Re: What Irish tunes should I learn?
I find this thread timely, as last night I finally got to sit in at the Irish session at The Burren in Somerville, Massachusetts and my experience is a good example of what might be expected at a true ITM session for an outsider.
First, I need to explain that I doubt I'm ever going to be any better than intermediate in my skill level, though I keep plugging away. I'm lucky in that living in Minneapolis-St. Paul, there is an embarrassment of riches in the amount of bluegrass, old-time, Irish sessions (and more!) that occur in the Twin Cities. There used to be a long running beginner's slow session at O'Gara's in St. Paul I would regularly go to and now there's currently a somewhat faster but still not too fast session going on there. There's Keegan's, and Kieran's, and the Center for Irish Music, and lots more. So I've gotten to play a lot of Irish tunes, but my work schedule makes it difficult to show up enough regularly to get really good. However, that work schedule means I get to travel and check out sessions in other cities.
Therefore, when I'm on the road, I look up sessions (and jams) going on where I'll be, and try to find out as much as I can from thesession.org and websites for the venue's as to what level of skill is expected. If it doesn't look like I need to be an expert, I'll show up, introduce myself, explain my skill level, and ask if I might sit in. I am usually pleasantly invited to sit in. Some sessions are pretty open, and most levels of players will fit in. Some sessions are more advanced, and you'll need a higher level of skill and speed to hang in. Some sessions are quite advanced, and I know I won't fit in, and I don't even try. At one session, I once sat and listened across the room and in an hour of tunes played at a very fast pace, I only recognized 3 tunes, and those were Scottish.
My experience at The Burren was pretty much as I expected. The online description of the session described it as advanced, but all players were welcomed. I introduced myself, verified I played Irish tunes, and I was welcomed into the group. The other players all had pick-ups and plugged in, which was required for the exceptionally high noise level in the bar. I was able to play for a while on tunes I knew, but as things progressed I knew less of the group's tunes, and certainly wasn't going to be able to learn them at the tempo they were playing, so I bowed out after about an hour. While I really don't think I contributed greatly to the ensemble, I certainly did not drag it down (and I doubt anyone 18 inches beyond me even heard my mandolin over the amped fiddles and the bagpipes.) I had a nice, if brief, time, and I can highly recommend The Burren as a place to hear absolutely stellar ITM played at warp speed by exceptionally talented musicians.
I will reiterate what other's have said: each session has their own sets of tunes they play, and chances are good that most tunes will NOT be ones your session plays, nor will they generally overlap any other session you attend. Minneapolis, Philly, Boston, San Francisco, Denver, they all have different core tunes. Realize that "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" has about 1850 tunes, Breandán Breathnach collected over 7000, and over in Scotland "The Gow Collection Of Scottish Dance Music" has almost 600 tunes, plus many more recent additions to the genre. That's a whole lot of tunes you've never heard nor heard of, but someone else has, and can play them all quite well.
Do what the folks above have said: listen carefully to what the folks are playing, learn some of the tunes, be very reluctant to play chords till you've learned the tunes and sat in a bit, but by all means introduce yourself and give it a shot. It's very enjoyable music.
Rob Ross
Apple Valley, Minne-SOH-tah
1996 Flatiron A5-Performer, 1915 Gibson F-2 (loaned to me by a friend), 2008 Kentucky Master KM-505 A-Model
1925 Bacon Peerless tenor banjo (Irish tuning), 1985 Lloyd Laplant F-5, 2021 Ibanez PFT2 Tenor Guitar (GDAE)
and of course, the 1970 Suzuki-Violin-Sha Bowl Back Taterbug
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