Hi folks,
I was recently at a session that seemed out of control, there were points that two different tunes were happening at the same time within the same session, 15 feet apart due to no one able to hear each other- YIKES!
Question: When does a session get too big?
Anyone have thoughts on the ratio among instruments? How many of each is
instrument is ideal and a good recipe for things to be balanced?
Hopefully, there are more good melody players (fiddles, flutes, whistles, pipes, boxes, yes even banjos) than backup players (guitarists playing open string/bar chords, mando’s not playing the melody, bazouk’s, piano, bohdrans). Not so easy to find. Say 6-8 melody players and 2-4 backup players. What the hell, as long as it sounds decent and everyone’s playing the same tune…
Secessionary sessions are indeed a curse - one of those things that just happens now and then. Some rooms/venues are more prone to it than others on grounds of acoustics and seating layout. Open-air or marquee sessions at festivals also suffer… Neither of those situations have anything much to do with the players involved or their competence or group empathy and discretion, and just can’t be helped. However, even in those situations it is incumbent upon everyone, whatever the instrumental make up of the group, to LISTEN. Sometimes of course you get simultaneous strike-ups and, if the starters are quickly joined by a group near them, in a large session/bad space they may well not be able to hear that there is a clash going on - and that’s harder to resolve. Even in good acoustical circumstances there are bound to be occasions when people will have different habitual follow-on tunes/sets and clashes will occur: again, it is down to good manners and LISTENING to sort it out asap. If it becomes a consistent feature of a particular session, on one occasion or repeatedly, it’s time to think about getting a better venue if that is the root of the problem, or moving on if it bugs you (it’d bug me!).
For gawd’s sake don’t go down the awful route of having prescribed tune lists and sets, though. I’ve never actually been to such a session anywhere and find it hard to believe they exist, but they seem to get mentioned fairly regularly on C&F, especially on the US side!!! 
That’s almost as bad as those “buggins turn” round-robin type “sessions” which don’t really deserve the title. FWIW, manners would suggest that the set-starter is deferred to in the choice of tunes in a set, but being practical, especially if you are a visitor to a sesh, if you start a tune and at the change the regulars all go off into what they usually follow with, grin and bear it - you can’t compete! After all, it is their session.
Thanks guys, you made some great points and eased some frustration too! 
Provided that every musician knows what he/she’s doing:
1 bouzouki or guitar
1 bodhrán
1 box or concertina
1 piper playing melody only, and drones where they fit in
1-3 flutes, one of them playing whistle from time to time
1-3 fiddles
…would be the optimum for me.
From time to time I’m going to a session that has lots of drummers and guitar players, and sometimes it’s really not fun when you play a nice and difficult tune with the whistle player, and eight backup players join in. But there’s also the session thatfeatures at least one guitarist and one bouzouki player and a bodhran, but playing together with a fiddle and them is great because, well, they know what they’re doing…
Man, where’s that three-flute session? I’ll want to schedule something else on that night.
Rob
Well, we have some pretty large sessions here–six to eight musicians is pretty much medium-sized–and what we’ve all learned to do is to not only listen to each other, but watch each other as well. Watch for someone starting a tune, watch for tempo, watch feet, watch the fiddler’s bow, watch the box player’s hands.
Even the most careful listening and watching won’t save you, though, if the acoustics are such that no one can hear. Even a small session can die if the players can’t hear each other and themselves.
Also, take this with many grains of salt of course, but it my experience if you are having to play in a noisy or hard-to-hear venue, many times the first instinct is for everyone to try to play louder and louder and push harder and harder. I have found this to be a mistake…if you can’t hear when you’re playing normally, you certainly won’t hear any better if you’re trying to rattle the upstairs windows. If everyone relaxes as much as possible, and tries to play normally, sometimes it can still “click” even in a less-than-ideal venue.
Just my $.02.
–James
My idea of an ideal sized session is that everyone fits comfortably within arm’s reach of their pint on the table and has enough room for their instrument. 5-7 players is about right, depending on the space. To my way of thinking a session is “too big” when a second row forms, or when the it’s stretched to where the people at the ends can’t hear each other. I was in a 14-person session the other night and it was just too many players. Add a snare to keep time and we could have had a ceili band.
I have no “ideal” mix of melody instruments. The only thing I dislike is more than one whistle at a time, unless the whistles are really well in tune. To me one of the fun parts of session playing is making music with whomever shows up. With strong players, unlikely combinations of instruments can sound great and be a lot of fun.
Backup is a different matter. It’s rare that having more than one bodhran and one backup player playing at once works. For the most part, at the session I host we gently discourage dueling backup or bodhrans.
Don’t ever come to DC then, Rob. Three flutes at a session is like the minimum around here. I recall one session here years ago when there were seven flutes and a bodhran at the start. Fortunately, after a bit some others did eventually show up, although as I recall the overall standard of the music actually went down when they did. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.
That cinches it, John! I’m coming to check it out. Shall I bring my fiddle?
Cheers,
Rob
Of course you should come, Rob. You’d be very welcome at any session around here. And if you’ve got a fiddle and can play it, by all means bring it. Many of the better flute players around here have taken up additional instruments in self defense. Ro3b has the guitar, the zook and the box, JoshD has the guitar and zook and even the bodhran (sometimes, if he’s getting paid). I even tried that myself with the concertina for several years, until I realized I don’t have the time to be a better flute player and a mediocre squeezer all at once. Maybe whenever I can afford to quit the day job…
Here’s a story that will surely strike fear into the hearts of many…
I sold an old Slingerland tenor banjo to our session’s mandolin player a year or so ago, then this summer I finally bought myself a new tenor. We’ve recently had a guy from our session that’s actually from Ireland, but is here right now teaching at the university. He just bought a tenor. So, the last time I made it out we had 3 banjos (including me), 2 fiddles, and a guy that alternates between flute and back-up guitar. Yeah, we’re halfway to becoming a banjo orchestra. 
I love it, though, even though it means sometimes I have to relegate myself to whistle, being the only of us with a back-up instrument.