Filk circle

The filk circle is a song circle populated by filkers.

Introduction[]

The filk circle is similar to the song circles that can be found in many folk music communities. What makes it special to filk is not the format or the songs, but rather the importance that filkers place upon it. It is a place where every participant is welcome to contribute in their own way, and where everyone is both a listener and a performer.

The circle is both a social space and a space for music, and the balance between conversation and music-making can be fluid and at times tricky. It is neither uncommon nor gauche for a veteran filker to call a halt to an overlong conversational digression because a shy neo is unsuccessfully trying to take their turn. The community even has a standard phrase for that purpose: “Filker up!”

Note that the article primarily uses the word “song”, but other types of performances are also welcome. Poetry, spoken word, and instrumental pieces are all reasonably common.

Filk circles are mainly held at filk cons, gencons, and housefilks.

Etiquette[]

The following might not cover every filk circle, but they can be a good set of guidelines for most of them.

Respect the people performing! Let the conversation pause whenever someone is ready to perform.
If you need to leave the circle, try to wait for a pause between performances. If you need to leave at once, do so as discreetly as possible. Use similar consideration when entering the circle, if doing so could be distracting.
Don’t be a filk hog, i.e. someone who performs every chance they get. It is at least as important to listen in the circle as it is to perform. Put another way, it is a shared space, not a performance space.

Advice for a new filker[]

It is OK to be in a filk circle and "only" listen. It is OK to sing songs by other people. It is OK to sing songs from outside filk—indeed any song sung in the filk circle is usually considered filk, at least for the duration. It is OK to sing songs written by other people in the circle. It is OK to be un-practiced.

Formats[]

The practice of filk circles arose spontaneously, and thus circles took different forms. Some filkers have a preference for one format or the other, but there is no one right or wrong way to hold a filk circle, as long as it is clear how it is to be run and the participants are happy with it.

Bardic[]

A classic turn-taking order. Someone opens the circle, and then the person next to them (usually clockwise, i.e. to the left) presents their song in turn, and so on. Anyone who does not wish to perform is free to pass. Bardic circles arose in California, but can also be found in other places. They are common at Society for Creative Anachronism events, whose attendance often has some overlap with the filk community.

One common format in bardic circles is pick, pass, or play, these being the three actions available on one's turn. “Pass” and “play” are self-explanatory; to “pick” is to request a certain song or type of song, either from a particular performer or from the circle at large.

Characteristics of bardic[]

The benefit of the bardic circle is that it has an easily understandable structure that gives everyone in the circle a place to perform. This works very well for circles of up to a dozen people or so. It can become static or cumbersome, however, especially with many participants. When someone joins a bardic circle, their choice of seat determines their place in line; therefore sitting in one place or another may, in a very large circle, make the difference between singing one song and singing no songs.

Chaos[]

Chaos, or “midwest chaos,” arose in the American Midwest. The participants are still seated in a circle, but the order is entirely free-for-all: after one performance finishes, the next performer is whoever starts performing next.

Characteristics of chaos[]

A chaos circle is very conducive to “followers”—songs that connect to a preceding song in some way. Participants in a chaos circle may spontaneously find themselves playing several computer songs in a row, or Lord of the Rings songs, or cat songs, or songs to the tune of “Banned from Argo,” or any such thing. Chaos circles are thus adaptable and energetic, but they can be difficult for shy performers, especially neos. Since everyone must speak up to claim a turn, someone not of an assertive nature may be passed over unintentionally by the other performers. The flip side of this problem is the “filk hog”—an overly assertive performer can claim a turn too often and not give the other participants their fair share of the time.

Variants[]

Various attempts have been made to find a way to harness the energy of the chaos circle while giving everyone a chance to contribute.

Moderated chaos[]

A common format, especially at large cons where there are many filkers who might not know each other already. The circle has a moderator who has the job of keeping track of the queue, and filkers who want to sing ask to be entered into it. The moderator can either be someone assigned to the role or an experienced filker who takes the role as it is needed. Apart from keeping track of the queue, the moderator is usually also on the lookout for voices who haven’t presented or performed anything, and will regularly invite those to participate.

Poker-chip bardic[]

A format where every participant in the circle (who wishes to perform) is handed a poker chip or other token. When they want to perform, they toss the poker chip into the circle or hand it to the moderator. When all tokens have been used up, they are redistributed and the process begins again. In this way each participant has a turn every round, but the order in the round varies as in the chaos circle. Kathy Mar is known for hosting poker-chip filks.

Themes[]

It is common for a circle to focus on a “theme”—a specific topic, style, or mood. Singalong circles and multilingual circles are also considered to be themed.

Themes for circles can either arise organically during the filksing or be decided beforehand. Circles with planned themes are often scheduled early in the evening and then change over to unthemed circles as the evening progresses. As an example, the Helsinki Worldcon in 2017 started its evening circles with themes: “Songs of liberation”, “Songs of sea and space”, and “Songs of the forest”. All themes could be interpreted as the participants saw fit.

A good theme helps to get off a circle to a good start, since participants can come with one or two songs already ready and prepared. When there are several filk circles starting at the same time (common at filk cons), theme circles also serve to diversify them in a non-rigid way.

Online filk circles[]

Still being written, and probably deserves its own page too.

Online filk circles arose, or at least became popular, during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when all the in-person cons were called off indefinitely.

Format[]

Online filk circles are held in various ways, but the platform that quickly became the standard is the Zoom videoconferencing application. The usual procedure is to designate a circle moderator who also is the host of the Zoom session. All participants but the current performer and, between performances, the moderator, generally remain muted. Filkers in attendance will form a queue by using the “raise hand” functionality of the application. The moderator can see the order in which participants raised their virtual hands, and calls on the next person in line after a performer finishes.

There have been experiments with running bardic circles online. In that case each participant prefixes their name with a number, usually assigned as they enter the room, and that number determines their place in the circle. Listeners usually remove the number and add “pass” or “listener” to their name.

Zoom was originally meant for meetings and voice conversation, not music. However, it is possible to make it suitable for music. Steve Macdonald has an excellent guide:

Zoom for Music

Recurring online filk circles[]

Characteristics of Zoom[]

A Zoom filk circle has certain advantages. The queue system is orderly, both allowing shy filkers to easily sign up for a turn and allowing energetic filkers to take turns more often than retiring filkers. The listeners can talk among themselves via Zoom text chat without disturbing the performer. A performer whose turn is coming up can do some quick rehearsing with their microphone muted. Perhaps most importantly, it has led to strong connections between people far apart, and the chance for lone filkers to become part of the filk community.

To offset those advantages are notable disadvantages. Issues with connection, bandwidth, microphones, and audio compression mean that the sound quality can vary widely, and even in the best circumstances it never sounds quite as good as live music. There can be no singing along, due to the latency inherent in the platform. Chatting between songs is not as natural as it is in a circle in person, even if some online filk circles attempt to encourage it. When Zoom links are shared publicly, they can tempt “Zoom bombers” who intentionally disrupt strangers' video calls.