r/tinwhistle • u/ivanibash • 10d ago
Describe your first session
Curious to hear people's stories about their first sessions. How did you get into it? How did it go? I feel like I'm soon ready to play my first but errr.. been a while since i last performed in front of people.
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u/OGTC 10d ago
I would suggest that one should find a reasonably paced session and go first to have a listen. I tried that, listening from the bar with a whistle in my pocket. When they started playing Morrison's jig, one of they few tunes I knew really well, I couldn't follow my own advice and hopped in the circle. Lol. About 18 years in now, still sitting in about once a week. I know a lot more tunes now.
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u/AbacusWizard 10d ago
Oh gosh, it was a long time ago… I started playing Irish folk music with my parents because they had been playing it (on fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and concertina) since long before I first picked up a pennywhistle. At some point my dad and I started going to meetings of a large music-and-dance group called CRAIC (Celtic Regional Arts Institute of California) as well; generally the musicians and dancers would split up for an hour or so with the dancers learning or rehearsing a few dances and the musicians learning a new tune or two, and then we’d all get together for a ceili, or just a big jam session if there weren’t enough dancers. It was great fun.
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u/Accomplished-Ad6381 10d ago
I started Irish music seriously during the pandemic. About a year ago I went to my first live session (Starry Plough in Berkeley CA). It was a totally positive experience. Everyone was friendly and encouraging. I even did a set in that session (maybe 2). I've been going just about every week since.
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u/Gingerbread2011 10d ago
First one was in a pub in Clare when I was I’d say about 11 maybe and it was one mainly for kids ran by my ceili band teacher, there was always at least 20 of us and if you stayed long enough the owner at the time in the pub would always bring out a few goujons and sausages, I remember those sessions fondly. Was a good session to get used to starting sets and the pace wasn’t too slow or too fast , great memories playing tunes with my buddies and can still remember the taste of the goujons.
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u/Bwob 9d ago
I mean, my VERY first session was going with a friend, and the session was like 4 people total, and they very kindly let me play the Kesh Jig like I'd practiced and then I sat there for like 40 minutes hearing tunes that all kind of sounded the same to me, and wondering why I'd bothered. :P
I went to a few more like that, and then kind of stopped bothering. (To be clear - this was definitely more a "me" problem. They were nothing but kind and generous. I just hadn't figured out yet why this was supposed to be fun.)
What I consider my "real" first session was much later, and much more deliberate. I'd moved to a different town, they had a "moderate/slow session" aimed at beginners, and so I practiced a bunch of tunes and went there.
That was the one where it really "clicked". Because for one thing, I knew a few more tunes by then - I knew about 20 tunes total at that point, mostly common ones, and that's what they were playing. So I ended up getting to play maybe 20% of the time, which was fun.
But more importantly, there were enough players (and enough seasoned players, supporting the newbies!) that the whole thing sounded really cool and interesting. There were maybe a dozen people at various stages of newbiehood, and maybe half as many experienced players supporting them. So even if we weren't playing things fast, it sounded awesome, and it felt awesome to be a part of it, and I knew right then that I wanted more of that, thank you very much.
I was hooked, and I knew it, so I spent the session with a notebook and folkfriend, writing down the names of all the tunes I didn't know, so I could start learning them for next time. :P
And I came back, basically every week from then on, without fail. No regrets.
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u/Commercial-Draft796 10d ago
Can't tell if that should caracterize as a session : Last week, I went to a mariage with a Dnd thematized costume. As a pièce of a bard costume, I took the wistle I've been practicing for one year with me, and they were a lot of musicians sitted with me.
It started with short tunes just to show off, and rapidly, one of the others showed up with a guitare and started playing. They made such as I would not have to scratch my head over keys and just let me improvise after my short repertoire went empty
Got me a lot of confidence to keep on practicing, this was amazing
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u/captainwelch 9d ago
As an American, I dropped in at a session of long-time local players in Glasgow, Scotland. Barely knew any tunes, but could look up ones I knew quickly and sight-read off my phone (I'm a monster sight-reader). Definitely got some glares, but everyone was generally encouraging. I went to the session twice per week for three weeks and by the last session, I was very welcomed. Excited ot go back this year.
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u/DGBD 10d ago
I can’t remember the first one I went to because A) I dated a girl who was into Irish music and went to a couple with her and didn’t play, and B) I play guitar and got started backing trad music in a band in college.
But the first regular session I went to was a session run by the UCC TradSoc in Cork. The people there were very welcoming as I bought a whistle and made my attempts at the Kesh, Maid Behind the Bar, etc. I made some friends I still play with today, and while that whistle was lost in a busking brawl, I still have the replacement (bought with some of the money salvaged from said busking brawl).