in when I do know the tune. A couple of times a night they’ll look at me and say, “so, what have you got?” At which point I start a set. Or if I am feeling bold I’ll quietly try out the first few bars of a tune I have floating around in my head and someone will look over and say, “great tune, man, go ahead,” and we’ll play that one. Also, at times I’ve seriously messed up, gone out of tune, forgotten the turn of tunes I started, and otherwise imposed mediocrity. It’s not that they don’t care about the standard of the music (they do) but they also care about enthusiasm for the music and about having a good relaxed friendly time for everyone. In other words: I am seriously trying to learn and to improve, and that’s what matters more to them then the occasional flubbed tune.
That was actually a reference to a hilarious session with the McCarthy sisters, Edel Fox and a few others Bloomfield and myself were at some time ago. A guy from Toronto wandered in and insisted on singing. I still have the lalala circling my mind regularly.
‘You’ve come this far you may as well start one’
hehe you don’t know the half of it 
It was a study in what not to do. The guy sang an Irish song, and did so credibly (to everyone’s applause), but then couldn’t leave well enough alone. Reduced inhibition as a result of drink, perhaps. He took Ado Morris’s guitar (a no-no in my book right there) and went into The Boxer… Just not the right sort of thing for an Irish session. Everyone started laughing about it and singing along off key on the lalala (reduced inhibitions perhaps on part of some of the musicians). They guy then got offended and started insisting that it was actually a very sad and serious song (which wasn’t the point at all) and then announced loudly that he thought there was an inside joke here at his expense and he wished someone would tell him what was going on. I don’t think anyone did, and it’s really a bit much to expect, too. As it was, if the guy had just listened and observed for a night, he would easily have noticed that people were playing tunes, that songs were considered the more edifying for being very occasional, and that it was all Irish material.
You know, that was just such a great moment, and Conor knew what it meant to me and I think that added to the music all around.
I was recently at a session with a rather large and diverse group of people. The one irish guy (from ireland!), who was so sure about his rhythm, yet so wrong, started the a set of obscure (but recognizeable) tunes in Gm. Most of the session joined in for the first tune and dropped out for the second, except for the irishman and a visiting fiddler from Boston, definitely “pro-level” and a class act. The contrast between his playing of the tune with good rhythm and the other guy flailing through it was striking. He eventually gave up and stopped, as the other one lept ahead, fell behind, started parts over, etc, and it was just too much of a mess to work with. The irishman crashed to the ending of his set and made a ‘duelling fiddles’ comment which seemed to imply that the bostonian was the one who had trouble with the set.
So… Bad rhythm, obscure set of tunes in unusual key, condescending to someone to whom one ought to be inquiring about lessons. These are bad things for a beginner to do at a session.
According to Bloomie, you’re right. I really don’t know the half of it.
Now I’m gonna have that tune mucking up my brain all day. I’m just thankful it’s the S&G version, and not the one you were subjected to. Dad-blasted earworm!
Editing is a little crude, but you get the idea . . .
Listen up Sucka, don’t bring our session down!
I Pity the Fool who can’t keep up on them reels, ya hear? Hell, even Murdock can play faster than you!
Loren
Bloomfield, Monkey 587, Shadeclan - great posts all!
Philo
So what is the purpose of playing Irish music, or any music for that matter? I personally play (and this applies to my symphony and my concert band) for the spirit of musicianship and to make someone else’s day a little better for having listened. You’re right that in the session venues there’s not a lot of listening going on, but there’s some, and it’s more for me, anyway. Selfish but true.