At the last count around 110 people have played in our 'Improvers Tune Session'. We play together every other week and most weeks around 20 people turn up, a core of around 10 then a variable group of 10 or so.

When we play for a Ceilidh all 110 are invited (!) and generally between 15 and 25 turn up. We have our own Tune Book and a 'Dance Version' that contains a list of 20 dances and pairs of tunes for each dance.

As you can see we are quite well organised. We have discussed tempo at some length. The lead melodeon takes us in to each dance with one A or a few bars and off we go. This usually works the main problem being speeding up.

Do any bands actually use a metronome to establish appropriate tempo or is it all 'seat of the pants'? Do established bands simply evolve appropriate tempo?

Thanks for all help so far