A group of us had a great day yesterday with a tune workshop held by John Kirkpatrick - and an excellent day it was. As well as taking us through a clutch of his own tunes, John gave us some of his thoughts on playing tunes for dancing. One point that he made raised some question marks in my mind - and I wonder if 'Catters have comments on it.

John said that the playing of dance tunes in sets was a comparatively recent phenomenon and owed its origins to the start of recorded music In other words, as available recording times lengthened on 78rpm records, musicians would play more than one traditional tune to avoid monotony and add interest to the recording. Previous to that, one tune would suffice for one dance - and John also made the point that other dance cultures in Europe find the playing of tune sets for dancing ridiculous.

Now, who am I to argue with one of the best English traditional-style musicians on the scene - and yet, and yet, something in me wonders if this view is strictly correct. There wasn't time to debate this fully in the workshop, and I'm curious to hear what other people think.

Coincidentally, I've just downloaded a great album on the Smithsonian site called "The Heart Of Cape Breton" - which is 12 tracks of fiddle and piano music recorded live at a series of ceilidhs in Cape Breton in 2001. Here's the tune listing for a 9 minute track by fiddler Kinnon Beaton:

Michael Rankin's Reel/Pretty Marion/Wesley Gillis Reel/The Marquis Of Tullybardine/The Black Cock's Will/Colonel Thornton/Over The Isles To America/Johnny Muise's Reel/Tam Rae/The Weasel

How's that for a dance tune set!