Hello! I’ve little experience attending sessions. I visited a session a few months back. It was held in a smallish room. Everyone seemed to enjoy fast tunes played loudly. I did not find it enjoyable, but monotonous; I found the loudness in the small room almost physically uncomfortable.
I can understand that loud and fast tunes are fun to play, and for particapatory dance and Ceilis, they makes sense.
But continuous loud and fast tunes at a session?
Do folks play quieter and slower tunes at sessions? Best regards.
Slower tunes? Yes, that happens. Not nearly as much as the fast tunes, but it happens. Quieter? When someone plays a tune only he or she knows, then of course it gets quieter than with ten or twenty people are blasting away at full speed, but never purpously quieter, since the place where we play sessions tend to be very noisy and it’s hard enough to hear each other to begin with.
Around here I’m one of the few that regularly play slow tunes just to have a break and change of pace now and again. I think a good session needs variety but that’s just my personal view.
Were you playing in the session, or were you there as a listening bystander? Also, what would you consider to be your playing level?
I ask because the #1 reaction to the dance chunes I hear from non-musicians or beginning players is: “Wow, it’s so fast.” Even if you’re playing at a very moderate pace. People are not used to the “density” of notes and structure - compared to, say, pop melodies. All they hear is a blur, which they then interpret as “fast”.
If you’re an experienced player/listener, and especially if you’re participating in the session, the tunes may not seem so fast at all. And you say you have little experience at sessions, so that may be part of it.
I agree that variety is good, and that some players and groups have only one gear, top gear, which can be boring. But the enjoyment of driving and lifting tunes is part of the fun of a session. And reels played at a fairly brisk pace are the core of most session repertoires.
As for loudness … More experienced sessions will adjust the overall volume to the size of the group and the size of the room. Playing full bore with the volume on 11 all the time is one of my pet peeves. But again, the perception of loudness may depend on whether you’re within the session circle or without.