A look back at 2020 on thesession.org

As 2021 begins, I thought it would be interesting to cast an eye back on The Session in 2020.

Here are the numbers…

In 2020 you collectively added 3,044 tune settings. Of those, 1,287 were new tunes.

You added 435 new recordings.

You started 1,258 new discussions.

Needless to say, there weren’t so many trips, or events, or new sessions as in previous years: 50 trips, 108 sessions, and 224 events.

You collectively posted a whopping total of 24,929 comments in 2020!

You added to your tunebooks 48,854 times. And even though it’s a relatively recent feature, you’ve already collectively bookmarked 3,004 times.

And in 2020 we welcomed 4,298 new members.

Here are the heroes of the tunes section:

Damien Rogeau added 119 tune settings in 2020:
https://thesession.org/members/95934/tunes

JACKB and Fernando Durbán Galnares both added 145 tune settings:
https://thesession.org/members/6451/tunes
https://thesession.org/members/60897/tunes

gian marco added 183 tune settings:
https://thesession.org/members/3080/tunes

And NfldWhistler added 673 tune settings in 2020:
https://thesession.org/members/109647/tunes

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the site during the year!

There were also some new features added in 2020:

You can now see the most commonly recorded tunes at https://thesession.org/tunes/recordings
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/44627

I made some improvements to searching discussions.
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/45287

Bookmarks! That’s a big new addition.
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/45361

I’ve been steadily improving the print output over the year, particularly for tune settings.
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/45547

This should’ve really been added sooner, but you can now add online events to the events section.
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/45522

And perhaps the biggest change is the recent addition of the inline audio player for tune settings.
Details here: https://thesession.org/discussions/45644

I hope you got some good use out of the site in 2020. I’d particularly like to thank everyone who was able to chip in towards covering the costs—much appreciated!
https://thesession.org/donate

Here’s to another tune-filled year! And who knows what new features 2021 might bring?

Happy new year, everyone: I’m very, very happy that you’re here!

Thanks Jeremy - we’re glad you’re here!

Been a member since 2004 and really appreciate the site. Have learned a bunch and made some valuable contacts.

While I’m here, I have a thought. If possible, what do you think of modifying the section for recent replies to show only the most recent reply for a given post. That way, recent replies for older threads won’t be crowded out by several replies to a new post. It would provide a better representation of the overall recent activity on the forum.

Happy New Year, Jeremy!

Thanks Jeremy!

Happy New Year, Jeremy!

Thanks for everything you’ve done, and all the extra improvements and conveniences too.

As you’re here, is there an orphan URL that takes you to a page where you plonk in the abc, and get staff notation? I seem to remember something like that a while back. Obviously all the [Tunes database] tunes show staff notation and abc too, but when people post an abc segment in a discussion, is that easily viewable as staff notation?

By orphan URL, I just mean a URL that is valid, but not accessible via any of the site’s menus.

Cheers!

Is this what you’re looking for, Jim?
https://thesession.org/tunes/editor

That’s the one, Jeff! Thanks!

Thanks to you Jeremy!! This website is simple the best and you made it possible!

To both Jeremy and the broader thesession community, a heartfelt thanks for all you’ve done to brighten a dark year!

Cheers Jeremy. This site is a fantastic resource. Thank you for all that you do to maintain and improve it.

Many thanks Jeremy! I have to admit though I’m astonished that 1287 NEW TUNES were added! What’s the total number of tunes on the site?

lynnhayes asked “What’s the total number of tunes on the site?”

As of right now, there are 17,897 different tunes.

Thank you very much!
Happy (Happier) New Year!

thanks Jeremy - thesession has been a lifeline in an otherwise musically bleak year!

Thanks Jeremy!

I do have a question about this:

“ is there an orphan URL that takes you to a page where you plonk in the abc, and get staff notation?”

“Is this what you’re looking for, Jim?”
https://thesession.org/tunes/editor

I don’t understand how it works.

Thanks Jeremy for all you do! This site is awesome!
Happy New Year to you!
Cheers!

@Richard:
“I don’t understand how it works.”

Jim asked:
“but when people post an abc segment in a discussion, is that easily viewable as staff notation?”

Paste ABC, view staff notation.

@Richard: If don’t like the tool linked above this one works pretty much the same, except it updates the staff notation live and has a sample tune loaded to see how it works.

http://www.clivew.com/abc.php

On viewing ABC, there’s also Sebastion’s excellent bookmarklet utility - I’ve used this practically every day since he posted this note about it:

https://thesession.org/discussions/42575

https://github.com/m3g4p0p/abc-select-bookmarklet

Calum, it’s brilliant. Thank you! I’m on Firefox. Will have to try Safari.
Happy New Year, Jeremy!

Jeremy,

Thank you for this site. It has been one of the best things about 2020 and is now a daily pleasure.
The recent tool added to allow us hear an “accordion” version of the different settings has been a godsend for a slowy like me!
I really appreciate the generosity from you to maintain and improve the site. Plus, I’d like to thank the members for their generosity - I have learnt so much from reading discussions where people have explained clearly and gently when people ask for help. It’s a fine thing to welcome people in who don’t know much and it’s such a great resource to learn about all kinds of things.
In 2020 I explored all kinds of stuff about concertinas and boxes that I love to know about, though I’ll never try learn either. Plus, the love people have for the music is inspiring and has kept me going throughout.
Lastly, Jeremy, I have also really enjoyed your videos - I love to see when your shoulders start going when you are into a tune!! I have used the videos as a guide and also have learned a bunch of them (or added them to my list!).
Stay well and keep playing!

Thank you so much, Lye_Valley_Ned!

I should record some more videos (I wasn’t sure if anyone was actually watching them), although I’m pretty pleased with my run of 200 tunes in 200 days:
https://adactio.com/notes/tunes

Thanks everyone! I’m tech-challenged, I will see if I can make one of those work for me.

I use:

http://mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php

for all my ABC rendering needs…

Thanks for posting the link to mandolintab.net, Michael. I wasn’t sure if the site manager had fixed a couple of issues from a few months past; https://thesession.org/discussions/45270.
I just checked it out and it’s working correctly now. Very useful abc converter/transposer/etc.
And it’s being maintained too.

Seems to be fine. I’ve been working on a lot of B/C accordion arrangements since late December 2020 and using it exclusively to generate my final PDFs.

“ And NfldWhistler added 673 tune settings in 2020:
https://thesession.org/members/109647/tunes “
That’s 1.8 tunes a day! Wow!

Thanks for all you’ve done for the community, Jeremy! We look forward to sharing some tunes with you again in Seattle one of these days.