Most of our collected traditional music is, by necessity, in the style of the late 19th century - either collected then, or collected in the early 20th century from people who learnt their songs much earlier. Accounts of traditional singing at that time (such as Bob Copper's books) suggest that singing then was mostly not in the context of performance with an audience, but simply a part of life. People sang while they worked, for example, which automatically precluded any form of instrumental accompanyment. Instrumentalists did exist, of course, but mainly played for dances - and not all the instruments available were suitable for playing while you sing (Bob Copper's father Jim played clarinet, for example).

Most traditional singing we know of appears to have been solo - families such as the Coppers were rare - so any intrumental accompanyment would have to be provided by the singer. Bob Roberts the bargeman is an example - one job where you would have time to sit and play along with your own singing.

Things is different now. I play accompaniments to my own singing, and for my wife Carole. 'Fills' in the sense of a couple of bars between each verse (is that what you meant, gleaner?) are essential with most songs, for the singer to draw breath and get ready for the next verse. An unaccompanied singer would often pause briefly at that point, for the same reason, but you can't really do that convincingly with an accompaniment - it's best to make it a structured thing.

Instumental padding, used to make a song longer without the bother of writing an extra verse, are another thing altogether. Most traditional songs have more than enough words to last, a lot of more modern songs have about 90 seconds of words, padded out to three minutes with instrumentals or by simply repeating the first line or song title over and over. Lazy writing, in my opinion, but hey - what do I know?

Andrew