Ideal Session - Your Help!

Jammy

Heya Guys,

I'm setting about organising a regular weekly trad session in a new bar in town.
Just a good night out where all trad players can come and have a good session. No fuss, just relaxed environment with food and drink.

What I want to know is what would draw you to come and join session?

What night of the week would suit? (Fridays don't suit)

What makes a good place to have trad sessions?

I am a flute player myself, but I want to make this a place where people can come every week for a few drinks and be guaranteed to have some music going.


The place in question is quite new, modern and very comfy with lots of space and a great smoking area covered over. It also isn't too expensive, just reasonable!



Would be great to get your views

banjopaul

Jammy wrote: »

Heya Guys,

I'm setting about organising a regular weekly trad session in a new bar in town.
Just a good night out where all trad players can come and have a good session. No fuss, just relaxed environment with food and drink.

What I want to know is what would draw you to come and join session?

Reputation of good music, or having been invited along by friends to play with them, or musicians who I've met telling me to pop along.

Also being aware it's a decent session, i.e not a night of ballads with 5 guitars and 10 bodhrans with one set of reels played too fast!:pac: Ah no seriously, just knowing that there's decent tunes to be had and that there's a friendly crowd playing there.

And as well, i hate the idea of 'anchor musicians', people who are payed to show up every week and play with whoever else comes along. Ruins the idea of sessions for me. Just saying.:)

And be open to beginner musicians, at least for an hour at the start of the session or something, cause everyone has to start somewhere.

Jammy wrote: »

What night of the week would suit? (Fridays don't suit)

Suppose Thursdays or Saturdays then! Thursdays might be cool cause lots of musicians already have regular Saturday sessions.

Jammy wrote: »

What makes a good place to have trad sessions?

Guess thats personal preference, I prefer older style places with low ceilings, big open modern bars can be a bit crap acoustically cause the sound just dissipates.

No music or tv sound on while the session is on is an obvious one too. Friendly management who aren't opposed to handing out a few free drinks to musicians never go amiss either.

Jammy wrote: »

Would be great to get your views

Best of luck with it! Hope you get it up and running!:)

emurf

Where is it on?

banjopaul

emurf wrote: »

Where is it on?

Town! Which I'm guessing means Dublin as usual.:P

fh041205

I'm in the very strange situation where I entirely agree with a post on boards (banjopaul's).

Has to be a quietish pub, or at least where people will appreciate the music. I've been at sessions that have been ruined by crowds of people who come in and make way too much noise. You have to have barmen who won't be afraid to tell people to shut up if, for example, someone was singing a song.

Defo have an hour or so before hand where the beginners can get themselves some time. Lots of stools, seats incase you get a big crowd. Nothin worse than running out of space. Also personally I don't like sitting in a corner facing out, in general I think musicians prefer to sit around in a circle and sing/play to each other rather than the crowd. You'll need space for that.

During the week would be better if u ask me. Thursday would be nice.

banjopaul

fh041205 wrote: »

I'm in the very strange situation where I entirely agree with a post on boards (banjopaul's).

Wahey I feel honoured:) thanks!

fh041205 wrote: »

Lots of stools, seats incase you get a big crowd. Nothin worse than running out of space. Also personally I don't like sitting in a corner facing out, in general I think musicians prefer to sit around in a circle and sing/play to each other rather than the crowd. You'll need space for that.

This is all true, sessions aren't perfomances, the musicians are playing for, and to, each other, circles are much better. Also no mics or amplification too. Should be able to hold your own without it. Plenty of chairs too.

Good advice fh041205, fair play.

Jammy

Thanks for all that guys! It's really helpful!

Yes, I apologise it's in Dublin (I realised that after I posted that I'd only said town woops). It's near the 02 arena! The bar is called The Green Room and it plays hosts to before and after show drinks when concerts are on in the 02 and has a pianist playing every Friday night.

This is a very very friendly place, and because it is new we're very keen to accomadate sessions like this. So there's a nice bit of space with sofas and stools. If you think something isn't to your liking just ask and we'll sort you out :cool: And if you're interested there's nice food served all night.

With regards to a crowd, we are going to promote that particular night as a trad night (thursday seems to be good) so the crowds hopefully will be there for the music. Accomadating beginners is a good idea, as an intermediate flute player I always felt intimidated when I went to sessions so that's nice.


The first one won't be until September. Do you think any of you would be willing to give a shot when I get the first night organised?

fh041205

Sounds good Jammy. I may give it a shot. Not far from the train station either which would be handy for me!!! Sounds like the kind of thing that could take a while to get up and running so bear with it. Best of luck.

banjopaul

I'll be in college in dublin in september so i could be convinced to pop along. Wouldn't know till then though.

fh041205

banjopaul wrote: »

I'll be in college in dublin in september so i could be convinced to pop along. Wouldn't know till then though.

Interesting.... Likewise for me.

52paddy

For me, here is the main points which make a session worth going to:

1) A crowd that respects the musicians. i.e. A crowd that doesn't shout over the music and leave the musicians stuggling to communicate with one another. Some quiet background conversation is fine, but none of this "Lawyers ruining the Hughes' session" crap!

2) Musicians all on the same par. i.e. No elitism crap! I guess this is pretty much a personal thing with everybody but if I walk into a session where there is some "click" and some sense of exclusion, I just don't bother, regardless of how good everything else is. I just want to play some feckin' tunes and meet new people.

After that, I'm a happy camper. If it gets going, send me a pm. I'm living in Dublin at the moment but will be moving to Limerick for college in September. If I'm up during the holiday season, I'll definitely try to make it down for some tunes.

Jammy

Excellent!

Sounds good lads, would be great to get a crowd down for the first session anyway!


I'll be heading into the owner during the week to get all these things down.

fh041205

Did anything come of this Jammy???

ceatharloch

Guys - very interesting thread! Hope the session got up and running.
On a related note, some ideas I wrote on "session etiquette" are at

http://grobner.it.nuigalway.ie/sess.html

they relate to the musical end of how to play in a session, not to the pub
etc., but worth I think a read!

ps1: banjopaul - coul not agree more on your point of "anchor musicians", I
played for a year in such sessions in Galway (joining in), and then stopped,
the anchor musicians always led to some sense of elitism, a click etc.

ps2: 52paddy - if you're in Limerick, you should come up some time to our session
in Galway City - every Thursday, Western Hotel (City Centre), I started it up a
few years ago. No anchor musicians, great fun, and we even get money from the
hotel to split between musicians (so if you come up from Limerick, can give you
20 euro anyhow for travel.....)

52paddy

ceatharloch wrote: »

ps2: 52paddy - if you're in Limerick, you should come up some time to our session
in Galway City - every Thursday, Western Hotel (City Centre), I started it up a
few years ago. No anchor musicians, great fun, and we even get money from the
hotel to split between musicians (so if you come up from Limerick, can give you
20 euro anyhow for travel.....)

Cheers for the heads up. I'll keep it in mind for some week I'm free. Thanks for link too.