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Johnny's Blog....

6 September 2010

Sessions... Going to a few sessions this year I was interested in where the musicians sourced their tunes. Quite a lot were either non readers of music, or said they ‘Read the dots badly’. It seems such a shame when there are so many collections available, at reasonable prices. These feature melodies of all kinds and grades of difficulty from easy waltzes to fast intricate reels.

Thank goodness for recording machines. It does rely on nicking tunes from other folks, who then can affect choices, or narrow the ranges of material played.

Composers of tunes might have a hard time getting their melodies played, unless they leap in before others have started!

My own first tune book has been out for some years now, so to help non-readers, I’ve put together a CD of the contents, as played by Chuck Fleming on the Fiddle, Peter Wood on the Concertina, and myself on the Accordeon. (See shop to order book and CD,’The Difficult Fish’, or get in touch with me by phone or e-mail) So you can put the music up and pretend to read the dots, having picked up the tunes by ear....

The earliest sessions we had up here in the North East were at the Bridge Hotel on Saturday lunchtimes in the early 60s. They combined the use of songs, and tune sets which meant that the musicians appreciated good songs, and the singers learnt to listen to nice melodies. Sadly, the scene has fragmented over the ensuing years so that a song in a music session is rare. However Chris and I have been resurrecting the concept at Whitby Festival these last few years with much approval from both sides.