"There's a big difference between being able to follow a tune led by someone else, and being able to start one off yourself and keep going even if hardly anyone joins in, or some people join in loudly and inaccurately. "

Thats absolutely what I was finding Valmai, and why I didn't have the confidence to do the leading bit. I was able to hang in there on some of the simpler tunes - playing chords only, there is no point even trying to play tunes at speed on an autoharp as a) unless you are Mike Fenton or Bryan Bowers it can't be done and b) even it you could do it the notes would not be audible. I was still getting lost in some tunes that were modal. Once I played what I thought fitted quite well to (I think) a fiddle solo, at first. Then a guitar joined in and I found that I had been playing totally the wrong chords. I can hear what I believe to be a set of right chords - doesn't make me right, as so often there are many ways to chord a tune! And the point about recurring phrases in different tunes actually makes it harder for me to learn them - I don't know how all you fiddlers remember which is which. I like the idea of stand up chord books - and the PEGRAM and Lewes links were wonderful. But there wasn't really time in that session to start flicking through song books, even if I knew what the tunes were called, and I, with one exception, never did. I also love the idea of beginners/improvers sessions, and if anyone knows of any in the Nottingham are, I would be really interested.