Session etiquette 101

At the Charlottesville session this afternoon, an older gentleman took part whom I had only seen once before in the Spring. He played the fiddle and was very enthusiastic. Trouble was, he also had a tin ear and almost no sense of rhythm. Consequently, a number of people left the session halfway through and by 5:00, when the session is usually peaking, only a handful of folks remained. It was excrutiating to listen to him grind through several pieces solo, because the tunes he played were almost unrecognizable and other players didn't want to join in. I wonder, how many more instances like that before we lose our venue, due to complaints from restaurant patrons or simply because the manager doesn't want that horrible racket in his pub?

At a Swannanoa session which I attended, someone posed a question to the fiddler Patrick Mangan on this topic. Patrick summed things up nicely, "Listen to others and play quietly if you don't know the tune." Good advice.