Are you thinking of taking part in an Irish or Folk music session? It can be a wonderful experience. In this video I share some advice and insights I've gained over 30 years of playing in sessions. I discuss session etiquette, what to expect, how to prepare yourself and more.
Thumbnail image by Hinnerk R (Hinnerk Rümenapf), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Are you considering playing a musical
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instrument at an Irish music session? If
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so, then good on you. Um, I'm here to
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give you a little bit of guidance and uh
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maybe a few kind of forewarnings of
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potential hazards that could get in the
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way of an otherwise potentially very
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enjoyable experience. So, there's so
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many different things going on with an
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Irish session. Um, it's a wonderful
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tradition. Apparently, it's not even
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that old a tradition. um not I think
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maybe 50 years or so ago, maybe a bit
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longer than that, but not much more. It
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was much more a kitchen thing. So, you
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had these kind of kitchen music
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sessions. It wasn't so much a pub thing.
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So, you'd still have the, you know, the
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music and the dancing and all that.
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That's kind of goes back a long way. But
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having it specifically in a pub is a
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relatively new phenomenon. And it's a
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great thing, you know, um the the
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punters enjoy it and the musicians, you
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know, come along and they get to play
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music together and that can be a very
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very satisfying experience. It can also
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be quite a difficult experience in some
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ways. So I remember my first time I
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actually played in an Irish session down
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in Brighton. I played the King of the
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Fairies. Um
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that tune. Um I played it on a tin
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whistle and I remember my fingers were
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shaking. I was so terrified. I was
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playing with some really good musicians
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um down in Brighton back in the day. I
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don't know what it's like now, but there
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was some really, you know, very good
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players of Irish music. Um, and I kind
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of had somehow developed the audacity to
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to think that I might be able to
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contribute, you know. Um, so there's a
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lot of kind of hurdles to overcome, I
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guess, in terms of your own confidence
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um, and your perceived as well as actual
1:45
um, you know, what what the other
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musicians are are kind of making of you.
1:50
You know, are they welcoming you? like
1:52
they kind of being downright hostile,
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which can happen. Um, all sorts of stuff
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going on. So, they're a funny bunch of
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the Irish musicians. You know, it's a
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you could argue there's certain kind of
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traits that go into someone being
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willing to put in that amount of effort
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and time and commitment and dedication
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to reach a level of achievement in this,
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you know, this wonderful art of music.
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um you know that that ability to kind of
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hyperfocus and you know all the
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different skills that come with being a
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good musician they're not necessarily
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correlated with social graces. So, I
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mean, you know, very often there's been
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sessions where, you know, you turn up
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and they've all kind of got their heads
2:34
down playing their instruments
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furiously, the banjo and the whatever,
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the fiddle and, you know, but
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accordians, whatever, you know, doing
2:40
their thing and, uh, not necessarily
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that aware of the kind of social
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environment that's going on around them.
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Um, and that's, you know, partly
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understandable because you're focusing
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on the music and that's the priority,
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right? you can't necessarily be, you
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know, entertaining people with your your
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smiles and your warm warm welcoming face
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or what have you while you're trying to
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play this really fast rail and it's like
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taking it everything you've got to kind
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of stay on top of it, you know. Um, so,
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you know, I'm not particularly judging
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this this crowd, but there is there's
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kind of like two,
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this is an idea I came up originally,
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kind of two aspects,
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just one model of, you know, being a
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good session musician, right? By session
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I mean Irish sessions or folk sessions
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in general. So there's your musical
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ability. You know you need to know some
3:24
of the repertoire ideally like you know
3:26
shared repertoire that other people
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know. Um and I'm just going to elaborate
3:30
on that now because it's an important
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point. So some sometimes people come to
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sessions as a kind like a practice
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ground for their professional musical
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careers and they'll play the latest
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whatever set of tunes they've learned
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like you know really high performance
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stuff and it's like it's wonderful in
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some ways to hear it and in other ways
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it's like well I kind of came here to
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play some music. No one knows that tune,
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you know, that that can be an obstacle
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to having a good night at a session. And
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so there's, you know, you got your
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musical skill and then you got the
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crack, right? It's like, and the crack
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is all about everyone basically having a
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good time. And there's a lot that goes
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into having a good time. You know, maybe
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kind of more seasoned musicians aren't,
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you know, it's been a while since
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they've had that experience of coming
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into a session and being a bit, you
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know, bit anxious, a bit kind of
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uncertain of themselves and not not
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knowing how welcome they're going to be.
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Um so you know another aspect you got
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the musical side and then you got the
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crack right and the crack is so
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important and I remember down in
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Brighton wonderful musician and crack
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master called um Ben Paley right so
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fairly well-known musician's father was
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well known as well and as well as being
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a fantastic musician he was also so
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welcoming so kind went out of his way to
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make me feel included um wrote down a
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lot of the tunes not I mean eventually
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there's too many to write down but you
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know he gave me the kind of the notation
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for several of the more popular tunes or
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the more kind of often played tunes
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because at that time you learning by ear
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was like it was a new skill. I wasn't
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very good at it and just you know there
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was always always this sense of like
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encouragement and welcome and um you
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know just it just made me feel so kind
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of uh you know glad to be there happy to
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be there and then there were other
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characters there that can give us stuff
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one way or the other you know what I
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mean it's like no names impuged here but
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um you know just a totally different
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attitude to visiting or new musicians
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coming to the session so it's a
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wonderful thing Um and then there's the
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question of the instrument. So I saw a
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YouTube channel recently people um
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particular guy playing a melodica,
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right? He plays Irish music on the
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melodica. It's not a traditional
5:31
instrument. Sounds very much like a
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concertina. You might not even be able
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to tell the difference if you know
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they're both played well. Um but there
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are some kind of I suppose expectations
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around the instruments that you're going
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to bring to a session. I remember me
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bringing my my bone system silver flute
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had you kind of mixed reaction. One of
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the reasons I did it is because a lot of
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the repertoire, not not a massive part,
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but you know, significant part of the
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repertoire has these wonderful tunes in
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like weird keys like G minor and D
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minor. Not particularly weird in other
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context, but in Irish music, they're
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less common, you know. Um, and I wanted
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to be able to play some of those tunes
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as well. Um, and you can do it with like
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having different length whistles and
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then chopping and changing between tunes
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and all that kind of thing, but I just
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wanted to be to play those other keys
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and also other types of music like a bit
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of klesmo or a bit of, you know,
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whatever other traditions I was
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interested in. So, I played the bone
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system flute. Now, interestingly enough,
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the um I think the first bone system
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flutes were wooden. So these days you
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get bone system, wooden flutes, they've
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become like very much a traditional
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instrument like you know kind of
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archetypal played a wooden flute if you
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can afford it you got keys on it like a
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a bone I don't know if it is bone system
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actually if it's a keyed wooden flute
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but it's certainly you know a precursor
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to it. Um, and I guess, you know,
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traditionally the instruments that would
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be brought to a session were the
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instruments that were around and if
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there's a bunch of penny whistles around
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because they're cheap and affordable,
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then you bring them, you know. Um, you
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know, so playing a recorder, you know,
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I' I'd be a little bit kind of aware of
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people's sensitivities, sensibilities
6:59
around that. But at the same time, it
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sounds very much like a whistle. Um,
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you know, different instruments
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obviously, you know, different different
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tones. But again, you get the
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versatility. You can play in order keys
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without changing instruments. Um, you
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can go home and play different music.
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And also, there's the kind of pragmatic
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thing of like if you're not a
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professional musician, you're not
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playing like regularly. It's actually
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not great to have two or three different
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fingering systems that you're kind of
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falling back on after, you know, years
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of not practicing. It's like, yeah,
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which one should I do? Other
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instrumentalists don't have that
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problem. you know, the fid it's not like
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a different tuning, you know, for a
7:34
different um you know, I don't have to
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change tunings for different kind of
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keys and different uh you know, musical
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genres. Um so, you know, I've kind of
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settled in my my old age, I guess. Um to
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like, okay, I've had a long period
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without playing music. I've had various
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health issues. I don't want to relearn,
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you know, the fingering for the tin
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whistle and the recorder and I don't
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know, bag pipes, play different types of
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bag pipes. or gets a bit much. Keep it
8:02
simple. Record it. And these
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instruments, they're just fantastic.
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This is a modern hour dream. And I have
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I went for a period of playing them in
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sessions and no one complained because I
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could actually play the music. And
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that's the main thing, right? Um and
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also, you know, the Tim Whistle there,
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there are some drawbacks. It's a great
8:19
instrument, but it's not necessarily a
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very loud instrument. And if you've got
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a lot of like accordians or several
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violinists to compete with, it can be
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very hard to kind of be heard. And then
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some of the solutions to that are get
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these really are to get these kind of
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really piercing whistles like the Susato
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plastic whistles are really you know
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they're very practical to stay in tune.
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You can play them outdoors but they're
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loud. Um all these other kind of metal
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things where the higher notes are
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actually you know not necessarily that
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pleasant to hear. Um so you know again
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the recorder has various merits in that
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regard. You can be heard without
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necessarily losing tone quality and that
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kind of stuff. Um, so yeah, you know, a
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few different points here in this video,
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but a basic thing is, you know, if
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you're thinking about going to a folk
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session, go for it and understand that
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some people may just not be particularly
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like welcoming types and, you know, it's
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not about you, it's about them. Um, but
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also, you know, try and be sensitive,
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try and understand the the existing
9:10
dynamic in the group and people know
9:12
each other and, you know, you got to
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kind of
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maybe different priorities, you know,
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recognize different priorities. So your
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priority might be to like overcome our
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confidence and play a tune, you know,
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overcome my anxiety and lack of
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confidence and and play a tune. And
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that's great, but you know, there's
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other reasons for people to be there,
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you know, to just kind of have a good
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time, play tunes that they know and
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love. Um, and hopefully, you know, if
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you're a newcomer, then people will ask
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you what tunes you know, or they'll play
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tunes that are, you know, really well
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known, you know, classic like the
9:39
butterfly or the kesh or, you know, kind
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of classic session tunes that pretty
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much around the world people will know
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how to play.
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So there's there's some thoughts for you
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on sessions if you're thinking of it um
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as a recorder player in particular
9:52
because that's what this channel is
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about. Um but more generally, you know,
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going to a folk session, Irish session
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to play some music. I hope that gave you
9:59
some insight. Thanks for watching.
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Please like and subscribe and I'll see
10:03
you in the next video.
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