Tunes, Tradition and Teamwork with Tara Connaghan

‘I realized I was playing what I thought was expected of me, rather than playing music because I loved it.’

Irish traditional folk musician Tara Connaghan shares how inheriting her late sister’s fiddle sparked her musical path, how a blunt wake-up call from her teacher cured her ‘lazy practicing’ habits, and how a semester abroad in Finland reminded her never to let her repertoire slip.

We explore the social rules and unspoken courtesies of traditional Irish music sessions, the fear of embarrassment that holds adult learners back and how a profound conversation with traditional music elder Danny Meehan inspired Tara to stop playing for approval and start enjoying her own music. 

Tara also introduces her project and podcast, In Tune with Tradition, created to help adult learners navigate session etiquette, overcome performance anxiety and find community in group music-making.

• The 60-Second Practice: Trying to fake practice during 60-second car rides and how her teacher’s tough love sparked a fierce, lifelong dedication to mastering tunes.
• University Repertoire Shock and The Finnish Pub Session: Feeling like ‘the weakest link’ during her early days at university, going on a 20-year quest to learn every tune, and how a St Patrick’s Day gig in Finland taught Tara that unused tunes quickly evaporate.
• From Construction Company to Creative Calling: Parachuting in to manage her late father’s essential electrical services construction firm for ten years before stepping away to preserve her sanity and return to music.
• Danny Meehan’s Wisdom and Playing Your Own Music: How a gentle observation from an 80-year-old traditional fiddle legend helped Tara realize she was playing to meet external expectations rather than for pure joy.
• Demystifying Session Etiquette and In Tune with Tradition: Why adult learners are risk-averse to embarrassment, and how Tara’s podcast and framework help musicians understand the unspoken customs, courtesies and teamwork of session playing.

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Transcript

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Tara Connaghan: 0:08

Where's the second part of the tune? I lost all that repertoire because I wasn't playing. And I just thought it would always be there. Like, all the second parts of tunes were gone, just evaporated. I tried to push back against those decisions with the electricity company, said, no, I'm not happy sending people to work like this. And they kind of insisted and pushed for it and said, look, we'll have to put measures in place. So that was tough. But luckily, nobody got sick. What do I portray on the outside to others? And I thought, do you know what I'm actually playing, What I think others want me to play, not what I want to play or not what I think suits me best, but I'm playing what I think, what is expected of me, rather than just playing music because I love it when I play with others. There's little ideas going on. When I hear something they do, I'm like, oh, oh. And so it's a challenge every time. Whereas when I'm playing by myself, my brain might only think of different variations so many times. Hi, I'm Claire.

Claire Waite Brown: 1:08

For this podcast, I chat with people who have found or refound their creativity as adults. We'll explore their childhood experiences of the arts, discuss how they came to the artistic practices they now love, and consider the barriers they may have experienced between the two. We'll also explore what it is that people value and gain from their newfound artistic pursuits. This time, I'm chatting with Tara Connaghan.

Tara Connaghan: 1:37

Tara, how are you? Hello, Claire. How are you doing? It's great to see you.

Claire Waite Brown: 1:41

And you start by telling me, please, how you use your creativity currently.

Tara Connaghan: 1:47

Well, in the last two years, I've kind of had a whole change of direction. Well, not really. It's kind of gone back to the direction I was always doing. So I play Irish music, and I have created a podcast and a project around helping people come into the Irish music session space in a less anxious way. You know, if you're entering something new, if you're joining sessions for the very first time, or you've just come across Irish music, you're like, wow, what's. What is this all about? I'd love to jump in. And so it's kind of, how do you enter that space? There's lots of kind of customs and courtesies that are already in place that kind of keep people in the community, I suppose, safe and understanding, where everybody kind of stands. And if those kind of things aren't identified or understood at the start, then you can kind of make missteps and then there's like, oh, and they're afraid of what to do and they're like getting overwhelmed. And so I try to be the calm person before they enter so they can go, oh. So I just do that. Oh, well that, sure, that's great because

Claire Waite Brown: 2:48

that can put you off as well, isn't it? If you're not sure what you're going to do, then I won't start because I might make a fool of myself.

Tara Connaghan: 2:54

And as adults we are very risk adverse and also risk adverse to being embarrassed, I think.

Claire Waite Brown: 3:00

Definitely.

Tara Connaghan: 3:01

Yeah. I mean, who wants to be embarrassed? I think that's what the brain, the brain does is protect us. It's always about safety. So it will do anything in its power to, to keep us safe. And that includes being embarrassed.

Claire Waite Brown: 3:12

I'm really interested to hear more about the music. Did whether music or otherwise, did creative activities play a part in your life as a youngster, both at home and in education?

Tara Connaghan: 3:25

Yes, it did. I started dancing, doing Irish music dancing at around 4 and actually probably did it a tiny bit lepping around the floor in the house because we lived with our grandparents. My mother moved in when she married my dad and they all just left until my, I think my, my grandfather died when I was about 2 or 3 and my granny died when I was 7 and she played the melodian, which is actually behind me up here. I can't play it, but so she would play it a bit and I would kind of leap around the floor and then they were like, oh, we might send her to Irish dancing classes. And lots of young girls of my vintage would have, you know, the boys would go to football, the girls would go to Irish dancing. And so I was going to Irish dancing. Love. That wasn't very good. Doesn't matter. I loved it and I did it until I was my 17, 18. I kept doing it because I just loved, I loved watching everybody else doing it. And I also, like, I was musical. I was always kind of in the limelight singing or, you know, sorry, I should say there's a limelight, there's a disco or nightclub here. That's not where I was at four years of age. But, you know, I just loved singing and doing things like that. And then I started playing the guitar when I was about nine and my sister started playing the fiddle. She was a year younger than me. So I was kind of into rock music or anything that was kind of popular at the time. Pop music, Bon Jovi, Europe, any of those kind of things in the early 80s. And the guitar teacher's dad was the fiddle player. So we would go to kind of classes together and then we would come home. I teach her about what I'd learned and she'd teach me what she Learned. And about two years later, when I was about 11, my sister died. She had a heart condition since birth, so she had passed away. And about a year after that, the fiddle teacher asked my mum if maybe he could buy her 3 quarter size fiddle because they're kind of a hard thing to come by. And then I think he maybe realized that what he had asked was a little bit still raw. So he said, or maybe Tara would like to play it. Maybe Tara would like to take it up. She asked me and I was like, ah, sure, what's another instrument? Yeah, sure, why not? So he started teaching me the same things that she had taught me. And I was like, after two weeks it was like, are we going to move on here? I know these tunes, I don't really want to do this. And if I have to play Twinkle Twinkle once more, I will probably put the fiddle somewhere that it doesn't want to be. So I said, just give me anything, give me something else, even Irish music. Because, you know, I knew Irish music from the dance and you know, I wasn't particularly interested in it. I was just like anything, just not twinkle, Twinkle. So he started teaching me some traditional music tunes. We started off with some jigs and one of my best friends was in the class above, you see. So eventually I got into her class and I was like, oh, this is good fun. And. And then her dad started to bring us to some sessions. On the last Saturday of the month there was a session and we were just treated like royalty as kids. You know, you just got such special attention in the session. We were so excited and for me it was like without a parent, it was her parents that took us rather than mine. So I was like, well, without parents is great. And her parents used to run a local hotel. So there was a fiddle fest, which still happens actually in the hotel once a year we would go to that and it would just be meeting people and you know, you're kind of completely wide eyed going, oh my God, look at all the fiddle players. And about when I was about 16, her dad brought us to another festival about an hour away and we'd met all the people that were at the fiddle festival and so, you know, we kind of knew them all. And there was workshops and it was like we were just excited at the possibilities, I think is what it was. And we were staying in the same B and B as some of the tutors. And we weren't allowed to go out that night too late. We had to come home kind of early. But we Waited up in the B and B for the other musicians to come back. Sure, they didn't come back till 4 or 5 o' clock in the morning. We could just see the fun. And the. There's an Irish word for fun is craic. It was just so much fun and there was such a great community and we're like, you know, I could definitely do this. So I went back to my fiddle teacher. I've discovered that you get lazy at the things you know you're good at. You don't really think about it and go, I'm going to be lazy at that because I don't need it. But that's what your. Your brain goes for. Sure, I can pick that up really easily. So I discovered I had a fairly good ear. So I would be very lazy at practicing. And I would get my mother to drive me the 62nd drive from the house to the community centre where the fiddle lessons were. I would always tape the. The tune from last week and I would put the tape into the car. I'd listen to it for the 30 to 60 seconds. So you get to listen to maybe the tune twice or three times. And so it'd be in my head and it'd be kind of familiar when I walked in. And I'd be kind of, kind of be half there now. I was fooling myself. I wasn't fooling the teacher. Cause he knew I just didn't practice, but he knew the good ear. So when I was 16, when I came back from this festival I went to, Seamus was the fiddle teacher and was like. She was like, can you teach us this tune? Whatever tune I wanted to learn. And he was like, oh, yeah. And he could see I was totally, like, smitten by the music, totally bitten by the bug. And I said, can we learn this tune? He goes, yeah, yeah, I'll get that tune for you. I'll write it out for you. And so he went off and two weeks passed and there was no tune. I thought maybe, maybe he's busy. But the second week, my friend Denise, who was in the class, she was playing the tune and I was like, denise, where did you get the tune? And she was like, seamus gave it to me last week. I was like, what? How do you mean Seamus gave it to you last week? And so I marched up to Seamus Bold, 16 year old Tara going, seamus, why didn't you give me the tune? And he said, tara, you don't practice. He said, when you practice, I'll give you the tune. I mean, I was sick, you know, when you're caught out that sickness as well, the kind of defensiveness and everything. And I thought, oh, I took two weeks, I didn't go back to class. And I was upset and annoyed. I realized that I wasn't annoyed at him, I was annoyed at myself. I was like, right, let nobody ever say that to you again. And I put on the CD of the music that I wanted to learn and I blared it out and I practiced and played and played and played until I could get the tune myself. It was very fast, so it took a while to get up to the speed. And my bedroom was above the kitchen, and my mother would get the broom and hit up the. The ceiling and shout up. You think you do something good like practice your piano. So that actually made me practice the fiddle even more because then I wasn't supposed to do it. So I had one person telling me, you're not practicing enough, and the other saying, practice something else. Yeah. So I went back to the fiddle class about two weeks later. He said nothing, first of all, and. And I started playing the tune. Then he handed me. She was like, I don't need it now. But, you know, I wonder if he hadn't done that, would I. Would I have got off my lazy arse and done something about it? Possibly not. So I have a lot to thank him for. And then I also had a lovely, really good music teacher in secondary school and high school as well. Irish music wasn't his thing. He was more into classical music, but he gives a love for music, I think from the age of 14 and then definitely from 16, it was all about music.

Claire Waite Brown: 10:33

And you were surrounded by it and had that inspiration with, with your friend and the festivals and in school as well. So that's brilliant. Did you continue with music after school in education, or what happened next?

Tara Connaghan: 10:48

I mean, it was kind of a done deal at that stage. Even when, like, the career guidance teacher, God love him, he was very poor at career guidance. But when I walked in the door, he goes, well, sure, we all know what you're going to do. And I was like, okay, I'll just do it myself. I had wanted to go to University College Cork, which is down the very, very south of the country. I live in the very north of the country beside Northern Ireland. And I had gone to the open days maybe three Years in advance every year maybe parents drive me the seven hour drive down and the seven hour drive back. Yeah, so I did it in university as well. Studied music now. It was tough enough because, yeah, there's always a bit of a jump, I think, between primary school into secondary school and then secondary school into university. There's always a bit of a learning curve that, you know, you have to get past that uncomfortableness. I suppose you have to live with a bit of discomfort until you're wearing those shoes for a while.

Claire Waite Brown: 11:39

Well, I guess if you were always very good and then maybe when you get to university and there's other people around who are very good at other things and then you're not as very good as you felt when you were at home.

Tara Connaghan: 11:52

That definitely happened about three months in. Whenever there was a dignitary coming to the university, the university would say, oh, we'll get the traditional musicians to come and play some Irish music for them. So I remember three months in, there was about 12 of us or something in the music department at that time and we were all pulled into a room and said, right, you kind of pull together a repertoire. So we were crammed into this tiny little cubicle and all trying to come up with some tunes and people would say, oh, do you know this tune?

Claire Waite Brown: 12:19

And.

Tara Connaghan: 12:20

And I'm like, sorry, sorry, I don't know that one. And then they'd go ask another date and you know, and I didn't know any of them. And I was thinking, oh Jesus, I thought I was, you know, as you were saying, I thought I was pretty good. I don't know anything, I don't know any of these tunes and nothing. And they even turned around to me and said, there'll be another occasion, don't feel under pressure to learn all these tunes. And I just remember the feeling of, whoa, you're the weakest link here. Like they basically didn't want me to play in, in it. And I spent, because it was the next day. Everybody has a similar repertoire so you can always pull it together quite quickly. And so I was like, geez, I need to learn all this overnight. So that's what I did. I was like, I learned a load of tunes. Now I didn't have them a hundred percent, but I was determined to not sit out of it. So I did learn most of them. And then I, I went on this journey of I need to learn every single tune because I again, let nobody ever say that to me again. That was my, that's my mantra. Let nobody ever say that to Me again. So I went on this mission for. Oh, my God, the last 20 years. 20. How long am I out of college? 20? Nearly 32.

Claire Waite Brown: 13:28

Don't count that. Don't count that.

Tara Connaghan: 13:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was my mission for years and years and years and years and years was to find every tune so that I could learn every tune. And I would go to festivals all over the country, so. Because there's kind of different. Slightly different repertoire in different areas. So I would go to the festivals there and learn those tunes and go to different festivals and meet different musicians. And then I came to another conclusion at around myself and another musician from this area. We launched an album of fiddle music from this location. And at the CD launch, there was an elder of the Irish music community, this guy called Danny Meehan, who spent maybe about 60 years in London building the pavements and things of London and the streets of London, which I suppose a lot of Irish people did. So he's in his 80s and he has huge fingers. Three fingers of mine would be one finger of his. But he plays, oh, my God, the most delicate, sweet fiddle, you know. Oh, my God. Beautiful fiddle blend. After the CD launch, we all sat around and had a session together. And he was sitting right beside me, and he's like a hero. So I was in my element. And he leans over and puts the arm around me, goes, tara, you know, you can enjoy your own music now. And I was thinking, does he mean I don't enjoy my music? I could feel the spikes coming up again. I was like. Didn't want to be defensive there and then, but afterwards I was like, why did he. Did he? You know? And then I was like. I thought about it and I was like, what do I portray on the outside to others? And I thought, do you know what? I'm actually playing what I think others want me to play, not what I want to play or not what I think suits me best, but I'm playing what I think, what is expected of me, rather than just playing music because I love it.

Claire Waite Brown: 15:17

Yeah.

Tara Connaghan: 15:17

So that took me on a whole other journey.

Claire Waite Brown: 15:21

Tell me a bit about still, as part of education, your Erasmus trip to Finland. What does that actually mean? What did that entail for you?

Tara Connaghan: 15:30

As part of my university studies in my second year, at the end of second year, this notice was on the notice board. There was two places for studying classical music in different universities in England and one for studying folk music in Finland. And I was like, sure, I'll apply anyway. I think only a few of us applied, and I happened to have slightly better grades than the other applicants. And so they were like, right, you're off. You're off to Finland. And I was like, really? So I went over there on the 4th of January, 1998, and I spent my 21st birthday two days later in January. And the 6th of January is like a religious holiday over there. So everything was closed, everything. And it was snowing and. But it was lovely because my family came with me for the first couple of days. It was like a holiday. It was lovely. And they got me, you know, set up and packed into my new apartment and everything, and it was lovely.

Claire Waite Brown: 16:23

And how did you find the folk music of Finland in comparison to what you'd been doing thus far?

Tara Connaghan: 16:30

At the time, it was relatively not new, but it had kind of almost died out, apart from in one area, in the Kaustinan area, which is in the west kind of coast. And some of the west coast would be Swedish speaking as well. So they were really experiencing this new resurgence. So they had the folk Musikanza Musiki and they. The university there. And anytime I would tell people that I was studying cans and Musiki, which is folk music in Finland, they were like, what does that even exist? So still very kind of new. For a lot of people, it was brilliant. I loved being there. I loved the people. It really reminded me of Ireland maybe 30 years before that. So I had a really good time. I went to the different folk music festivals. There weren't very many at the time. There was a few.

Claire Waite Brown: 17:16

Did you manage to keep your Irish repertoire that you'd built up?

Tara Connaghan: 17:21

For the first three months when I was there, I didn't play a note. I didn't play a single note. And then there was a guy in the music department who was studying, who's maybe a couple of years ahead of me, and he said two or three days before St. Patrick's Day, he said, would you fancy doing a session in the Irish pub for St Patrick's Day? And I was like, yeah. He was actually had been to Ireland the year beforehand to my university, and had learned the Byron. So I had met him a couple of times, but I wouldn't really have known him very well. And so he had learned the Byron, which is the kind of the Irish drum, or the kind of like, it looks like a shamanistic drum. And he said, I've got two other guys that might come with us. The only criteria that that was necessary was that they had visited Ireland once.

Claire Waite Brown: 18:04

Well, there you go.

Tara Connaghan: 18:06

And that they also played an instrument of some description. So One of them was a rock guitarist and the other was a rock electric bass player. So I'm the only melody instrument. Okay. So they were all like kind of hammering it out. And the Byron is quite loud and everything's quite loud. And I'm like, oh, Jesus, I. I really have to play loud here. And then I was like, where's the second part of the tune? I'd lost all that repertoire because I wasn't playing. And I just thought it would always be there. Like all the second parts of tunes were gone, just evaporated. So I had to play the tunes that I knew really well and that I could find the second parts of tunes for the more and more I played. Some more would come back, but I didn't get them back until I went back to Ireland and went into sessions and played the tunes again and went, oh. And I thought, I can't let that happen to me again, no way. I've spent too long chasing those tunes. I cannot let that happen. So again back into every session possible so that I wouldn't lose them. And the same happened to me again

Claire Waite Brown: 19:07

after you said, don't let me again.

Tara Connaghan: 19:10

Covid, right. Prior to the two years that I've been kind of working on this, before that, I was. Had taken over my dad's construction company for almost 10 years. He passed away quite suddenly, so I kind of parachuted in and took over. Having not worked in the business since I was about 10 years of age, maybe I was an eager 8, 10 year old wanting to do all the accounts and everything. And so those 10 years, which is about 12, 13 years ago, I hadn't played an awful lot. And then Covid happened and we were in the construction industry. We were working for the national electricity company. So we only had seven weeks off and then we were straight back in because we were considered essential services for Covid, which was quite stressful. We were at the time doing a big job in Dublin and it meant I had to send people that had vulnerable people at home and I had to send them to Dublin. You know, at that time, most of the cases were centered in Dublin. It was just frightening because I. I didn't know was I sending them to their death or their family members that were vulnerable to their death. I tried to push back against those decisions with the electricity company, said, no, I'm not happy sending people to work like this. And they kind of insisted and pushed for it and said, look, we'll have to put measures in place. So that was tough. That was tough. But luckily nobody Got sick?

Claire Waite Brown: 20:32

Yeah. Are you still doing your dad's construction business?

Tara Connaghan: 20:37

No, that's gone. I'm much less stressful life now. So this is where the helping people in sessions, Irish music sessions, the etiquette in sessions, has taken over my life now instead. Yeah. Even though it was kind of a taboo thing, it's kind of a taboo topic, but at the same time, it's. Yeah, it's a much nicer space to be in because I'm like, I've loved Irish music sessions since I was, you know, 14.

Claire Waite Brown: 21:00

What's the taboo topic? What do you mean?

Tara Connaghan: 21:03

As in you're talking about people's behavior. When you're talking about etiquette, it's like, oh, are you pointing fingers at me? So I'm trying to destigmatize the words session etiquette. After I launched my podcast, I met with some people at different festivals, and they're like, oh, I kind of got in trouble over recommending your podcast. And I was like, really? And they said, yeah, it kind of blew up. Blew up in a conversation on WhatsApp. How dare you tell anybody how to play in a session? And the person was like, I didn't. I just thought it might be an interesting conversation to listen to. So it is taboo a little bit. That's why I liked the fact that it was going to be a podcast.

Claire Waite Brown: 21:41

So is that how it started? I want to address this situation. The way I'm going to do it is through a podcast. Or did you have to think about, how am I going to approach this?

Tara Connaghan: 21:52

I didn't think at all.

Claire Waite Brown: 21:56

That's what we like.

Tara Connaghan: 21:58

I wish I could have said, oh, it was strategic and everything. I have been teaching a lot, you know, for whatever, 35 years at different summer schools. And I love teaching adults. I'm not great at teaching kids, but I love teaching adults because I seem to be able to move the dial. I can appeal to their level. And I thought it was music performance anxiety that I was helping them with. It was always kind of like questions about joining sessions. And I always thought it was their performance anxiety. And so after I give up the construction company, I could see my brain going into mush. And I was like, I need to do something. I mean, I love. We have the vegetables and the polytunnel and dogs, and it was a. It's a lovely life. But my brain was starting to go into mush. I said, right, I might write a book or something. That's what I'll do. I'll write a book on Music performance anxiety. Because, you know, that's what I'm helping people with. I was like, great, that's it. That's what I'll do. And so one of my fellow students is a retired doctor, and I asked him if he'd be my medical advisor on my music performance anxiety book. And he said, oh, I'd love to. He said, that'd be a great idea. He said, but you know what? We probably need more than that. He said, the reason we have this music performance anxiety is because we don't know the rules of going into a session. We don't know what the etiquette is. There's so much uncertainty. So really, we could do with a book on that. And I was like, no way would I go near that subject. It's a vile subject. I've seen the horrible comments and nasty things that are online on threads and things in forums. No way. Kite me out. No way. And he's like, yeah, but, you know, really, that's the performance anxiety that we have. So, you know, and he kept talking me into it and talking me into it and eventually said, okay, but I can't do it. Just my opinion. It's like I have to get the opinion of the community at large so that it's not just a. Oh, Tara says. And Tara's the expert. And I was thinking I would put in for an arts council application for the book because it's music related, because I used to work in the arts council, so it'd be kind of okay with those kind of those grants applications. I used to be on panels for assessing them as well. So funnily enough, I can get lots of people grants, but I can't get. I'm so bad at getting my own. Because you're so close, you know, you're. You can't see the wood from the trees when you're so close. So I put in an application for writing a book on session etiquette. And in sort of buried in that application, I thought, when I'm having these conversations, I'll record these conversations. And some thought came into my head going, should I release them as a podcast? Yeah, sure. Just. That's what I'll do. Just throw it out, you know, it'll be so easy. Oh, so easy. Oh, my God. So anyway, I didn't get funding because I didn't have enough of the book. I think you have to have most of the book written. So I didn't get the funding and I thought, well, I've already started the journey in this podcast. I've told people about it or, you know, about the book. So I said, well, sure, I'll just have the conversations and I'll do the podcast first and then I'll release the book. And so the podcast kind of took over my life. That's a year ago.

Claire Waite Brown: 24:58

They do that, don't they? Podcast?

Tara Connaghan: 25:00

Totally. Oh, my God, the amount of editing hours, I was not prepared for that.

Claire Waite Brown: 25:06

Yeah, well, well done. Good for you. And it's done really well as well.

Tara Connaghan: 25:10

I've now had to pass over the editing to somebody else because I just don't have the time and that costs money. But I see it as a bigger project now. So it's not just a podcast project. It's about helping people in sessions. So I've been giving talks on the project. I've got a whole framework on how to go from nervous and not knowing how to enter an Irish music session space into being a bit more certain about how you can read those situations. It's just music making together. It's kind of how we can be a team, because it's a team sport, like sessions, whether they be a jam session or an Irish session, or an old timey session or Scottish music session, it's teamwork. It's how we work as a team together. So it's not about, look at me,

Claire Waite Brown: 25:58

I'm going to come back and ask you for some general advice. I'm obviously not going to pull your whole framework, but before I get that, I want to go back to what Danny said to you about, now you can play your own music. And you thought a bit about that. What became of that for you?

Tara Connaghan: 26:17

For me, it changed how I totally play music and how I heard playing music and how I enjoy music. So it took a while. That changing phase, when you're comfortable doing what you used to do, but you're trying to do something different and there's always that discomfort phase and it takes a while because there's been different times where like I need to change the, the bow grip or I need to change the way I hold the fiddler. I need to change and it takes a good year. And I got a new bow and that took a year. I think genuinely, things take a year to get comfortable. If you want to get to the unconscious competence phase where you're doing it unconsciously, you'd need at least a year. So it did take a while. But then I started noticing people going, oh my God, Ty, your music's really changed. And people started wanting to hear me. Of course, that was kind of like, why would anybody want to. You know me? You know, I just play with others and they're like, no, can we get you playing in a concert? And for me, I. The bet that I love is actually playing with others. I don't love playing by myself. When I play with others, it's like bouncing. There's little ideas going on when I'm here, something they do. I'm like, oh, oh. And so it's a challenge every time. Whereas when I'm playing by myself, my brain might only think of different variations so many times. Whereas I might hear somebody else just playing one note and like, right, I'm going to use that one. So I had this one concert where I was playing solo and whatever the sound guy had done with the. The monitor, it was almost as if I was playing with myself and I was like, oh, my God. So I was able to bounce off myself. Yeah, and that was so cool because normally, like, it's kind of a dry sound and so you're just hearing it here and then it's gone and there's nothing kind of back to you. So this was kind of like a. Oh. And there's a couple of other places where I've played like that in a. Like a little pub where it's really old and there's lots of hard surfaces and the pub hasn't changed in 80 years. And you've got those kind of tiled. Kind of old. Thin tiled surfaces and old wood. And there's just. There's a pattern about the. The music as well, but the aural sound that comes off that and that can't be replicated with new things. I think there's a. A new tone of new fiddles, there's new tones of new surfaces. And yeah, I do really prefer when it's. The music is bouncing off the walls and you can hear it back. And that's what makes it great like that. The. The venue is just as much part of the session as the musicians and the listeners.

Claire Waite Brown: 28:49

Brilliant. We've been. Obviously been talking very specifically about adults and what you're doing with session etiquette, approaching that nervousness, but on a more general scope, you know, not like particularly Irish sessions, but generally. What kind of advice would you give to anyone who wants to get involved in a group situation, specifically creatively being a member of a group?

Tara Connaghan: 29:16

Normally I advise people when they're going into a session, and I think it could be relevant to any kind of group setting, is that you would maybe go and watch for a couple of times, like a Couple of reconnaissance trips and then you get the welcome and then you. You start to get the belonging.

Claire Waite Brown: 29:32

People say that when you are doing creative activities, you get the. The hormone, but. But they're increased when you do it in a group.

Tara Connaghan: 29:41

Yeah.

Claire Waite Brown: 29:41

And I think that belonging is very much a part of that and can really increase your enjoyment of the creative activity itself.

Tara Connaghan: 29:49

Totally. Totally.

Claire Waite Brown: 29:50

Tara, it's been so super duper to chat with you today. Tell everybody how they can contact you. Give us the name of your podcast and all the details we need.

Tara Connaghan: 30:02

The podcast is called In Tune with Tradition Perspectives on Session Etiquette in Irish Traditional Music. So that's the long title. But In Tune with Tradition. Or even if you search for session etiquette wherever you look, you listen to podcasts. I'm there. Apart from YouTube. I don't have very much on YouTube. A couple of small clips. Because it's mostly an audio podcast. The website is session etiquette.com or irishmusicsessions.com so at the minute it's just like kind of a bit like a notice board, but it's going to be more educational where people can go, oh, I just want to figure out what I'm supposed to do before I go into a session. And they just can find it all there.

Claire Waite Brown: 30:38

Perfect. Thank you so much, Tara.

Tara Connaghan: 30:40

Thank you so much, Claire. It's been a pleasure.

Claire Waite Brown: 30:43

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