Michael,

I'd love to have more time to come up with a detailed response to a very well thought-out post, but for the moment I'll stick to a few quick comments.

By all means listen to great guitar players, as many as possible, you've covered a lot of them in what you've said I could add some more (e.g Noelly Ryan from Danu, Daithi Sproule, Paul Brady when he does this, Alf Duggan - lives in Ennis and was the backer on Tommy Peoples' The Quiet Glen, Graham Dunne who (among other things) backs Niamh Parsons, Denis Cahill, Paul Doyle, Donncha Moynihan etc.etc.). I think its better to try to absorb what they do and encorporate it in to your own style rather than imitating any one of them. Arty and Steve are two great stylists but there are a lot of 'clones' of one or other around. This obviously comes with time and experience and if you can manage to play like Arty you're not off to a bad start. I was lucky enough to play regularly in sessions with Steve Cooney for a couple of years when he lived in Dublin and I learned a lot, but most of the time I don't sound much like him.

Even more importantly listen to as much music as possible, backers on other instruments and melody players. It probably helps to be able to play the melody, but to know the turn of the tunes is essential. I've seen some very good technical guitarists ruin sessions because they had no feel for the tunes. After a while you get to a stage where you can back a tune you've never heard before reasonably well, but nothing beats knowing the tune.

Always listen as you are playing in a session and pick up on the nuances, variations etc of the person actually playing the tune at the time you are backing them. There are things you can learn - chord progressions that sound well with tunes in certain keys, but don't say to yourself I know how to play this one and go off into your own little world ignoring what's going on around you - as you say the tune (as its being played) is all important.

There's nothing wrong with playing major chords - substituting incidental minors can sound brilliant if done occasionally and subtly. I have no problem with 7ths, major minor or otherwise, but if you use these things too much they become very difficult to listen to, and while they may impress some other guitar enthusiasts, they do very little for the session if over used - they're good to have in your armoury but quite often simple is best.

Traditional music can sound brilliant without backing - think before you open your case. Listening is fun too.

This was supposed to be short, but one last point - probably the most important of the lot. Traditional music has its own rhythms - a reel is not a piece of rock & roll, or jazz, or a country song. If you can get the rhythm and the volume (not TOO LOUD) right you'll be welcome in most sessions, although you meet the ocassional eejit who is just predjudiced against the guitar - learn to ignore them. Getting the keys and the chords and the changes right are important too, but rhythm is vital.

Oh yeah one very last point - make sure you're in tune with the session, not your electronic tuner. Instruments like pipes and concertinas are not always in concert pitch, and don't get me started about some flutes and whistles, so there's no point in being the only one in concert pitch - tune to the other musicians (although this is obviously a problem when they're not in tune with each other).