As usual, the answer is "it all depends": on your individual preferences, abilities, motivation, & available time. And who you're singing with, where, & why. Little Dorritt seems to be singing in informal song circles, not performing on a stage. So the standards should be very flexible & tolerant, while still encouraging growth. Unfortunately, there is always going to be some group pressure, even if it's unintentional or well meaning. I hope these people were just making "suggestions" to Little Dorritt, & not being "folk nazi's".

The purpose of song circles is to enjoy singing & listening to songs. To some, it's a more serious hobby, or they take traditions more seriously, but they shouldn't impose their standards on anyone. Unaccompanied traditional English songs are usually sung from memory. In the UK, it's partly because alot of people were raised in that tradition, & they've known some of the songs for 40 or 50 years. In the U.S., the type of people who are interested in unaccompanied traditional English songs tend to take their singing more seriously than people who sing chorus songs from a book. But there should always be room for people who are doing their best at any kind of singing, & their efforts should be enjoyed & appreciated.

I agree, though, with the suggestion that you try to memorize a few of your favorite songs that you already know fairly well (& keep your lyrics in your pocket just in case...). It will show the more serious singers you're making an effort. And you'll probably be surprised how easy it is to gradually build up a modest reportoire of memorized songs. But once you've memorized them, you need to sing them on a regular basis to keep them memorized, or just brush up on them before you think you'll be singing them again.

I thought I had a limited memory of about 5 songs, & once I learned a 6th, the 1st would leave my mind. So I gave up memorizing. Then I took Mike Agranoff's "Putting Down the Book" workshop on a Saturday, & on Sunday one of the participants sang a song she had just memorized in 24 hours. I was so inspired by her, & helped by a few of Mike's memory tricks, that I started memorizing songs. And guess what? The more songs I memorize, the more I remember. Memory is like a muscle, it needs to be trained, & then exercised on a regular basis. But only if you have the time & energy. You have to prioritize your life, & if it would add more stress to memorize more than a couple of songs, then that defeats the purpose of singing. But you may also notice that it's more fun to sing the memorized songs, because you can really let loose & sing your heart out.

I didn't mean to write with so many "should's". But this is a hot issue in Boston. A friend summed it up this way: "With the Boston folk society, I feel guilty if I lead a song that's not in Rise Up Singing, & with the NY folk society, I feel guilty if I do lead something from Rise Up Singing". In the regularly held Folk Song Society of Greater Boston (FSSGB) sings (not to be confused with the Boston Folk & Traditional Singers Club (BFTSC) that Barry Finn speaks of, & Dan Milner, aka Liam's Brother, was recently a special guest), anyway, the FSSGB's sings have become so dependent on singing from Rise Up Singing, with everybody singing everything (including songs they don't know), & no one leading much, that the more serious singers stopped coming. And people from the Boston Society who go to a NY Society event are terribly intimidated & sometimes insulted. Neither situation is perfect, but then what human organization is? Anyway, in Boston, I'm starting a monthly Sunday afternoon sing for the "Serious Singers" who can't go to the BFTSC's more traditionally run sings late at night in a slightly smokey pub. It should be a very interesting situation to see how the less & more "serious" FSSGB singers handle this new situation. It's a fine line to walk, to meet the needs of the serious singers, & to "grow" the potentially serious singers, without offending the less serious singers. All we can do is do our best...

I'd love to hear if anyone is having similar problems in their local song circles & folk clubs. Start a new thread if you think it's a hot topic... Thanks, Judy