I've always loved singing, but only in private until recently. I used to spend hours upstairs as a kid with a guitar. Then I sort of went off it after I got married and my husband started telling people 'oh she can only do Paul Simon songs' - which I took to be a putdown (tho he tells me now that it wasn't intended that way). Then we started going to folk festivals etc, and I sort of vaguely cherished the idea of joining in a campfire singing sort of thing - so I used to take my guitar (which never got played). Then last year at the Guildford festival we enticed a friend of a friend back to our van for a curry, and so that e could play my guitar (he was away from home & missing hes). When we got back we found that he could only play if we had some sheet music for him to play from - which of course we didn't. So he fiddled about a bit & tuned it up. Then I grabbed it off him, and decided to have a go. I played & sang til about 4am (they couldn't shut me up once I started...). That was all it took really - just someone to start me off, and a few people to be nice about it... Since then I have expanded my repertoire (mostly from the Dig Trad dbase) & practiced a bit at singarounds & bought myself a lovely new guitar (the other one was from when I was at school - but has been improved a bit by sanding down on the expert advice of Bert (cheers)). So - this year I shall be singing away next to an old blue J4 camper van at various festivals throughout the South of UK. And thanks to all the advice & bits & pieces of info I have been picking up from the Mudcat I am improving & just generally really enjoying myself. (That 'weird chords' thread is great, & I have been applying that to just improvising stuff - it makes my guitar sound like a dulcimer-type easternish thingy [ish]). So I am not much beyond the 'first time' stage really - and the Mudcat has really been an important part of the process - so cheers'm'dears.

Kris