royal winter fair, irish sessions

Sleepy chick at the Royal Winter Fair.


Slept most of yesterday, feel somewhat better today. Today's Blatherpics are from the Royal Winter Fair, when I visited with Ruth, Sara and Annie.

For those craving more OVFF photos, do check out:
- The Flickr Filking Photo page (Beckett, Allison, Maya, JimP, Mary have all uploaded pics)
- Jim Leonard's OVFF photos: more coming soon (he took 600+ photos!)
- Rob Wynne's OVFF photos




Mutant vegetables.


To Mary and Bill: thanks for the Irish session tips!

To those not familiar with the Irish session tradition and wondering what the heck I'm going on about: I've recently gotten interested in this because of the fun everyone in the session always seems to be having. I also am intrigued by the idea of all the tune-players (whistles, fiddlers, flutes, etc.) playing the SAME TUNE in the SAME WAY; until I started doing some research, I always figured it was just one big improvisational session.





While there is room for some individuality (the twiddles and some interpretation, especially by those leading), it seems more like one big singalong, except the singalong is instrumental. Am I making any sense?

So far I've learned the following tunes by heart:

The Swallow Tail
The Donegal Reel
The Galway Rambler
part of Cooley's Reel




Ring-tailed lemurs and a fawn taking a nap. Lemurs
always remind me of my friend Lissa,
who is a big fan of ring-tailed lemurs.


It's easier memorizing than I expected, though obviously I need to polish these to the point where I'll be able to keep up with other musicians even if I screw up AND I'll have to keep practising these to make sure they stay memorized. I keep a whistle by my computer and play through a tune or two between tasks.

I've also noticed that there are different versions of these tunes, something that will obviously become more of an issue during an actual session. Ah well, I'll cross that musical bridge when I come to it.




Weird-looking pigeon.


Some useful reference sources I've found so far (or that have been suggested to me):

The Session: discussion board, tunes. I'm a bit intimidated by all the seasoned session pros here, but have introduced myself and am learning lots already.

Session Etiquette (thanks, Bill!)

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Traditional Irish Music Sessions

Virtual Session: hosted by the BCC. Very cool...you can learn the tune from sheet music, then play it with the "virtual session."

Toronto Irish Sessions: I'm going to try checking some of these out.

Also see Mary's list of resources.

I already own "120 Favorite Irish Session Tunes", but have ordered the accompanying CDs to replace my tapes as well as the upgraded book. Bill Sutton suggested the three volumes of Irish Traditional Music by Anthony Sullivan (I think Dave Clement also recommended these at OVFF), and rumour has it that I will be getting these for Christmas from a family member, yay! :-)

Ju Honisch suggested I try a Feadog penny whistle, and I just bought one for super-cheap on eBay.




Ruth and I met Krista of Dakotaroo.com, who said she
recognized Ruth from CANSCAIP meetings and me from Blatherings.

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