First, apologies if this has been discussed before, I never find much when I search, so point me to the thread if you know…
I play mostly non-Irish music on the whistle, but I would dearly love to at some point play in a session. So, I think I need at least two or three tunes that are:
very popular - meaning they almost always come up in sessions
not so difficult or played so fast that a fumbling beginner like me couldn’t play them
and preferably not the REALLY high tunes. I can do second octave, if I need to, but nothing in the third. I would prefer first octive with just a bit into the second if possible.
I’ve asked this before and always get told something to the effect of “It’s very different depending on where the session is.” The advice I’m usually given is to find out about local sessions and ask players there or go listen in and get a list of what they play and learn some of those.
There’s a slow session at Ireland’s 32 in San Francisco, second and last Mondays of the month, that you should check out. They’ve got a tunes list posted here:
I would second Cees report, Kar. Standard session tunes really do vary from place to place, and night to night. There are books out there of typical session stuff, and I rely on them quite heavily. Probably the most available resource for pretty standard tunes is the ‘virtual session’ that has been mentioned here before. I figure I know all of them (not all of them well, but I recognize all the tunes there) and hear at least one or two at every session here in CT.
Cross over the Atlantic, though, and all bets are off! I was warned that if I didn’t request something, it was likely they’d go a whole night without stumbling on anything I knew.
On 2002-09-13 16:51, gogo wrote:
There’s a slow session at Ireland’s 32 in San Francisco, second and last Mondays of the month, that you should check out. They’ve got a tunes list posted here:
On 2002-09-13 17:09, blackhawk wrote:
Gogo, what percentage of the players at Ireland’s 32 are beginners or not far past that? (Like me)
I would say MOST of them, although it varies a lot from week to week. Some folks there are able to play a bit more, a bit faster, etc., but the way it’s set up is, it’s slow speeds before 9:00 pm, then the folks who want to can hang around after that for a more standard-speed session. So if anybody gets too wild and starts pushing the pace in the early part of the night, it’s not unheard of for someone else to say, “It’s not 9 o’clock yet, slow it down!”.
This session is sponsored by the San Francisco branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, and they seem to be making an effort to develop a strong music program. They held a day of Irish music workshops a few weeks ago, and are planning more of those. You don’t have to be a member to attend their events, although I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if anyone wanted to sign up!
[ This Message was edited by: gogo on 2002-09-13 17:21 ]