It would be really cool if Jeremy would start another discussion page for all the musicians who don't like to play in sessions, for people who like to play at home and listen to tapes of old players and then meet up with one or two people for a quite tune in a pub where they will never be found by the session de-votees. This site doesn't seemed geared for the Irish-music-hermit, who in his/her own way plays the biggest role in keeping the music alive.
I'm not talking about people who do both llig. I'm talking hard core lone wolf. I'm talking about people who's souls contract when they hear 6 or 7 seven people lashing into tunes. I'm talking about the singular most artistic musicians that play Irish music, the ones who wouldn't look at any site like this and that's why I'm just taking the p*ss a little!!!!!!
But I wince at 6 or more people lashing away at tunes in a noisy boozer. I hate it. The worst are festival sessions, when no one knows each other. I like to play at home and listen to old recordings (and some new ones).
I do like to play in a famous session pub though. But only with just a few mates on a quiet night. We've managed to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (thankfully, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). But we like to play in this particular boozer because it has a reputation and when the best musicians come to town, they more often than not drop in. It's worth having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone.
i think that for most people the novelty of big sessions starts to wear off as soon as they're confident and good enough to carry a tune alone. The better and more confident they get, the more tiresome massed enthusiasts seem.
new players need the support and hiding places that a big session's white noise gives them so there will always be a role there for the massed ranks
Me too - I'm in that camp.
I've been to one festival, and 1 Fleadh.
Not my scene.
I play 2 sessions with a buddy, usually just to catch up and have a pint or 2, the tunes are a bonus. A few friends usually drop in too, so thats always nice. The pubs we play in are well known here in Dublin too. I dunno if our sessions have a reputation or not. I don't care. I like the music we play, and I like the company.
Otherwise, I play at home mostly. Occasionally I'll play with a mate in the flat, but mainly, its alone at home. I like old recordings too, a bunch of 78's on the way!!
Off topic I know but a friend was just telling me, that alot of the 78s we listen to, were made in this factory - and here is the process....http://www.archive.org/details/CommandP1942
By singular I meant people who don't really play much with others. Who can't cause they can't express anything that way. I'm not in that group either but they are out there. It's hard to be in that camp if you're an accompanist!!!!
But why a separate discussion page? I don't see the point of that. I'm sure that plenty of these recluses are already on this board, lurking or otherwise. They would certainly be drawn here for the tune DB, at least.
After all, this board offers the ability to contact and interact with other players without having to actually meet or play with them. You'd think that the recluses would love that.
The McCrimmon piping family of Skye, or the chief / laird, provided (I believe) caves or huts out in the back of beyond for trainee pipers to practise in, and for all I know live in, till they were fledged. Bogman will know all about this, I expect.
Maybe such provision could be made for trad hermits today.
But they might well become nests of druggies and Sawney Beans. Not that the trad hermits would become these, of course...(?)...
In the c18, stately homes had "hermits' grottoes" in their grounds: suitably grotesque-looking individuals ("grotesque" comes from "grotto"...) were hired to live or appear in them. This sounds a very suitable arrangement for a trad hermit, provided obnoxious visitors & kids weren't winding you up. I wonder if any trad musos were thus engaged.
Music sessions are like everything else in this life.
"It's not what you know but who you know!"
I don't mean this in a derogatory way either but, in the sense, that it's "mates" getting together for a tune and if you are known and respected this surely helps.
I do like to play in a famous session pub though. But only with just a few mates on a quiet night. We've managed to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (thankfully, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). But we like to play in this particular boozer because it has a reputation and when the best musicians come to town, they more often than not drop in. It's worth having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone.
A discussion board for people who don't like gatherings.
Yes, I think that would be a vast success. Recluses swarming all over, talking one over another, giving vent to their inborn extrovertism like a gargantuan flock of penguins.
The people who go along to that session are friendly enough but it does have a "closed feel" about it.
I'm only in the pub very rarely these days.. mainly as I now live out of town and several nights are already spoken for during the week. However, I've always been welcomed if I chose to join in. There are very good players there and on certain nights I wouldn't know enough of the repertoire. So, it's for that reason I'd hold back. Not because the players are unsociable as I've known many of them for several years.
Tuesday is a particularly difficult night for me to get up there, Llig will be pleased to hear.
What is the point of playing any music if no-one else is gonna hear it?
All this secretly playing with your famous, rich and exclusive beautiful friends is bonkers!
And "practising" is what you call it when you play at home on your own. And that is in preparation for communicating your music to someone else (the conversation idea).
To be so precious that you don't want anyone else to hear you or spoil your little self pleasuring Narcissistic orgy sounds blinking weird! Do you have mirrors and sound proofing?
Get down that pub, get p*ssed and whilst rubbing shoulders with hoi polloi curl one off with the hords of snooty fiddle players, sh*te guitarists, Autistic fluters and clueless skin bashers.
Hugo/Johannes
I'm sure you are both good players, as is MG from what I've heard from others who have played with/heard him.
I understand that this music is a 'meritocracy' not a democracy. Sadly, that goes with the territory. (Can't play along? work on your chops. Aren't up to speed? Work on your chops. Don't know all the rep? Work on your chops.) I'm not debating that.
But I DO find the obvious relish -- really there's no other word for it -- sad. It's not that sessions are closed and high power that's the issue so much as the obvious relish and *gloating* with which that fact appears to be communicated...
ie, " We've **managed** to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (***thankfully***, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). ... It's worth ***having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone***.
It sounds like the sort of title Tom Sharpe uses / used for his scabrous burlesque novels, which amount to a pretty definitive description of Eighties Britain everyday life (though his inspiration was initially kicked off by his experience of apartheid South Africa).
But if he is no longer wielding the quill, I suppose one of us will have to write it.
'What is the point of playing any music if no-one else is gonna hear it?
All this secretly playing with your famous, rich and exclusive beautiful friends is bonkers!'
Mr Sharpe is enjoying his retirement here in the Costa Brava since the nineties, so I'm not sure if he has up to date information about today's Britain everyday life.
Narcissistic, insecure and reclusive tendencies aside, part of the joy of being a crap musician such as my self, is sharing badly played tunes with other crap musicians over a pint (or six) and then laughing about it here on this forum.
I think TheSailorOnTheRock is not so much saying they want to be a hermit as bemoaning the lack of a session that they would join in with. This is not to say Sailor is elitist and will only play with top class musicians or no-one at all, rather they don't want power chords in the left ear and a bad eileen ivors impression in the right.
Sailor is lamenting the dwindling amount of good sessions methinks.
Mtodd, I am the creme de la creme, and very much a snob. I have tolerated the likes of Matt Molloy in sessions, well he owns the place, what can you do, but usually I have very high standards.
"people who like to play at home and listen to tapes of old players and then meet up with one or two people for a quite(sic) tune in a pub"
Isn't this what most of us do, except perhaps for the scale?
Two or three people does not depict hermitage.
"the Irish-music-hermit, who in his/her own way plays the biggest role in keeping the music alive"
Do these hermits firstly learn the music from others before retreating into solitude, or is their training all second/thirdhand?
Even if their education is solidly firsthand from appropriate sources, how are they keeping the music alive if no one hears them play?
I think members of this discussion group are already extremely indulgent toward hermits who refuse to give up one iota of identification, and whose ideas of a Discussion include printing the name of a tune, and then departing.
For the record, our session is very open, and I'm crap.
I sat through an electric guitarist with Mick O'Grady one night and neither of us said a thing to him(about stopping), even while he played Horseslips *over* our tunes. (Put his little pig amp under the seat and everything....that was a strange one.)
Thanks Hugo ~ brilliant ~ Milton Cross ~ RCA Victor factory!!! I've visited that site but never seen that video... The thumbnails are great too... I loved that mixing board. I'm watching it now...
I wonder what effect the dust and fumes had on the workers there?
It was great seeing an old friend, the RCA Victor label, I've even got some of those heavy multi disk sets... What did you think of that record player at the end? Weird eh!
Just finished watching it, with repeats. Again, thanks Hugo!
Sailor if you really are a recluse, then by definition you don't need to have
an online community. Just stay in your room and play. There's nothing
wrong with that I guess. For me part of the deal is playing music
with and for other people.
... well I wish it were for me , but it isn't so I play by myself a few places where people might just overhear me living in hope that one day, someone, anyone will come in on me and want to have a tune or two with me ... big sigh!
Oh dear. I must be some sort of sociopath. I don't enjoy sitting in a herd of 20 musicians, however nice you all are to listen to and hang out with. I'd much rather anchor my local with my small but merry band of friends.
...but that's more geography than anything else. I'm in the suburban wasteland between Miami and Tampa. If I get 8 or more musicians out of the extended family at any given session, it’s a rare event. When I get up to Tampa, it’s basically just to visit. Sure, I sit and play, but you can’t even hear yourself, let alone the other side of the circle. Is that the other side of the circle? Dude, pass the binoculars.
If we ever had a situation where we regularly had a mob at every session, then I may break it out into two of them, with one being more exclusive.
However, I don't see that happening, ever.
Perhaps my need to ‘do it myself’ in the first place has led me to enjoy ‘doing it ourselves’ more than doing it along with a giant herd, or following a giant herd. Whatever I and it has become, it's all out of necessity.
…but again, we’re in the ‘burbs, the country, basically, so when we get guests, we probably smother them with friendliness, we’re just so happy to see them.
Hey Hup,
For me the answer is no secret ... first it was adventure ... then it was the offer of a permanent job (too good an opportunity to miss) ... and now its the other life I've built for myself as a result of the job ... the life I'd never have had had I stayed in the 'berra. Sheeze, I'd still be playing the Chinese cheapy, riding a bike and bludging on the dole. Thanks fer reminding me to count my blessings.
"Do these hermits firstly learn the music from others before retreating into solitude, or is their training all second/thirdhand?"
"I reckon they must be learning from the dots."
No. They're the people who compose the Gan Ainm tunes.
The Recluse.org
The Recluse.org
It would be really cool if Jeremy would start another discussion page for all the musicians who don't like to play in sessions, for people who like to play at home and listen to tapes of old players and then meet up with one or two people for a quite tune in a pub where they will never be found by the session de-votees. This site doesn't seemed geared for the Irish-music-hermit, who in his/her own way plays the biggest role in keeping the music alive.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
Interesting polarasation. But surely, there's a bit of both in all of us
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: The Recluse.org
I'm not talking about people who do both llig. I'm talking hard core lone wolf. I'm talking about people who's souls contract when they hear 6 or 7 seven people lashing into tunes. I'm talking about the singular most artistic musicians that play Irish music, the ones who wouldn't look at any site like this and that's why I'm just taking the p*ss a little!!!!!!
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
No offense llig..
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
But I wince at 6 or more people lashing away at tunes in a noisy boozer. I hate it. The worst are festival sessions, when no one knows each other. I like to play at home and listen to old recordings (and some new ones).
I do like to play in a famous session pub though. But only with just a few mates on a quiet night. We've managed to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (thankfully, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). But we like to play in this particular boozer because it has a reputation and when the best musicians come to town, they more often than not drop in. It's worth having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by llig leahcim
Re: The Recluse.org
I hear ya.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
i think that for most people the novelty of big sessions starts to wear off as soon as they're confident and good enough to carry a tune alone. The better and more confident they get, the more tiresome massed enthusiasts seem.
new players need the support and hiding places that a big session's white noise gives them so there will always be a role there for the massed ranks
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by millionyears_bc
Re: The Recluse.org
Me too - I'm in that camp.
I've been to one festival, and 1 Fleadh.
Not my scene.
I play 2 sessions with a buddy, usually just to catch up and have a pint or 2, the tunes are a bonus. A few friends usually drop in too, so thats always nice. The pubs we play in are well known here in Dublin too. I dunno if our sessions have a reputation or not. I don't care. I like the music we play, and I like the company.
Otherwise, I play at home mostly. Occasionally I'll play with a mate in the flat, but mainly, its alone at home. I like old recordings too, a bunch of 78's on the way!!
Off topic I know but a friend was just telling me, that alot of the 78s we listen to, were made in this factory - and here is the process....http://www.archive.org/details/CommandP1942
Cool eh??
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
'I'm talking about the singular most artistic musicians that play Irish music'....
I just re read mine - I am in no way suggesting I'm in that camp!
I was following lligs comment.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
By singular I meant people who don't really play much with others. Who can't cause they can't express anything that way. I'm not in that group either but they are out there. It's hard to be in that camp if you're an accompanist!!!!
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
Or a South American accompanist at that.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
Ye - but I'm a plonker too!
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
Thanks for that link Hugo, very interesting.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Ramiro
Re: The Recluse.org
I know I was just making sure that you were who I thought you were Hugo. Cool about the 78's.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: The Recluse.org
But why a separate discussion page? I don't see the point of that. I'm sure that plenty of these recluses are already on this board, lurking or otherwise. They would certainly be drawn here for the tune DB, at least.
After all, this board offers the ability to contact and interact with other players without having to actually meet or play with them. You'd think that the recluses would love that.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Marklar
Re: The Recluse.org
"....start another discussion page for all the musicians who don't like to play in sessions...."
Eh, it's "the session" dot org!
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by iwerzon
Re: The Recluse.org
it has a reputation and when the best musicians come to town, they more often than not drop in.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by llig leahcim
I will be there next week.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: The Recluse.org
The McCrimmon piping family of Skye, or the chief / laird, provided (I believe) caves or huts out in the back of beyond for trainee pipers to practise in, and for all I know live in, till they were fledged. Bogman will know all about this, I expect.
Maybe such provision could be made for trad hermits today.
But they might well become nests of druggies and Sawney Beans. Not that the trad hermits would become these, of course...(?)...
In the c18, stately homes had "hermits' grottoes" in their grounds: suitably grotesque-looking individuals ("grotesque" comes from "grotto"...) were hired to live or appear in them. This sounds a very suitable arrangement for a trad hermit, provided obnoxious visitors & kids weren't winding you up. I wonder if any trad musos were thus engaged.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by nicholas
Re: The Recluse.org
But Bliss, are you *sure* you're good enough? ;)
I mean, this is apparently the creme de la creme! But, thankfully, there's a place open down the street if you aren't....
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
Music sessions are like everything else in this life.
"It's not what you know but who you know!"
I don't mean this in a derogatory way either but, in the sense, that it's "mates" getting together for a tune and if you are known and respected this surely helps.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Johannes J
Re: The Recluse.org
Try this site ..
http://www.therecluse.org/
... maybe?
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: The Recluse.org
Pure snobbery.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
What are you talking about mtodd?
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
I do like to play in a famous session pub though. But only with just a few mates on a quiet night. We've managed to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (thankfully, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). But we like to play in this particular boozer because it has a reputation and when the best musicians come to town, they more often than not drop in. It's worth having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
A discussion board for people who don't like gatherings.
Yes, I think that would be a vast success. Recluses swarming all over, talking one over another, giving vent to their inborn extrovertism like a gargantuan flock of penguins.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by EastPole
Re: The Recluse.org
How?
What I see ...
A - I like playing with my mates. I'm lucky its in a well known pub.
B - I don't like playing with idiots, so I may come across rude -
C - I couldn't care really, cause the odd time a 'best' musician comes in, and I get to hear/ join them in a session.
I don't think thats snobby at all.
I think he's lucky, to play in a good pub.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
mtodd,
The people who go along to that session are friendly enough but it does have a "closed feel" about it.
I'm only in the pub very rarely these days.. mainly as I now live out of town and several nights are already spoken for during the week. However, I've always been welcomed if I chose to join in. There are very good players there and on certain nights I wouldn't know enough of the repertoire. So, it's for that reason I'd hold back. Not because the players are unsociable as I've known many of them for several years.
Tuesday is a particularly difficult night for me to get up there, Llig will be pleased to hear.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Johannes J
Preciousness
What is the point of playing any music if no-one else is gonna hear it?
All this secretly playing with your famous, rich and exclusive beautiful friends is bonkers!
And "practising" is what you call it when you play at home on your own. And that is in preparation for communicating your music to someone else (the conversation idea).
To be so precious that you don't want anyone else to hear you or spoil your little self pleasuring Narcissistic orgy sounds blinking weird! Do you have mirrors and sound proofing?
Get down that pub, get p*ssed and whilst rubbing shoulders with hoi polloi curl one off with the hords of snooty fiddle players, sh*te guitarists, Autistic fluters and clueless skin bashers.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Krick Stahlschwanz
Re: The Recluse.org
Krick, Mtodd?
WTF?
Wrong_end_of_the_ stick.com
I'm out of here....
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
Hugo/Johannes
I'm sure you are both good players, as is MG from what I've heard from others who have played with/heard him.
I understand that this music is a 'meritocracy' not a democracy. Sadly, that goes with the territory. (Can't play along? work on your chops. Aren't up to speed? Work on your chops. Don't know all the rep? Work on your chops.) I'm not debating that.
But I DO find the obvious relish -- really there's no other word for it -- sad. It's not that sessions are closed and high power that's the issue so much as the obvious relish and *gloating* with which that fact appears to be communicated...
ie, " We've **managed** to give the session an almost closed reputation because we do not suffer fools (***thankfully***, there's another session started up just down the road on the same night). ... It's worth ***having to deal with the odd eedjit for that alone***.
etc.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
your choice Hugo. you asked. i told you.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
It's possible that he's talking about personality rather than playing ability, or some combination of the two. At least, that's how I read it.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Marklar
Re: The Recluse.org
Maybe so Marklar. Cyberspace isn't the best place for nuance, that's for sure.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by mtodd
Re: The Recluse.org
Luckily for Llig he doesn't have to worry about me appearing at his session any time soon.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by TheSilverSpear
The Recluse
It sounds like the sort of title Tom Sharpe uses / used for his scabrous burlesque novels, which amount to a pretty definitive description of Eighties Britain everyday life (though his inspiration was initially kicked off by his experience of apartheid South Africa).
But if he is no longer wielding the quill, I suppose one of us will have to write it.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by nicholas
Re: The Recluse.org
'What is the point of playing any music if no-one else is gonna hear it?
All this secretly playing with your famous, rich and exclusive beautiful friends is bonkers!'
Is it, Mr Metal-Mickey?
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by kilfarboy
Re: The Recluse.org
Mr Sharpe is enjoying his retirement here in the Costa Brava since the nineties, so I'm not sure if he has up to date information about today's Britain everyday life.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Ramiro
Re: The Recluse.org
Narcissistic, insecure and reclusive tendencies aside, part of the joy of being a crap musician such as my self, is sharing badly played tunes with other crap musicians over a pint (or six) and then laughing about it here on this forum.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: The Recluse.org
Ramiro - tell him satire is now inadequate to describe it...
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by nicholas
Re: The Recluse.org
...though I imagine the Brits in Spain give him plenty of material.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by nicholas
Re: The Recluse.org
I think TheSailorOnTheRock is not so much saying they want to be a hermit as bemoaning the lack of a session that they would join in with. This is not to say Sailor is elitist and will only play with top class musicians or no-one at all, rather they don't want power chords in the left ear and a bad eileen ivors impression in the right.
Sailor is lamenting the dwindling amount of good sessions methinks.
Just a guess, thats how I interpreted it anyway.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by VocalDivaSteed
Re: The Recluse.org
Mtodd, I am the creme de la creme, and very much a snob. I have tolerated the likes of Matt Molloy in sessions, well he owns the place, what can you do, but usually I have very high standards.
I am sure I will fit in nicely.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by bodhran bliss
Re: The Recluse.org
typical bodhran playing elitists
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by a sheamuis
Re: The Recluse.org
"people who like to play at home and listen to tapes of old players and then meet up with one or two people for a quite(sic) tune in a pub"
Isn't this what most of us do, except perhaps for the scale?
Two or three people does not depict hermitage.
"the Irish-music-hermit, who in his/her own way plays the biggest role in keeping the music alive"
Do these hermits firstly learn the music from others before retreating into solitude, or is their training all second/thirdhand?
Even if their education is solidly firsthand from appropriate sources, how are they keeping the music alive if no one hears them play?
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: The Recluse.org
I think members of this discussion group are already extremely indulgent toward hermits who refuse to give up one iota of identification, and whose ideas of a Discussion include printing the name of a tune, and then departing.
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by oldstrings
Re: The Recluse.org
Ohmmmmmmm!
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: The Recluse.org
Sorry, what's a 'Metal-Mickey'?
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: The Recluse.org
A Boehm system flute?
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Robert Ryan
Re: The Recluse.org
Ceol...Did you see the link I posted above?
For the record, our session is very open, and I'm crap.
I sat through an electric guitarist with Mick O'Grady one night and neither of us said a thing to him(about stopping), even while he played Horseslips *over* our tunes. (Put his little pig amp under the seat and everything....that was a strange one.)
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Hugo Chavez
Re: The Recluse.org
a 'Metal Mickey'?
sounds like an adult site for robots.
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by VocalDivaSteed
Re: The Recluse.org
Thanks Hugo ~ brilliant ~ Milton Cross ~ RCA Victor factory!!! I've visited that site but never seen that video... The thumbnails are great too... I loved that mixing board. I'm watching it now...
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: The Recluse.org
http://www.archive.org/details/CommandP1942
I wonder what effect the dust and fumes had on the workers there?
It was great seeing an old friend, the RCA Victor label, I've even got some of those heavy multi disk sets... What did you think of that record player at the end? Weird eh!
Just finished watching it, with repeats. Again, thanks Hugo!
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by ceolachan
Re: The Recluse.org
As much as i like to sit home and play with myself... it's always much more fun to play with others!
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by davydd
Re: The Recluse.org
Sailor if you really are a recluse, then by definition you don't need to have
an online community. Just stay in your room and play. There's nothing
wrong with that I guess. For me part of the deal is playing music
with and for other people.
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Hup
Re: The Recluse.org
... well I wish it were for me
, but it isn't 
so I play by myself a few places where people might just overhear me living in hope that one day, someone, anyone will come in on me and want to have a tune or two with me ... big sigh!
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Clear Drops
Re: The Recluse.org
"Do these hermits firstly learn the music from others before retreating into solitude, or is their training all second/thirdhand?"
I reckon they must be learning from the dots.
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by robharper
Re: The Recluse.org
what ???
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Clear Drops
Re: The Recluse.org
Drops - you've got no choice I know. Maybe someday you'll
tell us what made you move out there.
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by Hup
Re: The Recluse.org
Oh dear. I must be some sort of sociopath. I don't enjoy sitting in a herd of 20 musicians, however nice you all are to listen to and hang out with. I'd much rather anchor my local with my small but merry band of friends.
...but that's more geography than anything else. I'm in the suburban wasteland between Miami and Tampa. If I get 8 or more musicians out of the extended family at any given session, it’s a rare event. When I get up to Tampa, it’s basically just to visit. Sure, I sit and play, but you can’t even hear yourself, let alone the other side of the circle. Is that the other side of the circle? Dude, pass the binoculars.
If we ever had a situation where we regularly had a mob at every session, then I may break it out into two of them, with one being more exclusive.
However, I don't see that happening, ever.
Perhaps my need to ‘do it myself’ in the first place has led me to enjoy ‘doing it ourselves’ more than doing it along with a giant herd, or following a giant herd. Whatever I and it has become, it's all out of necessity.
…but again, we’re in the ‘burbs, the country, basically, so when we get guests, we probably smother them with friendliness, we’re just so happy to see them.
Town and the Country I guess, right?
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Recluse.org
...and, if I was in a big city with loads of musicians and going-ons, you probably wouldn't see my posts on here as much.
So, who's going to start the "Move SWFL to the big city so we don't have to read his nonsense anymore" fund?
# Posted on November 20th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: The Recluse.org
Hey Hup,
For me the answer is no secret ... first it was adventure ... then it was the offer of a permanent job (too good an opportunity to miss) ... and now its the other life I've built for myself as a result of the job ... the life I'd never have had had I stayed in the 'berra. Sheeze, I'd still be playing the Chinese cheapy, riding a bike and bludging on the dole. Thanks fer reminding me to count my blessings.
# Posted on November 21st 2008 by Clear Drops
Re: The Recluse.org
SWFL Fiddler -
What's the local music round your parts?
It sounds as if Swamp Stomp would be at home, although it's some way from Louisiana.
There must be *some* pick-me-up for the musically benighted...
# Posted on November 21st 2008 by nicholas
Re: The Recluse.org
Loads of NYC refugees in Florida ... maybe not tune players though
# Posted on November 21st 2008 by Hup
Re: The Recluse.org
"Do these hermits firstly learn the music from others before retreating into solitude, or is their training all second/thirdhand?"
"I reckon they must be learning from the dots."
No. They're the people who compose the Gan Ainm tunes.
# Posted on November 21st 2008 by lazyhound
Re: The Recluse.org
Hey nicholas, we keep it going on just fine, it's just small-scale. The idea of having to worry about overly-crowded sessions boggles my mind!
# Posted on November 21st 2008 by SWFL Fiddler