ABSTRACT
The traditional Irish music sessions are a very distinctive form of social music making that has spread worldwide. Most major cities in Europe, North America and Australasia have at least one traditional session where Irish musicians gather to play together, almost always in pubs and bars, and, as such, they have become an important part of pub culture. The writer and musician Barry Foy offers up the following characterizations of Irish music sessions: There's no jamming in Irish traditional music. The chapter examines the ethnomethodological piece to tackle the practices of music-making. Sudnow, for instance, provides a seminal account of the embodied practices of playing the piano in his book entitled Ways of the Hand. It unravels not just the work of musicians as musicians, but as musicians who are also actively engaged in the work of going to the pub and hanging out with friends.
