I'm a great lover of "mixed" sessions and, by "mixed", I mean sessions which are not devoted exclusively to one type of music such as Irish or English or Old-time. I have to say, though, that one way to be out on your own when starting a tune in a session in England is to slip into a key like F or Bb - and quite often it seems that the whole evening is spent playing in D or G.

Leafing through my assorted collection of tune books old and new, it's quite clear that there was a much greater variety of keys used in the playing of older generations. The early 19th century Newcastle fiddler James Hill frequently played hornpipes in Bb and F - perhaps showing his Scottish birth origins in doing so - and the latest addition to my collection, "The Winders of Wyresdale" has a number of excellent tunes in the flat keys. For a tenor guitar (tuned CGDA) player like myself, these tunes are a godsend and break the hegemony of the usual keys.

I think there are perhaps two contributions to the narrowing range of keys. One is the rise and use of the free reeds - concertinas and melodeons - with more restricted key ranges. (Restricted in this country, it seems, because I've heard French melodeon players grumble about the English propensity for D and G and C). The other might be the reluctance or inability of some violin players to progress out of first position, though this is arguable. I would also say that I know some fine Duet concertina players (Irish Bishop and Ralph Jordan for example) who have mastery of a wide range of keys, but these players are relatively thin on the ground.

I should add that the majority of players I meet at my regular monthly session in Ditchling are fine players (some of them are in the band that I play in!), and that the sessions themselves are great fun. But even we joke sometimes of an evening with remarks like "here's another one in D..." and, if you listen to Scottish music, music from Cape Breton, music from France, for example, there seems to be more key variety.

Is all this worth bothering about? Well, I believe every key has its own resonance and playing a bunch of tunes in different keys gives colour to an evening.