An Irish Session
Welcome to Bardic Circle. We are a beginner-friendly, intermediate-level Irish session meeting in central Ohio.
We normally meet at The Shamrock Club of Columbus, in the downstairs pub, 60 W Castle Road, Columbus, OH
We meet every other Thursdays from 8:00 pm -11:00 pm
2008 session dates:
Jan 3, Jan 17, Jan 31, Feb 14, Feb 28, Mar 13, Mar 27, Apr 10, Apr 24, May 8, May 22, Jun 5, Jun 19, Jul 3(?), Jul 17, Jul 31, Aug 14, Aug 28, Sep 11, Sep 25, Oct 9, Oct 23, Nov 6, Nov 20, Dec 4 , Dec 18
We also meet the first Tuesday of each month at Amore Pizza, 1186 County Line Rd, Westerville, OH 43081
Amore dates: Feb 5, Mar 3, Apr 1, May 6, Jun 3, Jul 1, Aug 5, Sep 2, Oct 7, Nov 4, Dec 2
Get automatic reminders and exchange messages with the session through our Yahoo Group.
Membership: We have no formal membership, dues, officers or boring business meetings. Just show up and you’re a member. Fred Murphy is our unofficial “director” and contact person and Mark Gist administers the web site and moderates the Yahoo group. For more information, see our Yahoo Group (above) or email Mark for help in joining the group.
Pub Membership: We are not officially part of the Shamrock Club and they have been very nice to let us meet in their pub. For legal and other reasons, you should become a Pub Member of the Shamrock Club if you attend regularly. It’s only $10 a year. Ask the bartender for an application.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Sessions:
What is an Irish Session? It’s essentially a “jam” session where everyone, except the guitars and drums, play the melody in unison. There is no “conductor”, so you try to follow the advanced players who are “leading” the session.
Can I use sheet music? By all means. And ask the person next to you to tell you the name of the tune so you can find it or look it up later. However, don’t expect us to play it exactly the way it’s written. There are a lot of variations to each tune and miraculously they sometimes seem to fit together. Digital recorders are strongly encouraged.
Do you have any rules? Just a few, but they are pretty loose. The first rule is to have fun and enjoy the craic (good fellowship). The second is don’t play louder than the leaders. Finally, when in doubt, ask where to sit.
Where should I sit? This depends on what you play and how well you play. (Sorry, it’s the same in an orchestra or band.) If the circle is small, you can sit anywhere. But as the group gets bigger during the course of the evening, acoustics become a big problem and the lead melody players really have to sit next to each other. This is so they can hear each other while still playing loudly themselves. Otherwise everyone gets off beat. This is especially important when the noisy, noisy air handler is running in the pub! In other words, the better the stronger players can hear each other, the louder they can play, and then everyone can hear the same melody. Consequently, less experienced melody players and non-players should not sit between the leaders. As more people arrive, they may need to move to the sides of the melody section or form an outer circle. Guitars and bodhrans should sit at the opposite side of the circle from the melody players (not right behind them). When there are several other rhythm instruments present, please play softly. If you can’t hear the leaders (not just the person next to you), then you are playing too loud.
Can I start tunes? By all means. Don’t be shy. How else are we going to know what tunes you know and what speed you’d like to play them at? Once the tune gets going, the group will take over and you won’t stand out anymore. If you feel uncomfortable starting a tune (or you play bodhran), just ask someone else to start it for you.
What tunes do you play? It varies at each session. Here is a sample list.
What do you sound like? Here are some MP3s from the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival
Musical Priest/Rambling Pitchfork/Tripping up the Strairs Peeler's Jacket Silver Spear/Cup of TeaWhere do I find all the tunes you play? Try these books:
The Irish Fiddle Book by Matt Cranitch. 1988. Music Sales Corp. Available in local stores or through Ossian. CD sold separately.
Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Fiddle Player by Pete Cooper. 1995 Available in local stores or from Mel Bay. Comes with CD.
121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes by L.E. McCulough. 1999. Available from Homespun Tapes. Includes CDs and is good for whistle players.
O’Neil’s Music of Ireland by Capt. Francis O’Neil. Either version. Available locally or from Mel Bay.
The Fiddler’s Fakebook by David Brody. Oak Publications. Available locally or from Amazon. Bardic Circle plays a lot of tunes from this book, but many versions are not standard.
Midwestern Irish Session Tunes by Phil Rubenzer. This is out of print so, for now, members of the club can send you the ABC files. These can be printed out as sheet music with shareware programs, such as BarFly for the Mac or ABC2WIN for PCs.
A good online source is J.C.’s Tunefinder. Be sure to check several versions of the tune to find one that is closest to what we play.
Check out Ceolas for a lot of information about Irish music.
There is sheet music and recordings at BBC Virtual Session.
Not ready for a full-speed session? There is also a Columbus slow session.
