You know, Conrad, I really don't recognize the world that you are describing, and I wonder if it is folk festivals that you are attending or something else.

Essential parts of every folk festival I have ever attended or participated are both performances and workshops. The workshops usually involve a number of people who perform folk songs, and in the various workshops offered at festival, these performers (many whom make their living singing concerts and such) and experts (such as song collectors and ethnomusicologists) discuss any and all aspects of folk music, with many of the workshops for the purpose of teaching songs and how to perform them to anyone who wants to attend the workshop. As a young, aspiring performer, I learned a great deal from the many workshops that I attended. Now, I participate—with other performers— in giving workshops so that others may learn, and hopefully, benefit from my experience.

Conrad, this is a common practice in all fields of music. A famous cellist gave a concert in Seattle recently, and a cello-playing friend of mine attended a two-day workshop/master class given by this cellist. Some years ago, I attended a week-long workshop given in Seattle by classic guitar teacher Aaron Shearer, and a few years later, attended a master class given by classic guitar virtuoso Pepe Romero.

This sort of thing is a common practice among many performers including—especially—singers of folk songs.

What you are asking for is already being done, and has been for a very long time.

Don Firth

P. S. And passing out song sheets at a concert is both inappropriate and unnecessary. Have you ever seen a Pete Seeger concert? He doesn't need any song sheets to get an entire audience singing along like a trained choir within a few minutes after he starts. And as far as learning the songs, Conrad, you do have to do some of the work yourself! The vast majority of the songs that I know (a few hundred, enough to sing several full concerts in a row without repeating any songs) I have learned from song books (of which there are many hundreds) and recordings of other singers.

So--spend a buck. Buy a few records and a song book or two. Learn songs from them like most people do.