I think the strength of CCE in Britain is maybe a result of the number of Irish immigrants to British cities beginning after the war, ie where the work was! London, Birmingham, Leeds in particular- at a time when Irish mmusic was emerging from a dark period in Ireland. Glasgow fits that nicely.
TMSA was set up on the model of CCE, although with much less state support & a purely Scottish coverage. It does great work & with a less prescriptive approach to the music- many fine musicians have mixed feelings about it.

Tattie, I get where you're coming from & why you use the 'dots' but your mention of a number of musicians playing the 'right chord' is an illustration of the question at the head of this thread. Re workshops, I think the 'dots' would be a rarity at an English music workshop and non-existent in Ireland, so there's another basic difference.
Mind you, Captain O'Neill thought enough of the dots to compile his 1001 tunes!

   As for Jimmy Shand, I really meant he was the best I've heard in my lifetime. I'm an admirer of Will Starr- also William Hannah, the Wypers etc but before my time really





, it does great work & with a rather less prescriptive attitude to the
















The TMSA is a fine organisation but hardly in the same category as CCE, a worldwide if somewhat prescriptive in its attitudes- TMSA is much less so, IMHO, and deserves much more support from Holyrood.