Hanging on at a Fast Irish Session
My fast is moderate. My moderate is slow. If left to my own devices, I wouldn't exceed 80 bpm for a reel or 90 bpm for a jig. So an Irish session that runs 20% over my comfort zone can be a shock to the system. If I were to try to play every single note as I might have them memorized, in the sequence that I know them, I’d fall behind very quickly. So I have to make adjustments on the spot.
In an effort to stay in sync and not lag behind, I might only grab about 75% of the notes I would normally play when trying to keep up at a fast-for-me Irish session. You’ve just got to know which notes to leave in and which notes to take out, and the more familiar you are with the sound of the tune, the easier that may be. I don't actually practice or rehearse this. It's just something I improvise in the moment based on what I am feeling capable of.
If I were to actually practice this at home, a good first step would be to remove everything but the quarter notes. In other words, remove the notes that are pick-direction “up strokes”. Then once you have it stripped down to those bare essentials, you can add back in whatever up-stroke notes you feel are necessary to make the tune sound more like itself. Pretty much every tune can be simplified in this manner.
Another way to do it is to take the full sheet music version of the tune and then whittle away at it by identifying places in each measure or two where you can make adjustments. Places where you are like “nope my fingers aren’t going to do that” when playing fast. The sequence of triplets in Harvest Home comes to mind, as does the little end-tag thing at the end of each part of Rakes of Mallow. There are less "notey" ways to play those sections.
The more that a tune is under your fingers, the more equipped you are to make variations to that tune when you need to or want to. In a beginner-level slow session this might mean going hog wild with attempting triplets or other ornaments, but in a high-speed setting where you are pushed beyond your normal limits, it might mean getting rid of everything but the basic melodic line so that you can still play in the sandbox.
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