True beginner wants to play among others

Hello,
I’m a beginning flute player in Santa Barbara.

We have a lovely session here that they were nice enough to allow me to join. However, in order not to bother anyone, I sit way far away. I do this because I do not know very many tunes, and of those I do know, they play at a speed where I cannot possibly join in. The best I can do with any tune, whether I know it or not, is to play a single note here or there.

I’ve read enough on this site to know that most players that can play as well as the people at my session would probably prefer people like me to stay away for a few years. But what will that do for my ability to learn tunes and learn how to play with other people?

I realize that there is value in listening, but it is too easy to be a simple spectator. I want to actively participate.

I would really like to play with other people. I would like to do this because it would be fun and because it’s a little boring playing alone. Playing with others would give me some focus and direction, some goals or something to look forward to and work toward, and skills in listening, staying in tune and on time in the context of playing with other people. Plus people to just “talk shop” with.

Some thoughts I have had:
1. Take lessons, even if they are classical, silver flute because at least I would play with the teacher and learn things
2. Take an adult education class - if the guitar or ukulele class will let a flute player join, that is
3. Forget about it -- one or two notes at the session is as good as it gets

What should I do?

Thanks,
Diane

Hi Diane,

Have you tried asking the players at the session to play a tune you know slow enough for you to join in. Not every tune, obviously, but just the one to get you started?

Most truly good players I know can’t do enough for beginners. If you can get an experienced player to help you your learning rate will go through the roof.

They’re only human after all - go ask them.

The other trick is to use software like Amazing Slow Downer (or even Windows Media Player) to slow down your favourite CDs so you can play along with them. That way you not only learn tunes you like, but you’ll be training your ear at the same time, which will be vital when you really take the plunge into playing in public.

Best of luck with it.
Eno

don’t try to put ornaments in if that makes it hard to keep up
just play the basic tune steadily and add ornaments later when you’re more comfortable

Diane,
Another small step that I’d recommend is to ask at your session for the names of 3-5 tunes that will certainly be played each week. Every session is different, but if you knew that you would always be hearing those particular tunes, you could learn them and join in. That would give you a very small and manageable vocabulary, and it would be a good beginning for you. That’s exactly what I did when I started. Good luck to you, and please keep checking in.

Hi Diane,
I can appreciate how frustrating it must be for you. Would there by any chance be some other beginners in your area that you could meet up with? You could form your own beginner’s session where the tunes are played at a pace that suits everybody.

Even experienced players trying to learn a second instrument might appreciate the opportunity to take things down a peg or two. It might be worth asking around or putting an ad in your local paper. Even some fliers in local music shops might help.

Hope you find something that suits you.

SBH,

First, where is this session? I go to SB a few times a year and would love to find a session.

Second, you are to be commended for getting your self out there to a session as a beginner. I know it can be very hard, but I also don’t know a better way to learn both the ettiquette as well as the tunes typical for that particular session. I’m still somewhat of a beginner (about 5 years both on my instrument - mandolin - and to ITM) and I completely understand what a steep learning curve you are facing. But if you love the music, you have no choice now!

Since a session is a social as well as musical activity, putting in the time attending the session, even if you play little, or sometimes not at all, is necessary.

Eventually, as you get to know folks, and the tunes, you’ll be asked to start some, and also likely find others at your level to play tunes with. But don’t stop attending your session - it’s still the best teacher.

Get a small digital recorder (voice recorders are inexpensive and of adequate sound quality) to record the tunes you like best that are played frequently at your session, and learn those. Even if you ask the names of the tunes, it’s best to have a sssion recordeing, so you learn the local versions.

If there is a flute player at your session, ask them if they can put you in touch with a teacher. Also, listen as much as you can. Good luck!

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions.

The session is on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays at Muddy Waters Cafe in Santa Barbara.

These are all good suggestions. If you have any more, I appreciate it!

Has anyone had experience starting a beginner group as a beginner player? I was under the impression, after combing this site, that beginner or tune-learning sessions are started by more experienced players. I have only a few months of listening and a few weeks of playing experience. Like I said, true beginner.

I agree with several of the replies you’ve received. If your session is like mine, the sets are usually the same two or three songs. If that’s the case, then I would try to learn the tunes by sets. It’s really fun when you can play with them on a two or three song set.

Take a recorder and record them. Most people won’t mind and you can politely ask. If they’re playing too fast for you, and you don’t have a program to slow it down, then check out this site for the sheet music or abc. Just play the first few or last few notes to make sure it’s in the same key. Then work up to being able to play with them off your recording.

You should also check out this website, and practice playing along with the tunes there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/swf/folkmenu.html

Don’t give up. Keep on trucking and soon you’ll be ready to join the rest. Take care and good luck!

Are there other beginners at the session? If there are, maybe you can plan to meet up with them outside the session and swap tunes. Then when one of you starts a tune at the session, all of you will know it and have played it at your pace, so you’ll have other people playing with you.

Oh, and definitely get a teacher if you can find one!

There are some friendly and talented musicians in the SB session scene. I’m sure you know Eliot who plays flute (he’s also a member here, screen name “Eliot”)--ask him for lessons or suggestions for who else might teach flute. Also Max Becher.

One of the best ways to enjoy playing with other people is one-on-one. Ask people at your local session. You can play with a different person each week, or find one “connection” and really get comfortable playing with that person. Either way, you can play the tunes you know together, learn some new ones, and dicsover a lot about what happens when you play music with someone else.

Most of us who play this music are always happy to have an excuse to play with others. I suspect some of the more experienced musicians in Santa Barbara would sit down with you once or twice a month. If not, maybe someone would be willing to host a tune learning session.

Of course, you’ll still have to put in many hours on your own to become competent on flute, but that journey has its rewards too. Music is about expression--what do you express when you play flute? What do you *want* to express with your music? Getting to play with other people now and then will spur you on to play more on your own.

So don’t overlook the enjoyment of playing music by yourself. I love cloistering myself in a room and wallowing in a few tunes, just me, a fiddle or flute, and tunes I love. My experience is that, in the long run, if you don’t enjoy music as a solo activity at least as much as a social one, it will be difficult to persevere and progress.

Practice, obviously, but keep going to sessions, it is the best way to get confidence, and as I keep saying, confidence means a lot.

As for many of the idiots on this site with rules and regulations, ignore them. They wouldn’t recognise an Irish session if they saw one.

“There are some friendly and talented musicians in the SB session scene. I’m sure you know Eliot who plays flute (he’s also a member here, screen name ”Eliot“)--ask him for lessons or suggestions for who else might teach flute. Also Max Becher.”

Wow, I haven’t heard from Max in ages! We used to email back and forth all the time. How is he?

About beginners starting a beginners group: It can be done, but I’d be wary of playing with beginners for too long. There’s a beginners session in my area, an d the same people have been going for years and years and ears and haven’t progressed beyond the beginner stage. No harm in giving it a shot though.

I haven’t heard from Max recently either, but maybe this will coax him out of the woodwork.

Blissless, pray tell, who are these “idiots” you keep warning us about?

I put in lots of hours on my own, much to the consternation of my boyfriend!

As for the unwelcoming “idiots”, well I don’t know if they are “idiots”, but I put the word “beginner” in to the discussion search here and got quite an earful from many people with years of experience.

One thing I do not want to be is the “session goat”. And being what appears to be the only new person they’ve had in a long long while, I’m very leery of being a pest. And every time I have shown up they are already playing so I haven’t yet spoken more than a few words to Eliot. I did speak at length with their whistle player who was very kind and made me feel welcome.

They do have one non-accomplished player who plays the ukulele. I consider myself one step below that guy. I sit behind him if the sofa back there is empty. I’m so scared they’ll ask me to audition or play in front of them and then they’ll know I’m such a beginner that I don’t deserve to be in their company.

I second the suggestion about getting a recorder. I doubt that most session people would mind you setting up a recorder. That is the single most important thing that has helped me learn a bunch of tunes. My Olympus DM 20 downloads to my computer where I can slow down the music to learn the tunes easier.

It’s amazing what you don’t hear at a session that the recorder picks up.!!

I don’t know about SB, but here in KC there is an Irish Trad school where one can learn flute, whistle, fiddle, and banjo. If there is a local Comhaltas branch, you might start there.

If you talk to Eliot, say hi to him from Roger, the box player in Kansas City.

I bet I’m one of them. I believe in rules and regulations - many of them pertaining to bodhran players such as BB himself.

Dow, what do you think of people like me? American, female, wants to play in a session in Southern California, but has owned an Irish flute for about a month now and been listening to Irish tunes for about 6 months. Should I keep coming back to the session or should I stay home?

It’s all good apart from the “American” bit 😀

SBH,

I think the closest Comhaltas to you is in Santa Cruz…too far.

In addition to the wisdom dispensed in these pages, a general (and humorous) characterization of the session environment is “Field Guide to the Irish Music Session,” by Barry Foy. It’s out of print right now, but you can find a copy through ABE:

http://www.abebooks.com/

The “rules and regulations” are part of the session package; it’s how things work.

And since you play flute, another inspiring read might be Ciaran Carson’s “Last Night’s Fun,” which is part memior, part philosophical rumination on ITM.

Dow, I know you love me, albeit with just a tinge of jealousy.

And Will, do not ask leading questions.

And Sbhikes, you are following in a path tread by Frankie Kennedy.

Except Frankie was probably in more comfortable shoes.

“another inspiring read might be Ciaran Carson’s ”Last Night’s Fun,“ which is part memior, part philosophical rumination on ITM”

and out of print. However I got a copy off ebay for £5 and it turned out to mint condition hardcover. I lent it out and may never see it again.

I suggest that the best thing for Diane to do is find one(1) other player of tunes, beginner or more experienced, and practise with them in between going to sessions.
Playing with just yourself is dispiriting and hard to keep up.

Second, don’t forget that sessions are essentially social occasions (at least where I go) so don’t forget to chat and make friends at the one you visit.
If you just want to play tunes with no distractions, then a pub is not the place

BB,
You’re being unfair to SBHikes by pretending that there are no rules! She’ll get in all sorts of trouble if she doesn’t know them. So SB, here they are:
Rules of the Session
1. Play as loudly and as fast as you can all the time.
2. If someone new to the session ventures to start a common tune that everyone knows
perfectly well (Kesh Jig, Planxty Irwin, Harvest Home, etc. etc. etc.) just stare ate them blankly and don’t join in. This is a good time to talk loudly, walk away, or tune your instrument.
3 Don’t play anything with a consistent tempo. Always play the easy bits fast and the awkward bits slowly. Try not to listen to the steady tempo the others around you are trying to maintain. In fact, don’t listen to anything anyone else is playing, there is no point in letting them distract you.
4. If someone starts a tune you know, see if you can take it over and increase the speed just enough that they can’t manage to play the next tune they had in mind. This will give you a good chance to jump in with the one you would rather have played in the first place.
5. If someone tries to start a tune they are a little unsure about, or are a bit
nervous and wobbly, be sure to enquire loudly as to whether they shouldn’t be playing it in 6/8 (if it’s a jig), or say something helpful like “what the **** is that? It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before!” or “He’s making it up as he goes along!”
6. When you decide it’s your turn to play, just jump on in and see how many tunes you can run together into a massive set, preferably using one tune from each set you know the others will want to play. Don’t stop until you feel like sipping a drink, going to the bog or everyone has left the table.
7. Try to catch a flute player’s eye and gurn at them till they laugh, it does wonders for their
ability to play the thing.
8. Guitarists, if your chords don’t seem right for the tune, don’t give up! Keep going and going. Play those three chords louder and louder. Feel free to put your own interpretation on the rhythm while randomly varying the chords. If one or more strings are out of tune, don’t worry, discordancy is an important element of Irish music.
9 Feel free to talk loudly when you don’t know the tune. If the person at the far side of the table can’t hear you, shouting is fine.
10. There are just not near enough Bones, Spoons, Rasps, Triangles, Shaky Things, Tamborines, Kazoos, Didges, Slide Whistles, Crumhorns, Saxophones, Euphoniums, Trombones, Casio Keyboards, Indian Bamboo Flutes in the key of xflat minor, and Practice Chanters at sessions. Bring them in and run those Flutes, Whistles, Fiddles, Boxes and Banjos out of there.
11. The rules vary from night to night depending on who, if anyone, shows up.
And for those music lovers at the next table . . .
l Be sure to extend the same courtesy to singers as you would to players of instruments by shouting and and roaring with hysterical laughter all the time they are singing.
l Don’t keep all that lovely cigar smoke to yourselves, blow some over the people playing so they all get the benefit.

I realise the last rule here has become largely redundant.

my suggestion is to get hold of some tune books.

Example
craobh naithi’s tune book. Theres a yellow one and a green one and it comes with a cd so you can pick tunes up by ear.
or kathleen nesbits fiddle tutorial (i know your playing the flute btw)

and learn tunes out of them

try to learn a tune out of it everyday. They contain basic tunes and their easy to learn. Write a list with the first two bars of every tune you learned. Practice playing all the reels together one after the other, then all the double jigs, hornpipes so on so on.

or during a session ask the people what the name of the tune is called and try to find it and learn it.

hope this helps

"2. If someone new to the session ventures to start a common tune that everyone knows
perfectly well (Kesh Jig, Planxty Irwin, Harvest Home, etc. etc. etc.) just stare ate them blankly and don’t join in. This is a good time to talk loudly, walk away, or tune your instrument. "

And leave poor me playing all by myself. Thanks a lot!

Well, I guess I’ll just keep plugging along. I think we have a tape recorder around here somewhere. I’ve got more tune books than I know what to do with. I’ve got another one on the way (Fliuit). I’ve got about 5 days of tunes in iTunes. I think I’ve even got a shaky egg if it comes to that. Maybe another beginner will come through the door someday.

Actually,SBH, Ottery forgot a rule or two --

2/B: When someone starts off with a tune, do not miss the opportunity to immediately kick off with your own very different tune, loudly burying theirs with yours. Very amusing, and good practice for lording it over discussions at ITM sites once you get full enough of yourself.

Seriously, keep on trucking and best of luck. Also, perhaps you might take a look at this site http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
It is a virtual session, dots included, nothing fancy but you can play along and see what you are playing while you play. Basic session tunes, a decent start. Not reality training, obviously, but an interesting exercise tool IMHO.

Cheers.

Or has happened last week, we started off a wee tune of our own at a festival when a young female fiddler barges in…

..“Can I sit there” and immediately squeezed herself between myself and a whistle player almost knocking the latter flying…..She then proceeds to play the tune we’d started at a much faster pace and chose a completely different tune to follow up than the one I intended.

She’s a nice girl, really, and I’ll make allowances as drink had been taken. 🙂

Very Sharp, Rook!
😉

Now you are getting silly Rook. This young girl could be impressionable.

Diane, keep going to the session. Listen to everything they play, and the craic, too. At some point someone will likely ask you for a tune. Play whatever you can, even if it’s Amazing Grace. Maybe someone will join in. The worst that can happen is they’ll ignore you and go back to playing their tunes.

And some day, when you have Wise Maid or the Mountain Road under your belt, they will remember Amazing Grace and compliment you on how far you’ve come and welcome you into the fold.

These things take time. No one, not even Frankie Kennedy, is ready to session after one month of playing.

The idea of having the Wise Maid under my belt tickles me. Probably because I’ve got the Jug of Punch under my belt having enjoyed a good dinner.
Maybe Diane would prefer Rakish Paddy under her belt though, and the King of the Fairies would appeal to some

If there is any possibility of playing a session with other beginners go for it. Listening is great advice for several reasons. However nothing is like playing with others for an hour or more. For some reason it is difficult locally to strike up a new session. [Easier at music camp]. ’Oh, keep going to the regular session. Just grab an opportunity to play with one or more players outside of that setting. The session you are interested is a worthy goal. There are many things you can do to get there. TheSession is about listening, it is about knowing all the rhythms, it is about knowing a number of tunes, it is about good tone, it is about sounding good with other musicians.
But, essentially, it is about ‘PLAYING AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!’

I’d second TheMuse and Will.
keep going to the session. Talk to people, play a bit when you’re asked. But in the meantime find someone else starting out, or encourage someone else who likes listening to it to start playing. Then play with them and learn with them, that way you’ll progress twice as fast, and it will be more fun.

hi diane

Have seen your posts on the other board, will put a little something here also.

I think you are very brave and courageous, that after one month of playing flute you are already looking to play in a session!
Seriously, not kidding here……..so GO for it girl if you really want to. For most people, it takes about a year before they dare to do the same 🙂

You got great advice from others already, and I am pretty sure that is enough what will keep you busy for years.

As for a welcoming session to let you join……..I think you are joining the moment you are actually asked to play.
Don’t be afraid for anyone asking you to play something, no matter how slow you are or how many mistakes you make.
Stage fright will stay with you for quite some time, and the only way to get over it is just play, no matter what.

Try to learn as much tunes as you can and record what you like and practice tunes, ornaments, tone, rhythm, all separately.
Learn tunes SLOWLY, as slowly as feels comfortable to you, so your fingers can memorize them and not make too many mistakes while doing so.
Opinions vary whether you should learn ornaments with the tune or add them later on…….do what makes you feel comfortable.

I wish you all the fun and good luck and hope that soon you will be playing with others, whether it will be just one or two, or with the session people 🙂

Warmest greetings and blessings, from netherlands
berti

Another great way to get solid on your instrument is to practice while reading some of the lengthier discussions on The Session. They are endless, sometimes (I recommend any discussion of whether the guitar should be allowed, or transgressions of beginners/attitudes of seasoned players, or the essence of ITM and/or any proposed change thereto, as a start) with numerous changes in direction and mood, and if you can keep playing while following the “logical flow” of any such discussion, you have the tune down so well you don’t even have to think about it, which is one of the goals.

heh, “logical flow.” Now that’s funny. 🙂