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I visited a singing a few years ago that did not last long. A couple of singers had RUS, but any song was allowed. Along comes a guy with an electric guitar who totally did not get the idea. His idea was to turn on his amp and a whole string of little black boxes while he strove for a sound exactly like Eric Clapton, with no regard with what everybody else was doing. Pretty much killed the fun for everybody.

If there had been ground rules, maybe this situation could have been avoided and the group would have continued. Having an agreed-upon songboook can provide such a set of ground rules. RUS serves this purpose well.

I still talk to the lady who started this group.   She started it because she liked having people over. It was about socializing as much as it was about music.

It seems to me that the spirit behind RUS has an implicit social element as well as a musical one.

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