Ballydesmond

So I went to my second Irish music session at the Tranzac Club last week, and this time I ACTUALLY PLAYED. (!) (For who missed it, here's the report from My First Session.)

Taking the advice of Denis, a very nice banjo player I met last time, I showed up an hour earlier this time and was thus able to attend the "slow session," which I figured would be geared toward beginners and those wishing to learn new tunes.

I wasn't exactly sure to expect. When I arrived, two younger women were just taking off their coats and chatting. Turns out they were both flute-players (the term "flautist" somehow seems too snooty in the Irish music setting), and one also played whistle. Hoping that they might be newbies like me, I asked them how long they had been playing. Their answer: several YEARS. So much for the slow session being for beginners. :-) One of them had a big binder of music with her.

Hey wait. She had SHEET MUSIC! So written music wasn't as forbidden as I had originally assumed, or at least not at this session. The flute player also told me about a Black Book that the Tranzac session people self-published, containing some of the tunes they frequently play.

When Denis arrived, he asked me if I brought my whistle this time. (I had actually brought it last time, but left it in my knapsack because I was terrified that someone might actually ask me to play it.)

"Er...yes," I admitted. "Don't know if I'll be brave enough to play it, though." He just smiled.

I found myself sitting beside an older and obviously highly experienced whistle player during the slow session. He was very friendly and was gracious about answering newbie questions I had about tuning certain types of whistles and tunes in general. He was playing a custom-made black whistle which is apparently no longer generally available.

Like the flute player, the whistle player told me about the Black Book, which is available for $10. I'm supposed to get my copy at the first session in the New Year, yay!

As we chatted, another player in the circle offered me a sheet of paper printed on both sides with tunes: Thrush In The Straw, The Maid In The Meadow, The Green Fields of America, and three polkas: Maurice Manley's (Ballydesmond=2), Ballydesmond, Egans. From doing research online, I know that some session players sneer at those that "read dots," so I was pretty happy. My goal is to memorize these tunes next.

During the slow session, we went through some of the tunes on the sheet. I read the music and played along, or at least tried to. Though the speed was certainly slower than the usual session pace, I found it pretty challenging to sightread so quickly. But inside, I felt like cheering...at least I was PLAYING!

Once the slow session eased into the regular session and more musicians arrived, I set my whistle aside and just listened. They actually did play one tune (Cooley's Reel) that I had learned...but I only recognized it when it was nearly over because it was being played about a zillion times faster than I had been practising it.

Most of the session was what filkers call "chaos style" in that pretty much anyone could leap in at anytime, but at one point the circle turned "bardic" in that the lead went to each person around the circle, one at a time.

When it got to me, I passed. But then Denis asked, "Are you sure there's nothing you'd like to play, Debbie?" One of the flute-players I had chatted with earlier gave an encouraging cheer, and I realized that as nervous as I was, I couldn't and shouldn't pass up the opportunity.

Not sure if anyone would know the tunes I'd learned on my own, I asked if it was all right if we played one of the tunes we'd been practising in the slow session. Hm, but which one?

"You did fine with the polkas," whispered the whistle player beside me. "How about those?"

They wanted me to set the pace, but I was too nervous so asked the whistle player to help me. And so together, we launched into Maurice Manley's Ballydesmond. My hands were shaking and I stumbled a lot the first few bars, but then the music caught me up, and the fact that I was here PLAYING MY WHISTLE AT A SESSION. By the time the tune wound to a close, I had a silly smile plastered over my face; quite the challenge, really, trying to play whistle while smiling.

The smile lasted all the way home. I'm sure the other people on the subway must have thought me a bit off my gourd.

Thank you so much, Mary Bertke, for setting up that amazing session at OVFF! I'm definitely hooked.

And I can't wait until the next session. :-)

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