RE: [Harp-L] Re: jam etiquette

["Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> 	My background is entirely Irish and OldTime sessions, so I have some 
> questions.  A pub session is often well attended by the public - to listen 
> to the music, but it is still basically a time for a bunch of individual 
> musicians to get together and enjoy themselves. Usually there is a leader 
> (declared or not).  This person( depending on their personality) will lead 
> off the tunes or may ask someone else to start one ( if the person is known 
> to them or if they can hear that a newcomer is good) The one who leads off 
> plays through the tune once and  then everyone can join them if they know 
> the tune.  If not, proper etiquette is to listen and learn. Recording is 
> acceptable( to take home and learn).  If the pub has pros playing, they are 
> usually scheduled before or after the session and may or may not take part 
> in the session itself.  At camps and festivals there will sometimes be 
> instructor sessions, where the hard working teachers get together to have 
> fun. In these cases it would be bad manners for an amateur to participate 
> unless they were personally invited by the instructors. These are great 
> opportunities to record things to practice at home.
> 	It seems like you are all discussing open mic situations. Where people 
> sign up and are given a spot on the roster for the night.  To me this is 
> different than a session ( or jam as blues folks call them).  Are these two 
> different things in the world of blues or am I confused and ignorant?
>
>
> Barbara

I recognise Barbara's description of a session, as that's what I mostly do.  
We don't have a leader among the (usual) seven or eight participants.  We 
could probably play for two long evenings without repeating ourselves, but 
that doesn't mean with everyone playing all the time.  I'm the only 
participant that's amplified, and that only modestly.  The key point for me 
in Barbara's post is the bit about a bunch of individual musicians getting 
together and enjoying themselves.  We fill up the pub on our evenings too, 
so we can't be that bad!  If something happens to reduce the enjoyment 
(usually a newcomer being a little insensitive) we can sort it out one way 
or another, but that's infrequent.  If there was little prospect of an 
enjoyable evening the session would die.  Four of the guys travel a 60-mile 
round trip to get there, and they want fun when they get there I can tell 
you.  The great thing in our setup is that a harmonica player can learn by 
ear, by just noodling along sotto voce.  I've learned dozens of tunes that 
way.  Not really possible with a dobro or piano accordion!

Steve



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