Nice topic but here I am again.. I haven't subscribed to this topic or forum....The post offers me no opportunity to subscribe or to unsubscribe... WHat is with that???
Guess I'll have to just live with it!!

I bet the fiddler would be highly flattered. You'd make an instant friend. Just don't get angry if the fiddler's supportive chuckling turns into a laugh fest.

Can't see any cringe at all .

So you learned a set of tunes from a fiddler on the internet and you might get to play them. What's Cringy about that?..

It's more Cool than Cringy. ... Don't know why the cool emoji has to wear glasses. Are glasses cool too?

An interesting question, so I've given it 45 minutes of deep thought. As I've said here before, I'm not much of a jammer, and have never been to an Irish session, so I may not know the etiquette, but here goes.
If you don't know the person, their mood, or how they feel about playing the set one more time, it might be safer and more courteous to ask them if THEY'D like to play the set - then you could join in and show your prowess, and then tell them how you learned it, etc. Lonesome Fiddler might be right though, and they might be flattered if you started it.
As far as Highwoods, I do participate in one jam each year, and this year someone asked me to sing a song we'd recorded. I was glad to do it, although I don't have the vocal power and range I did 50 years ago - but they didn't just start playing and singing it themselves. Some of the numbers we recorded are so common today (and some were then) that they get played without any particular connection to us.
Several times over the years I've found myself alone with a couple of my musical heroes and influences whom I thought I might not see again. I sort of wanted to tell them how much their music had meant to me, without drooling on my shoes, but the conversation went in other directions. In my experience, situations like that rarely go the way you think they might.
If you do get the opportunity to play with this person, I hope you enjoy it!

I would wait until a certain comfort level in the jam is reached...then just say, oh, by the way, I really enjoyed learning these tunes from your YouTube channel. I think if you come on strong it might make him feel overwhelmed...I say, after having met only 3 musicians I greatly admire in my life, and slapping my admiration on them with too much right off the bat...lol.

I can only relate that two years ago at the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering I was in a small jam of people that I didn't know.. One fiddler said, "Let's play Tippin Back the Corn"...Well, one particular man revolted and said something like, "No,NO I don't want to play that tune." Little did I know that the revolter was none other than Jordan ****off, the may who wrote the tune!!! PS, he is a Nice man..

At Irish sessions, we kind of jump in and lead sets when the mood/timing strikes us. Sometimes people don't play on a set...don't know the tune, off buying a drink, chatting with their neighbor, or just sick of that tune...etc.

So, the most horrifying thing would be if I launched into that set...and he sat it out! 

But yea, I agree... probably good to play it cool and normal for awhile and treat him like a normal player / one of us for awhile...and maybe later I'll say, "How do you feel about xxxx? I love that set you play." Maybe contemplating, if I was a well-known fiddler who could play 500x better than everybody else, how would I want to be treated?
Like a regular person, I think! :-)

Cool to hear your own stories about it, Doug!

And yea, I’m bringing my fiddle in hope.
But if they launch into long sets of obscure tunes at 150bpm, I’ll just listen.
All the heavy hitters of our area will be there, so I do kind of doubt I will belong in there! :-)

I will report back…:-)

There might be an aspect to players feel a certain ownership to their setting, or arrangement, work they put into it; in similar way as if they wrote the tune.

What pops to my mind, if playing with someone that was the unique source for the tune/set and setting, and goal just playing that... my inclination would not be to just launch into it; rather bring it up and acknowledge that attribution. Then pretty much defer to them; let them take lead from there. They might suggest/ask you go ahead and lead it; maybe interested in how you play it; but that could be a bit intimidating...  evaluated/compared against source, and might not really got everything as they did. (or as Lee mentioned, might have reason they don't want to play or hear it)

Does it really matter if they are well known, from recordings/YT? I tend to do that to friends, neighbors, music acquaintances, who lack fame or recordings. If playing with Lee or Peggy, if intent was from their unique versions/style, would acknowledge and defer.

OTOH, if it's not really their unique setting... just a tune they play or recorded, but learned and are essentially sticking close to another source(s); or if just fairly common session version.

NC, when the Fiddle Fever album, the first one, came out, I learned just about every tune on it. Really well. Like 6 months later, at a thing called Monroe's Fiddle Day, a smaller town with a fiddle based bluegrass and OT festival, they were playing. The thing w/ that festival, any fiddler can come up on stage and play 3-4 tunes. You guessed it. I got up there, Molly Mason on bass, Russ Brandengurg played guitar and I told them the 3 tunes I wanted to do, all from the album. Which they obliged me by playing, but they were not happy about it, and Jay pulled me aside and said "Why?" We already knew each other some. I told him 'Cuz that album is Fing great and these tunes are great and I meant it to be a compliment.'. SO all was good.

But unless you have a relationship with this well know fiddler already, I'd not do that or at least ask first.

Wow, playing with Molly Mason and Jay Ungar :-D

Hmm…interesting that they were “not happy about it” at first…maybe they felt ‘copyright-violated’ or something? Great that you got to explain that your choice of tunes was meant to be a compliment!

yea, so I guess it’s one of those things I won’t know until I’m there…
if he is easygoing and playing standard tunes deliberately, and is an inclusive smiley type, I might ask/mention. But if he is playing with an intent expression at an elite level with the semi-pros of our area, I will NOT muddy those waters!

A long time ago, I met one of my design heroes.
I would clip her award-winning work out of the design magazines…I admired her work so much. Oddly, I wound up working in her husband’s studio as a junior designer and she dropped by one day. She was in a black leather jacket, chain-smoking, cursing a lot, and in an edgy mood …not at all like what I had envisioned! I couldn’t even tell her how much I admired her work…it didn’t seem like something she would really respond to or care about…
But I did buy the book of her work when it came out. Hahaha. :-)

I’m off to listen to “Fiddle Fever”, Al!

And Geo, that is a really good thought and reminder…
Should acknowledge and defer to a player’s version, and be respectful of it, if you learned it from them and want to play it with them!

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

So…I learned a set from the YouTube of a well-known fiddler.
He’s coming to NC … and I might play in a session with him!

How “cringe” would it be to start the set that I learned from him, while mentioning that I learned it from his YT video?

…kind of like me sitting down to play with Doug and saying, “I want to play this tune with you…I learned it off a Highwoods track!” :-)

It would be so cool to play it with him, but I also don’t want to seem like a creepy fiddlefan…hahaha…
(Also he may be sick to death of it, after recording / performing that set?)

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Whahaha ... I feel like a creepy fiddle fan :-D:-D:-D

I bet you will do an excellent job!

NCnotes - I posted this in a recent thread, but it bears repeating. This is a "modern" video of the members of Fiddle Fever playing their best known tune, in (I think) the original arrangement:
youtu.be/QDwoSRHy-0A?feature=shared

Seems to me by your description that those tunes will probably come up in the session anyway and you’ll get a kick out of joining in.

I think if you ask the player about playing the tune beforehand and do it in such a way that the player isn’t on the spot and forced to accept the suggestion in order not to look like a jerk for declining, it ought to be fine. Especially if the tune has been recorded and is widely available, there’s no surprise in your being familiar with it or having played that version yourself since hearing the recording. According to the old saying, “imitation is the best form of flattery,” so wanting to play the tune the way another player recorded it is a form of respect. If it’s a tune that the player has performed endlessly, they might not feel like trotting it out yet again, but there’s also a chance that playing a version that a player has recorded will be a welcome choice.

It never hurts to ask. Perhaps do so if you get a chance to do it quietly and not in front of the whole group. Even asking in the group is not necessarily a bad thing, it just puts the player on the spot a bit. Most professionals are gracious about it if you’re showing genuine appreciation.

Doug, I could listen to that forever!! Love watching them play.

Hmm …
Based on seeing him perform, it will be me asking and then he’ll be like “oh sure! How did that start?” And then he’ll be like, “ what did we put that with?” LOL. At the concert they were forgetting the names of the tunes they were going to play…LOL :-)

Thanks for all the viewpoints, guys! I will let ya know what happens…:-)

NC good as that is, listen to the first album!

OK first there's a good chance that he'll start the set himself. It might help to know who the player is, as his reputation might precede him. Second, perhaps at your regular session players take turns starting tunes, but this is not often the case at higher-level sessions, particularly when those sessions have a "special guest"; people are definitely attending to play in a session with this guy, not with the various randos who show up.
If it's not a take turns session, you may still be asked to start a set. There's a good chance it'll be because whoever is running it noticed that you haven't played many tunes, and they want to be sure you have a chance to get at least one in and be included. If that's the case, you'll want to start a set that you're confident that you can play well under pressure since everyone will be watching you. If this set falls into that category, go for it. If it doesn't, skip it.

Generally speaking though, I'd say play the set. It's not like you're getting paid, and if an Irish fiddler doesn't like someone starting a set in an open session that they put together and posted for everyone to see, honestly they're a jerk and their opinion on the matter is irrelevant. But it's more likely they'll be pleased to see a set they created in the wild.

We’ll see how it goes!
I can play the set easily, but at .85 of their speed ( I know this because of YouTube, hahaha!)

I went to a house concert + session once before, last year. Before the concert we chatted and I told her I had learned a bunch of tunes from a book she put out.

Well, concert was great … but the session was not what I expected…
There was a pause after her concert, then people just got their instruments out and started playing tunes without her! When she finally joined us, she sat at the outer edge of the circle. When they asked her to start a set, she winked at me and strung together 5 tunes out of that book! I knew every one. :-)
The session went on, fast and furious…after a few more sets she wandered away again and started eating ( Our host had made scones).

So, I was surprised that they started playing without her, but maybe that’s how she wanted it!
Maybe performers feel tired /mellow after their concert and just wanna kick back and follow other peoples' tunes... who knows?

Many people are more eager to play than to listen - which is fair enough, I suppose. But I know I've been frustrated at times when I've wanted to listen to someone who is a cut or two above the rest, and everyone else jumps in and drowns them out. It's particularly frustrating when it's some superior musician who you might never again get a chance to hear close up in an informal setting ... ah well, so it goes ... !

That's how I felt! I was longing to play with HER, and hear HER.
But maybe she felt like, y'know, I just poured myself into this whole demanding concert and I want to relax and kick back now, and not lead the session...

After our shows, I rarely sit in on the jam sessions that often occur. I love jamming but after a show I am kinda fagged out <-old guy these days!

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

That's how I felt! I was longing to play with HER, and hear HER.
But maybe she felt like, y'know, I just poured myself into this whole demanding concert and I want to relax and kick back now, and not lead the session...

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You possess good 'spidey' senses! 

Thanks for reporting back!

I notice the pronoun changed, wasn't the initial post a he and the final a she? I don't want to get into specifics, not being political, just I just got confused lol.