For those of you who are active session participants—
Before stumbling into a session, what tempos (or range of tempos) should one expect for the various types of tunes?
Jigs, reels, hornpipes, slides, polkas, etc. ?
If this has been discussed previously, apologies, but I wasn’t able to find it using the search function.
Thanks and best wishes.
There is no “right” answer to this question - it depends on the people at the session. I can say that if YOU start a tune, you can usually dictate the speed. Most people are very tolerant of beginners and will play a little more slowly than they’re used to. You have to be reasonable, though… Don’t start a jig at a slow air tempo and expect people to “obey” you! Your bodhran player has a lot to do with this as well. Our (Gallowglass, Wheeling, WV) Monday sessions go at a variety of tempos, but usually at a fairly good clip. I, personally, like to play a little slower just 'cause I think it sounds nicer and you can really hear all the nuances, but that is just me…
Your best bet is to go to a session and just listen to see what the “mood” is. You don’t even need to bring an instrument! Whistles are kinda nice in that you can “whip it out” if it looks like you WILL fit in or just keep it in your pocket if you aren’t comfortable. The Parks Walkabout is especially good for this!
Pat
I find beginners often make the other mistake, which is playing much faster than they can. I’d prefer very slow with good rhythm than fast with bad rhythm… as we say here in french, “too much is like not enough” 
Let me rephrase —
At approximately what speed/tempo does your session play the various types of tunes? (With the caveat that the tempo may alter somewhat from one tune to another to allow for expression.) Just looking for a ballpark number here.
Thanks and best wishes.
Steve
You’re going to get fuzzy answers because it’s a fuzzy question. Depends on the session, the location, the tune, who’s playing, the mood, the lead instrument, etc. Too many variables, and wide ranges. For example, at our sessions:
Reels: 90 to 130 (in 2)
Jigs: 100 to 140 (in 2)
Hornpipes: 140 to 180 (in 4)
The lower end is pretty relaxed, the upper end near the limit of musicality. The most common tempos are somewhere in between. And hornpipes may be played more as reels, single jigs faster as slides, and so on.
Check out the Foinn Seisiún settings on the Comhaltas site:
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_1/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_2/
These might be considered typical tempos, to give you something to go by.
Another way to answer would be with a question back at you:
How fast do the people you listen to play? If you’re listening to good irish music, then you’re going to get a pretty typical cross section of speeds that will be very similar to what might be found at any given session. A follow-up question would be: who do you listen to?
As Azalin said speed isn’t really what’s important. Far better to play slower and get the right phrasing, rhythm and feel than to rush into trying to play “up to session speed” (whatever that is!). I know several musicians that sound rushed no matter what speed they play at, probably because they were in too much of a hurry to “get up to speed”.
Guru —
Thanks very much. That’s the sort of range info I was looking for.
Best wishes.
Steve
I know this is an older thread, but I want to thank you for this info MTGuru… I was searching for some info on average ITM tempos this evening and found this thread. 
I also found an interesting article about ITM “performance speed” if anyone cares to give it a look:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30739579/A-Short-Examination-of-the-Tempo-of-Recorded-Irish-Music
@Clarinetcat: thanks for the link, very interesting!
see also this thread:
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/speed-on-a-metronome/64227/15
Looking at the figures given there for videos at http://comhaltas.ie we get roughly these statistics:
Reels: 90 to 120 (in 2)
Jigs: 100 to 130 (in 2)
Hornpipes: 70 to 90 (in 2)
i.e. statistically slightly slower than MTG’s figures at the fast end for jigs and reels, same for hornpipes. I guess speed can get pushed to the extreme in sessions.
It’s probably an imperial to metric conversion thing…
This thread puts me in mind of a quote by the great pianist Artur Rubenstein regarding performance tempo. Talking about classical music, he felt that “most people play fast music too fast, and slow music too slowly”. Seems to apply to session music too sometimes.