Well, you may not use the natural minor scale more than the others, M Ted, but I think you'll find that in a lot of folk music circles it's probably the more commonly used minor scale.

The value of theory is that it can help people make sense of what they do, and fit things together, and so make better music. But it should never ever limit what we do - and it is treated like that sometimes, so that certain ways of harmonising, for example, are ruled out as improper.

The people who wrote West Gallery music for example, were always getting sneered at on those kinds of grounds. I think the only things that matters ever are, first, does the way it sounds fit with what the music is trying to do, and second, is what it's trying to do worth doing.