No Dave, I'm not in favour of lowering standards, far from it. What I'm against is newbies being denied the opportunity to learn to perform IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE. It's not the same thing as noodling to yourself in your front room - I didn't learn that skill by noodling in my front room and I doubt you did either. I learned by actually getting up in front of people, gritting my teeth, clenching my buttocks and DOING it. Fortunately I was encouraged, not auditioned, so when I bummed a few notes, fluffed a chord or corpsed a line I was told "Don't worry, do another song later - you'll be OK", not told to go away and don't come back until I was word and chord perfect.

One of the worst fears for a new performer is that of being judged and found wanting, 'not good enough' or 'not doing the right kind of material', and I fear that it's a put-off for some would-be's who, given the right encouragement and opportunity, could turn into accomplished performers. Walking away from them isn't the way to bring them on, is it?

There was a time when Nic Jones, Martin Simpson and Martin Carthy couldn't play very well. I wonder if they were told to bugger off and practice in their bedrooms and don't come back till they were good enough! :-) :-)

As I said Dave, just my opinion. I think we both want to arrive at the same destination, we just disagree on the best road to get there, that's all.