Well Steve, we started as a "Beginners Session" based around ones we had been to at Whitby and Shrewsbury. We created our own tune book initially with 20 tunes in a cardboard stand a bit like those calendars that stand up by themselves.

3 years later we have 100 tunes and a stand made out of ribbed plastic like that used for Estate Agents signs - because we use the ribbed plestic used for Estate Agents signs. This means the music, 2 tunes ona page of A4, stands up to be seen at some distance by those who can read. We also share the music via pdfs, books and ABCexplorer.

Who ever comes through the door plays what ever they can. We have squeezers, fiddles, whistles, banjos, guitars, ukes, smallpipes, ulinian pipes, 'cellos, a harp, bongos played with brushes, tambourines, bodhrans, hammered dumcimers, trombone, a clarinet and promise of more brass. We play every other week and have a Ceilidh Band of between 16 and 30 who play mostly accoustically.

Each fortnight around 20 peeople turn up and we play whatever people fancy - mostly from our tune book.

We have a range of compitance from as good as it gets to a bit irritating. With so many it doesn't matter much if some people don't play very well. We generally have so much fun that tolerance of those not so good is the order of the day. Our general feeling is that most of us are getting batter and collectively we are playing better together.

Spoons? Fine. Does this music need percussion? It's dance music it has historically had percussion. Does it matter? No, not to us but a good drummer helps with keeping a steady tempo.

Best wishes

L in C#

Songs and tunes at The Beech