Yeah, we were talking about that very aspect (radio play) tonight after the jam. My husband is a wonderful partner in looking at what has just occurred in any situation, and seeing what was going on underneath and why a thing worked. This lets us learn every time, and lets us be more intentional about things the next time around. We just keep wondering about a thing, till we see what there is to see.

What I ended up doing was asking my husband to sing on the song I wanted to work on, so I could shuffle the pieces around between him and a fiddler who had never payed lead before-- it was stunning, since the fiddlers he's used to leaning on were not here tonight. So he really grabbed hold and did a job for us all tonight. He felt like a million bucks and I banged out the time on my very loud autoharp, and I would let my husband know whether to take the verse or chorus to sing, and when. It was "Two Dollar Bill," and it worked great.

The other conclusion we drew is that it is not, in the final analysis, important at all how well someone plays or sings when leading-- because the most important thing is just that someone with good rhythm and half a clue about the tune LEADS it so everyone else present can have a great time screwing around on backup, trying different things. If the one on lead does a stellar job, we concluded, THAT will be noticed, but if they do LESS than a stellar job, no one will care because most people in the jam are listening to themselves! *G* And I learned a hard but key lesson-- the Jam Leader outranks any Oldtime Police present! (Any police in attendance can just lead it their way next time-- we always bow, after the Beginner Jam, to anyone present who is more skilled than we, if s/he wants to take over leading the songcircle.)

Anyway it was great being right between these two guys, my husband and the fidddler, as they tossed it back and forth, and I was unobtrusive enough that they will do it more seamlessly, on their own, next time.

We also got a brand-new lap dulcimer player lead out "Mary Had a Little Lamb." It's the one piece he has learned, because he just started playing.) He finally GOT it that you do not pause before starting the tune over-- a lady sang with him quietly at his elbow so he could know to keep going-- and he was thrilled to be given a chance to play for so long, and we all joined in with enough variation, verse to verse, but very quietly, that we made that thing sound pretty damn good!

It's wonderful, getting a chance to draw people into the fun. Makes me mad no one has been working with folks here till now. What a waste!

Thanks again, all, for the hope and encouragement. About a dozen new players, and a couple of old fogies, benefited. I will never forget that fiddler finding out he could really PLAY, while his wife and two very little girls watched daddy shine, and the younger girl droned along with me, watching my fingers on the chord buttons to see where daddy was taking us all. BIG eyes! Super!

"Folk Music and the Meaning of Life"???? We got that, too!

~Susan