Great! I'll take that as an invitation to drop in next time I'm in DC.Ro3b wrote:and crazy interlopers with alphorns, I'm ok with that.
Session in a Changing Ireland: Volume for its Own Sake
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Cathy Wilde
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daiv
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i was at a wedding a couple weeks ago and was assigned to sit up front. the speakers were so unbelievably loud. i had to shout myself horse to talk to my friends. never mind communicating while on the dance floor... i dont get out to sessions very often, but it's very frustrating not being able to hear yourself.
it's much nicer to play music at private venues, for enjoyment, at home, because then you have to struggle to mix and blend, rather than struggle to hear yourself and be heard. i think there is definitely a contingent of people who are not struggling to hear themselves, but struggling to be heard over others, which is really annoying. a good session should lift up your music--it is equally disappointing when you go to a nice, quiet session and everybody blends and it feels like you're a dead fish on the side of the road, miles from the ocean.
i wouldnt say that mic'ing anything makes it the same. the communication between performers is not the same as the communication between musicians, playing for their own enjoyment. between these two ends of the spectrum are acoustic instrumentalists playing for a small, attentive crowd.
the reason the communication is different is because the less intimate the surrounding, the less personalized the music. when you are playing for a couple of thousands of people, you have to play differently, simply because people will not be as aversely affected by what you are doing, because they expect a show.
imagine you are in your friends house, and your friends dorky family member (who you have never paid attention to), picks up an instrument, and plays something mildly entertaining and reasonably well. i myself get intensely excited and start to ask them to play more and ask questions about it and talk about it to people later on. it's a very human, personal interaction.
now think of a festival, where there are 6 bands playing at once. it doesnt matter how good something is, you are not going to give it all your attention, merely because you are so removed. i was at indianaplis festival in the summer, and try as i might, i could not pay any attention to anybody but my uncle's band. i must have heard their set like 4 times in two days, but i could pay attention because i had a personal connection, and i really enjoyed it. i was also able to pay attention to the band donnybrook, because i had sessioned with them the night
also think about the fact that in bars, nobody is going there for music, they are going there to talk. if they had paid to hear you play, they would be paying a lot of attention, and would not be talking. it is not that people dont care, but that people dont understand that something intensely special is going on right next to them. its like walking past a street full of christmas lights on the first day of winter first snow on the ground and ignoring it all, because you have to get into the store--you're not going to enjoy getting in that door as much as you would have pausing and looking around.
i am young, so i know no better, but i can bet when people went to go talk at a bar in the past, they were probably more likely to notice the fact that something remarkable was going on in the corner. i would also bet that people were more polite, and even if they did not appreciate it, they wouldve thought it rude not to listen or minimally stay respectuflly. ultimately, i think in the past (at least in ireland), the people playing music probably were friends with all the people listening, and they probably all had fun together, playing or not.
so i would say that session music is different from stage music which is different from home music, or as caoimhin o raghallaigh calls it, fireside music. you have to adapt yourself to different situations, to fit different communicative needs; you dont talk to your best friend the same as you talk to an audience at a speech. i agree that the shouting match is no good, because in very few circumstances is shouting any form of effective communication.
many musicians around my age just dont seem to get that music is a form of communication. i hear people playing in their living rooms like they are on a stage in front of thousands of people. it just sounds out of place. i would much rather hear someone play simply on stage than extravagantly off stage (think james kelly! that man plays on stage as if nobody is listening!). for example, i have heard noel hill, the concertina player from clare, play a lot because i attend his workshops. he plays one way for class, another for when he's trying out a new concertina, another for when he sessions, and another on stage, and another on cd's and yet another on tv (tg4). i remember one occasion, where this lady (who had his newest cd), was absolutely floored when she heard him play at the private concert, and she said, "you dont play like that in class." it would be silly for him to play the same in class--it would be very out of place.
i dont know where that leaves us... trying to communicate in a hostile environment. i myself prefer to get together with one other person, swap stories, swap tunes and share cd's. i prefer finding people who have tunes different than mine, because it gives me the chance to listen. i think that sessions are good places to work on learning tunes, but i dont think that sessions are what has kept this music alive, and that a cup of tea and a friend is just perfect for me.
it's much nicer to play music at private venues, for enjoyment, at home, because then you have to struggle to mix and blend, rather than struggle to hear yourself and be heard. i think there is definitely a contingent of people who are not struggling to hear themselves, but struggling to be heard over others, which is really annoying. a good session should lift up your music--it is equally disappointing when you go to a nice, quiet session and everybody blends and it feels like you're a dead fish on the side of the road, miles from the ocean.
i wouldnt say that mic'ing anything makes it the same. the communication between performers is not the same as the communication between musicians, playing for their own enjoyment. between these two ends of the spectrum are acoustic instrumentalists playing for a small, attentive crowd.
the reason the communication is different is because the less intimate the surrounding, the less personalized the music. when you are playing for a couple of thousands of people, you have to play differently, simply because people will not be as aversely affected by what you are doing, because they expect a show.
imagine you are in your friends house, and your friends dorky family member (who you have never paid attention to), picks up an instrument, and plays something mildly entertaining and reasonably well. i myself get intensely excited and start to ask them to play more and ask questions about it and talk about it to people later on. it's a very human, personal interaction.
now think of a festival, where there are 6 bands playing at once. it doesnt matter how good something is, you are not going to give it all your attention, merely because you are so removed. i was at indianaplis festival in the summer, and try as i might, i could not pay any attention to anybody but my uncle's band. i must have heard their set like 4 times in two days, but i could pay attention because i had a personal connection, and i really enjoyed it. i was also able to pay attention to the band donnybrook, because i had sessioned with them the night
also think about the fact that in bars, nobody is going there for music, they are going there to talk. if they had paid to hear you play, they would be paying a lot of attention, and would not be talking. it is not that people dont care, but that people dont understand that something intensely special is going on right next to them. its like walking past a street full of christmas lights on the first day of winter first snow on the ground and ignoring it all, because you have to get into the store--you're not going to enjoy getting in that door as much as you would have pausing and looking around.
i am young, so i know no better, but i can bet when people went to go talk at a bar in the past, they were probably more likely to notice the fact that something remarkable was going on in the corner. i would also bet that people were more polite, and even if they did not appreciate it, they wouldve thought it rude not to listen or minimally stay respectuflly. ultimately, i think in the past (at least in ireland), the people playing music probably were friends with all the people listening, and they probably all had fun together, playing or not.
so i would say that session music is different from stage music which is different from home music, or as caoimhin o raghallaigh calls it, fireside music. you have to adapt yourself to different situations, to fit different communicative needs; you dont talk to your best friend the same as you talk to an audience at a speech. i agree that the shouting match is no good, because in very few circumstances is shouting any form of effective communication.
many musicians around my age just dont seem to get that music is a form of communication. i hear people playing in their living rooms like they are on a stage in front of thousands of people. it just sounds out of place. i would much rather hear someone play simply on stage than extravagantly off stage (think james kelly! that man plays on stage as if nobody is listening!). for example, i have heard noel hill, the concertina player from clare, play a lot because i attend his workshops. he plays one way for class, another for when he's trying out a new concertina, another for when he sessions, and another on stage, and another on cd's and yet another on tv (tg4). i remember one occasion, where this lady (who had his newest cd), was absolutely floored when she heard him play at the private concert, and she said, "you dont play like that in class." it would be silly for him to play the same in class--it would be very out of place.
i dont know where that leaves us... trying to communicate in a hostile environment. i myself prefer to get together with one other person, swap stories, swap tunes and share cd's. i prefer finding people who have tunes different than mine, because it gives me the chance to listen. i think that sessions are good places to work on learning tunes, but i dont think that sessions are what has kept this music alive, and that a cup of tea and a friend is just perfect for me.
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cocusflute
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daiv, I thought your post was very well said. This in particular caught my eye. It's something that's a special gripe of mine. It brings us back to the appropriate level of volume.
i hear people playing in their living rooms like they are on a stage in front of thousands of people. it just sounds out of place.
The struggle in Palestine is an American war, waged from Israel, America's most heavily armed foreign base and client state. We don't think of the war in such terms. Its assigned role has been clear: the destruction of Arab culture and nationalism.
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Rob Sharer
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Regarding microphones:
Playing on the mic as if you were playing in a more intimate setting without one is a learned skill. If it doesn't feel right to you, maybe you haven't acquired the skill yet. If the band sounds duff over the p.a., maybe they haven't acquired it yet either. I think of hearing Pat Metheny and Jim Hall playing duet music in a live setting; the equipment aimed at the guitars did nothing to inhibit communication between the two musicians. On the contrary, that's what it was there to foster. Cheers,
Rob
Playing on the mic as if you were playing in a more intimate setting without one is a learned skill. If it doesn't feel right to you, maybe you haven't acquired the skill yet. If the band sounds duff over the p.a., maybe they haven't acquired it yet either. I think of hearing Pat Metheny and Jim Hall playing duet music in a live setting; the equipment aimed at the guitars did nothing to inhibit communication between the two musicians. On the contrary, that's what it was there to foster. Cheers,
Rob
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Rob Sharer
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Tony McGinley
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