Why am I blogging at 6:00 am? I took a Claritin D and now I'm awake. I've been awake since 3:30 this morning. I've been thinking about the end of summer, and about school starting up again, and about the slow session, of course!
As we wave goodbye to summer, we also wave goodbye to that fantasy of free time: long, sunny summer afternoons swinging our feet in the lazy brook or those short, but sweet nights of all-night tune fests in some dingy bar or at someone's backyard barbecue. Remember those dreams of accomplishment we all had? [I'm going to learn a tune a week all summer long....I'm going to buy and learn a new instrument...I'm going to hike the Long Trail every weekend this summer....I'm going to read War & Peace before Labor Day...] Yeah. Right.
Back to reality. Some of you have kids you just stuck on the school bus for the first time this school year. Some of you are just lamenting the loss of long, sunny days and early Fridays. Some of you are just so buried in work you didn't notice it was September. I notice that school buses sometimes slow my progress to work. I have to plan around them. Other than that, I'm kind of envious of the kids: they get to go school shopping (I love supplies!), and get new clothes, and get a fresh start. I believe in "New Year"s, as you know. I look at your birthday as the beginning of your personal new year; and of course I love making New Year's resolutions on January 1 that I know I'll never keep! But, somewhere in my head I have this visual of the calendar as a sort of a racetrack. It's an oval, and it always starts in September for me. Someone just waved that green flag, and I'm all GO!
Whether your experience matches any or all of the above, we all have this in common: shorter days, crisper weather and long, cool nights are a veritable breeding ground for sessions, tunes and musical fun! Let's have our own special Slow Session New Year's! At this month's slow session, I want to feature a little tribute to my favorite county: Clare. We're gonna learn a set of reels (either from my favorite Ceili band, The Tulla, or maybe a reel from East Clare and one from West Clare). We'll go back to the hornpipes The Peacock's Feathers (in dmin and dmaj), and there must be a great set of jigs we can do.
In preparation, I'm doing a bit of research on Co. Clare, and I think I have a handle on the music from there, but there are so many ways of doing things and so many opinions, that I'm trying to pull something together to share with you. I'll be putting my thoughts up here early next week, before the session...
Trusty Companion and I were talking last night about how different musicians we love, and how they're all from different places around Ireland. Then we got talking about their different styles. You know how three people can play the same reel and put the emphasis in a different place and come up with a completely different sound? Also, people from different places will choose different types of tunes to play.
Trusty and I thought it might be fun this "school" year to have a little special focus area for our sessions. So, here's what we're thinking: September is Clare, October will be Kerry (slides and polkas! Yay!), November will be Donegal, and December will be Sligo. Hold on! Slow down! Don't freak out! This doesn't mean we'll only be playing tunes from that region. It just means I'll give you some classic sets of tunes and maybe we'll have a listen to some recordings along with our regular session sets and round-robin playing...
Another thing I'd like to encourage this year: stories and songs. If anyone wants to present something that they're working on, let me know and we'll make a space for it. The sessions we go to in Clare always have a sort of little "solo" section in the middle where a few stories are told, some singers are featured, and some people who've got tunes they want to showcase can do so. This has kind of happened the past few months as a few of our players have tunes they love and want to share, in the hopes that we'll all learn them.
I'll give you your homework in the next blog. Right now I have to go get ready for work. No time for dog walking this morning. I've pondered enough in this blog, and I'll talk to you soon! Have a great day!
The Trad
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