Monday, 4th February 2008

Dear Readers, here we are two days after Candlemas and did we celebrate anything? I bet we didn't.

The Session Diary is read widely as you know, not just here in Kent but further afield like Sussex and beyond. Rumours circulate that it is read abroad as well.

When I first envisioned the diary, I thought of a cross between the Archers and some comedic writer with more talent than I, such as Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams. For the laws of dramatic effect, ironic narrative and post-neo-reconstructionist chuckles sometimes the situations are exaggerated. Just a tad. I also make a point of only naming where praise is due, never when foibles are being exposed - we all have them. Don't we?

But it does raise an interesting question which I've mentioned before. I have only played in sessions for 10 years and have a limited experience of the full gamut of sessions although I have been involved with Folk in varied capacities (Morris, Longsword, Rapper, Folk Clubs, Country Dance) for some 36 years. My musicianship is not of a professional (classical) standard and is constrained to some extent (not totally) by what is commonly played and the keys that the commonly played are played in most frequently. I wonder if that describes a large proportion of sessioneers?

There is certainly a class difference between professional musicians who can whip a tune around the cycle of fifths without blinking and arrange an augmented or diminished finish on the fly, and the rest of us who tend to pick up tunes as they are played, in the key they are played - in the old style of the oral / aural tradition I guess. Should the two mix or is it a recipe for disaster?