The thing is Jim - this attitude you have - believe me is not confined to folk music.

Its a sort of naively quantitative view of things. The more notes you hit cleanly, the faster you play...

i think maybe the Suzuki method started it in Japan. Fifty kids in a room all learning ... something or other.

There are guitar institutes churning out heavy metal, jazz guitarists..god alone knows what else. But they all have twelve-year-old prodigies boring the arse off anyone unfortunate enough to get trapped into listening.

Its all over the world and basically it stinks. Of course you say, very good, wonderful! Cos they're kids and proud parents and its nice to be nice.

But privately I wonder which lunatic thought this mad scenario up. Basically I think its just another aspect of that hydra headed monster - the music business. Someone's making a dollar in there somewhere.