I was reflecting on this the other day, having just come back from a week-end event which included a "session".

Now when I was a lad over in Shropshire a 'session' was somewhere where people would meet to play together, often after a morris tour. If a musician started a tune they would make a point of chosing a tune that the majority of people knew so that everybody could join in, or at least have a go at.
Even notable accordion playing residents of that county, who could play the socks off anyone else present, would follow this convention.
(Note: it was a convention - never mentioned as a rule - It didn't need to be, everyone was there to have fun making music together).


Contrast this with the 'Session' I was at last weekend: With very few exceptions the main aim seemed to be to specifically choose tunes that no-one else would know. Thus the Muso would get the floor to themselves and have a chance to show how wonderful they were. - Even better if you could choose an obscure key! Similarly (with notable exceptions) a lot of the songs seemed to chosen for they're obscurity and/or lack of a sing along chorus.

I didn't stop long.


Similairly I recall a specific session a couple of years ago. A real 'play-along' type session was looking promising, but then a couple came and set themselves up in the centre of the room and proceeded to take over, playing a series of obscure (mostly French I seem to recall) tunes. Don't get me wrong, they were very talented, and it was great music. BUT it was no longer a session (in my definition)! I can still recall my sense of 'Oh God, here we go'.


Rant over, my spleen is vented.

Oh for a good old time 'real' session.



Clive.


PS. I'm hoping to get a session going in our local pub come the end of August. Any one got any ideas of how to prevent it becoming a 'look at me I'm wonderful' type thing?