Why do some singers resent tunes?

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 11:56 AM

Our regular weekly session is a mixed session and we TRY to keep it balanced. Most of the listeners seem to prefer songs as they like to join in on the chorus. I choose what I sing fairly carefully -- there are a lot of songs I seldom if ever sing at the session, because I want to include as many people as possible. Most of the songs I sing have either good choruses and/or great harmonies or good instrumental breaks.

That said, I find the singers pay more attention (and are less inconsiderate) during tunes than the instrumentalists are during songs. Trying to sing an a capella song with a banjo player trying to tunify it is exasperating (and distracting).

But the worst offenders are a couple of instrumentalists who get the bit in their teeth and do a long set of dance tunes that no one else knows -- so EVERYONE is bored, singers, listeners and the other instrumentalists, too.

Linn

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 12:01 PM

BG: But the worst offenders are a couple of instrumentalists who get the bit in their teeth and do a long set of dance tunes that no one else knows -- so EVERYONE is bored, singers, listeners and the other instrumentalists, too.

Hey, those guys really get around! They show up in Vermont fairly often...

Peter.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 12:21 PM

PP I don't really know, but I would estimate at least 500

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: InOBU
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 12:30 PM

Well, I don't resent tunes, so my band plays ballads and Celi tunes... therefore...SORCHA DORCHA will be at the HALF KING restaurant and pub, this Wends. Saint Patrick's Day on 23rd street between 10th and 11th Ave. from 7 pm to 10 ... As expected Lorcan Otway on vocals uilleann pipes flute whistle bodhran and the great Jane Kelton on flute whistle and key board, Seanin An Fear on Mandolin, Joe Charupakorn on guitar... the joint is already rumbling, so stay from Give us a drink of water to An Phis Fluich, all yer ol' favs...
Cheers, Is mise, le meas, Lorcan Otway
Boing goes the plugometer...

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: MichaelM
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:36 PM

As long as we're hearing from all sides I'll ask the instrumentalists a question. How many times through do you play a tune? Is there a standard or is it just as many as you feel? As a singer and accompianist I'm frustrated to hear a dozen repetitions of what seem to my ear the same tune. If I sang the same verse in a song twice it would be seen as a slip of the brain. If I repeated it ad nauseam the listeners would be assuming insanity.
And to echo an earlier comment about being willing to play half an hour of tunes but not being willing to listen to them, amen. This is similar to a lot of discordant modern choral music I've sung which is tricky enough singing to fully occupy my brain but which I couldn't stand to listen to.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: InOBU
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 01:49 PM

Well it depends on the tune... after five or six times through old hag at the churn, you are just cooking... but to really get an idea of how it works.... come hear...SORCHA DORCHA at the HALF KING restaurant and pub, this Wends. Saint Patrick's Day on 23rd street between 10th and 11th Ave. from 7 pm to 10 ... As expected Lorcan Otway on vocals uilleann pipes flute whistle bodhran and the great Jane Kelton on flute whistle and key board, Seanin An Fear on Mandolin, Joe Charupakorn on guitar... the joint is already rumbling, so stay from Give us a drink of water to An Phis Fluich, all yer ol' favs...
Cheers, Is mise, le meas, Lorcan Otway

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Big Mick
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 03:26 PM

MichaelM, usually the tunes will have an A part and a B part. Typically you will play AABB x 3. Some folks go x 2.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Annie
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 08:19 PM

Around here we play fiddle tunes 'til we get 'em right and almost don't have the patience to pause before we start the next one that the first one inspired. It sounds obsessive because it is. I think the ego in that is hugh.

I can't help but think the singer is (or can be) more about the periphery and less about the ego. I'm ga ga over Getaway because for me, it's an all-song experience by choice.

I like to be immersed in the method at hand if I'm playing or singing for my own satisfaction. I think variety is important to the audience though.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 08:26 PM

How many time through? Till it stops.   

But the thing is, even when it's played out of its natural setting, in a place where there's no dancing, it's still dance music, and dance music involves repetition, or people couldn't really dance to it.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Mar 04 - 10:08 PM

Mick is talking about American "Irish-style" sessions, I guess (from his use of the neologistic and -sorry- rather bogus transliteration "seisun") but it's much the same in the UK: two or three times through for a dance tune, then on to the next one. They are dance tunes and still played in that format (though often ridiculously fast by players who wish to show off or who have no experience of playing for dancing).

The practice of playing dance tunes in pubs without dancers is quite recent; in England it would have been seen as very odd until the 1960s. It seems to have begun in the Irish "revival" sessions that developed from the post-war model, and spread from there. American-style Old-Time and Bluegrass sessions seem to be a different breed; in the latter case it appears that the tune is repeated until all participants have had the opportunity to play a solo. In the former case it can sometimes be difficult to see why they bother; though at times repeating a tune until none of the musicians are playing it any more can certainly be educational.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: Pied Piper
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:22 AM

I think it was the practice in the past to play one tune for a whole dance.
The modern Pub Session appeared first in London in the late 40's or early 50's as many of the Irish workforce were in digs and could not play were they lived. The Session rapidly spread to Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and other areas of Irish migration, and thence into other trad genres.

TTFN
PP

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: VIN
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 11:44 AM

The pub session i attend in Middleton m/c is a mixed session of singing and jigs/reels etc (no room for dancing). A lady even brought in a 'hammered dulcimer' t'other night and gave a tune. Beautiful sound it was too! I and others just join in on the choruses. A few 'veterans' of the 'scene' are regulars and its a great lighthearted atmosphere.

Don't think there's too much wrong with having an ego (can probably help your confidence) so long as you don't let it take over and you know your limits.

Subject: RE: Why do some singers resent tunes?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Mar 04 - 01:03 PM

Dancing a set takes up hardy any more room than just standing around. But there's the problem with the law being even harder on that kind of thing than music and singing, so it tends to get stopped when it happens, because the landlord is reasonably scared he'll be clobbered for it.