May I recommend the Lewes Favourites tunes, which were put together by a few people wanting to learn tunes popular in local English tunes sessions? Most of the work was done by Andy Warburton, who deserves a lot of credit. You can download the tunes from the Lewes Saturday Folk Club website download page in abc, Noteworthy Composer and MIDI format. This is free. You can also buy them as a book with illustrations, photos of the habitats where they flourish, historical and anecdotal details and a foreword by Dr. Vic Gammon (£10 plus £1 p&p).

The collection arose out of monthly free practice sessions for any instrument played to any standard. These Lewes Favourites practice sessions are still running in Lewes, Sussex on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month at the Elephant & Castle. We play the tunes over and over again, slowly, so that people can pick them up by ear whether or not they ready music. It's a self-help group, not a course of instruction; experienced players may turn up with an instrument that's new to them, as may people who've been playing for years or have only just started. We don't stick to the book; people bring tunes that they've heard recently and want to learn. It's great practice for playing with other people.

For some years now, the Spare Parts Concertina Band has run English tunes practice sessions at the Chippenham Festival and other festivals as well. We generally get about 50 people at each session and they are good fun.

Valmai (Lewes)