Jon - I think your silver spire midi is just right maybe a touch on the slow side.

I disagree that all music is slower for dancers than in sessions. I have played for many dancers and find that it varies, depending on the dance. The last ceili I played at we played hornpipes for a set dance our guitarist thought it was way too fast for hornpipes. The caller said it was a bit slow.

YOu can get immediate feedback by watching the dancers and adjust the speed accordingly - usually they let you know (although in our set dance sessions when the dancers insisted on going through a protracted set without stopping (while were dying of thirst and guinness sitting there in front of us) Wed play foxhunters at breakneck speed until they bounced off the tables.

I have recordings of Tulla Ceili band among others and was amazed at how fast they played some tunes (eg Lad O'Beirnes). Obviously for dancing you cant put in too many ornaments (it usually too fast and not necessary) dancers tend to like straight ahead tunes anyway.

For scottish country dances which I played in a band for several years (they tend to play around 120 for jigs and reels) For English rapper (sword dance) danced to Irish jigs they wanted them at a ridiculous 145)

We had a couple people from Riverdance in our pub doing a demo and we played Merry Blacksmith at breakneck speed and it was still too slow for them.

even the sessions around town tend to be different speeds depending on the abilities. (the beginner group tends to play very fast and speeds up all the time (its easy to play fast while playing only half the notes) and the most advanced group plays on the slow side.

I like to be somewhere in between - but speed can be a problem - its no fun when its a race. Also the bodhran player should never set the speed- rather hold the group back from speeding up. Cheers Petr.