Tips for playing in a traditional music session
I often find that fiddle players looking for tunes to learn turn to the Foinn Seisiun recordings. These are really useful resources for finding recordings of well know Irish session tunes. But for a fiddle player starting out with playing in sessions, they may also have their limitations, which I’ll discuss below. I hope that … Read more
I am now leading a new Irish session in Bristol, once a month at the Shakespeare Inn in Totterdown. This will be a fairly small session, led by a small group of top-notch players. We will be there, normally, on the 2nd the Thursday in the month. Space for the session in the pub is … Read more
I lead a regular Irish session at the Star, Fishponds, Bristol. This is an excellent Irish pub, that hosts a range of music, with an enthusiastic landlord. The Wednesday night session at the Star was absolutely lovely, just a few players playing with wonderful pulse and lift (Bradon Smith on fiddle, and Sheena Vallely on … Read more
Do you want to start playing fiddle in a traditional folk session? If you are learning to play the fiddle in a traditional style, you may be aspiring to play with other people in informal groups. And with good reason – group playing is great fun! Whether that’s Irish, Scottish, English, Scandinavian, Breton, bluegrass, klezmer … Read more
There are many good traditional music sessions in Bristol where you can play the fiddle. Many, but not all of them, are traditional Irish music sessions. I currently run two traditional Irish sessions in Bristol – details below. I will post a list here soon of some of the other sessions that I have played … Read more