RE: Filk etiquette, et cetera

Hi y'all - This is Maura (since you can't tell from my email address, it's a household address). This is gonna be long - so get a drink and settle in.

As you may or may not know, Chuck and I are also attempting to take more of a leadership role in Pacific Northwest filking. We are in charge of filking at Norwescon next year and are actually getting off our duffs and starting to plan already. Enough to make you worry, huh?

This is a great time and place for the discussion of filk etiquette. As someone who has been filking for approximately 25+ years, I believe a lot of these issues need to be addressed in order for filking to keep the interest and growth it has only recently regained.

To swipe from John's post and add comments:

*******Filk Etiquette 101

The basic rule is "be polite". That covers not talking at inappropriate times, singing along only when invited to or when the circle-dynamic makes it clear it's acceptable, turning off tape recorders when asked (and asking before setting them up), and most points of acceptable circle-behavior.

I'd give the second rule as "support the circle-dynamic", with the basic working principle that in a circle, the mood of the circle as a whole is more important than the mood of any one performer. This is the counter to performance-hogging, the protocol that pertains to "following" a given song, and the principle that encourages performances by newcomers or visitors.*********

This is a good basic start on Filk 101. From these nicely conveyed rules, a lot of problems can be avoided. This applies to both veteran performers and newcomers, though. There are times when a little observation can show that someone is trying to get up the courage to perform something and then gets stepped on by someone else and doesn't get their courage up again. Been there - been stepped on but not intentionally.

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********Running Housefilks

Based on my (admittedly limited) experience, the average housefilk-circle more or less runs itself, and doesn't need a lot of moderating. The one major potential complication that can arise is "star syndrome", wherein one or two people end up doing most of the lead-performance duty--Julia mentions Steve Dixon in Seattle, but this also used to happen at Finity's End housefilks  down here in PDX, where Cecilia ended up doing the lion's share of playing and performing.

At least at Finity's End in those days, the problem wasn't that Cecilia was "hogging" the spotlight--it was that she had more songs than anyone else, and was either our only guitarist or the only one who knew a large body of material. Where this situation pertains, the solution is simply that other people need to come up with songs and/or learn to play instruments. (I took the former route; I still don't play an instrument, but I have written a lot of lyrics by now--and purely by dint of singing at filk circles, my voice is noticeably less rotten than it was when I started attending those housefilks. Practice helps.)**********

Housefilks are VERY dependent on who is hosting and the variety of people who attend. My moderation of housefilks seems to run to coordinating snacks and ordering the pizza.

Active filk hogging is relatively rare. Steve is also often the only person that can accompany someone else's singing or has enough material to play to keep things going.

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********Running Convention Circles

The first rule of running a convention circle is to decide what format you want to run ahead of time and specify it in the program book/pocket program; a sign on the door of the room also helps. This does not substitute for good circle-moderating (and it doesn't mean you can't change your mind if circumstances warrant, though this should be done with caution), but it is a big help. (The flip side of this is that a prospective circle-attendee should READ the program book/pocket program/sign on door.)

Most convention filk circles, whether Chaos or some form of Bardic, are large enough and sufficiently transitory that they do need a Moderator. The Moderator's job is basically threefold:

1. maintain a balanced and healthy circle-dynamic
2. ensure that everyone attending is made to feel welcome
3. explain What's Going On to newcomers/hotel security etc. as needed

Many, but not all, problems at convention filk-circles arise from less-than- skilled moderating. Orycon's present chronic difficulty is probably that its filk circle is frequently too big--but the solution, finding more program space so that two circles could be run, is both beyond a moderator's control and has some of its own drawbacks (how do you "seed" two circles such that both of them have a good balance of veterans and newbies?).********

Moderating of filk circles at conventions is a love-hate kinda thing. People want some structure to work within but a lot of times there is a fine line between providing a basic structure and insisting on a structure that just isn't working.

An example that comes to mind is a Bardic circle that is too large to even make it around the room once in an evening. The moderator has to pay careful attention to this and try to anticipate and plan for just about every eventuality.

I agree on the three moderator job functions but don't always agree on the execution of them. This includes the things I thought were great at the time but just didn't pan out.

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*******Filk Education

I do agree that there are few avenues whereby new filkers can "learn the rules" of present-day filk practice. This is one reason that the last Orycon ran a "filk 101" panel on Friday (on which I ended up being the Chief Panelist). More such panels at conventions would help, I think -- they allow for explanation of filk concepts outside the social pressures of a circle or performance setting.

I also note that there are very few places other than a circle that a would-be filker can go to learn "filk etiquette" and circle-styles. Most filk activity in cyberspace (that I've seen, anyhow) seems to occur between filkers who've already been "indoctrinated" and to assume basic background knowledge. Nor do I know of easily accessible hard-copy publications in this line -- XENOFILKIA, for instance, is also mostly for dedicated filkers and assumes you know what's going on. We could use, I think, two things: a flyer/brochure available at cons that lists and explains What Filk Is, and perhaps a regional filkzine with an interest in *promoting* filk as well as in sharing lyrics. (I am not volunteering to publish/edit such a thing--time and finances presently don't permit--but I'd certainly contribute.)

I'd also like to see a revival of the convention-tape filk industry. Most of the "major" filk labels seem to be moving strongly toward professional-style albums featuring studio production and individual artists or groups, and the limited exceptions aren't getting to enough conventions to put out a sufficient variety of product featuring a wide enough range of artists. (This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but one can always wish.) Convention tapes have distinct advantages to the novice filker--you hear a wide variety of material from a lot of different artists, and you get to hear what a *circle* is like, not just how the artists sound.********

Chuck and I have been talking about this type of thing. Most of us learned the rules by either growing up in filking (me) or by trial, error and substantial 1:1 mentoring (Chuck).

We are attempting to get buy off from Norwescon to next year have actual filking panels and such, in addition to the circles and concerts. Needless to say - I would appreciate lots of input on this!!! I know what I'd like to see but more info would always make things better for everyone. We have tried to get feedback before and were not able to get any substantial ideas so this last year ended up being free-for-all filking.

The basic ideas I've come up with so far are:
* Intro to filking

• Parody 101
• Filking Resources & Networking
• Songwriting workshops

These are in addition to concerts, a filk circle and maybe some other workshops if I can con people into running them.

I do already have a flyer that I was putting together on the different types of circles and what to expect as well as how to identify what type of circle you just walked in on. The back is the basic etiquette outline for filking. I will try to locate it on my hard drive at work and send it to this list if there is interest in seeing it. Again, the more info I get, the better it will work for everyone. (hint, hint!)

Chuck and I have also talked about setting ourselves a budget and trying to publish a Pacific Northwest filkbook. This wouldn't be a money-maker for us but we don't want it to be a loss either. I think the zine would be cool also. Let me think about whether I can promise time to that effort on top of all else and see what I think I can manage. Please let me know who is interested in this and who would be willing to contribute. No interest - no Maura. How about an online zine?

The convention tapes are harder as they require a lot of equipment that I just don't have. Let me talk to my friends that used to do live filk tapes and see what they suggest. Maybe I can con one of them into volunteering.

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********Filk Evolution

One reason some of these problems have arisen is that filk has evolved--it's not what it was in the Old Days when Off Centaur was Off Centaur, the backbone of the filk-tape industry was live-convention recordings, and the WESTERFILK songbooks had Biblical status.

Current filk *is* more performance-oriented than it used to be, both on the album-publishing side and in the circles. This is in part because there's now a much larger body of material out there--you literally can't take the words to everything to a con short of programming them into a computer database, and that takes more time and effort than most of us have, not to mention the cost of the notebook PC. (It also doesn't help that the WESTER-Bibles are out of print, and that the present state of affairs in filkdom likely precludes publishing anything resembling a new "Bible" series of songbooks, whatever title you might adopt for them.)

Another part of the process is that there's a substantially larger pool of musically talented filkers out there, and it's growing all the time. It's easy to run a group-singing circle when you have one or two guitarists and are mostly working out of a couple of fat songbooks; it's a lot harder when you have fourteen guitars, three harps, two flutes, two drums, two keyboards, and a trombone, and all of their owners have written original material. (Okay, I have yet to actually see a trombone at a filk circle, but you get the idea.)********

Filking has grown a lot since we used to sing in the men's room lounge at hotels after they threw us out of everywhere else we tried to sing. I have personally gone from being carried as a child from location to location to seeing the more performance-oriented styles that reign today. I enjoy all of it anyway.

The huge body of material out there also contributes to the fact that there are fewer 'sing alongs' for people. Not everyone knows every song anymore - they can't. There are also a lot more people who are writing their own music and the tunes are no longer as static as they once were. This is in addition to a lot people not writing new 'sing alongs'. Cat Fabers "Acts of Creation" is a great example of a new sing-along song.

A group-sing-along might be another good concert idea....hmmmm.

There is a lot of validity in the fact that we have a LOT of musically talented people out there who are getting better all the time. These people have a great time jamming along on a lot of things but are often not willing to risk offending the performers that they don't know. Personally, I find filk jams wonderful - they are usually very late at night when everyone is punchy and only the die-hard people are left (some comatose). This is something I have also been thinking about for Received on 05/06/96