I am told that playing two or three tunes twice or three times over in a set is relatively recent and stems from the early recordings of Jimmy Shand. Early recordings by Jimmy Shand were of one tune on each side. HMV, the record company found that much of his sales were people his records to learn the tunes. HMV reasoned that if they put more tunes on each record, then with more tunes to learn on each record, more people would buy the records. Up to that time, a dance would be danced to a single tune played as many times as was necessary to complete the dance, but the practice of a set of tunes as played on records crept into playing for dancing and into sessions. I am told by a correspondent on another forum that in American Contra dancing it is still normal practice to play a single tune for each dance. Perhaps USA Mudcatters could confirm this.

I would like to see sessions play single tunes more times through. If you are unsure of a tune you need at least three times to properly get it. If it is a tune you don't know, playing it five or six times gives you a good chance of learning it. Even if you immediately forget it when you get outside. LOL

As for Irish tunes, it is the over decorated diddly diddly reels I don't like - the just become a stream of notes, however good the underlying tune. More restraint is needed with decoration, especially from whistle players to make the tunes effective.