As a mainly traditional English folk musician, I always seek out the best spot to join in at a session and play some traditional English tunes with other folk musicians and we found a really great hideaway in the Half Moon pub snug, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Crediton, Devon during the Crediton Folk Festival 2012 to play our tunes last weekend (13th - 15th April). It worked out well. Singers, unaccompanied or with acoustic instruments, were at the other end of the bar (behind a door) and the folk clubs and concert artists were on the other side of the pub.

However, I'm constantly surprised that many musicians and members of the public don't know about pub music sessions or how to get involved in one, listening or playing, which is a shame because they are a lot of fun for many reasons.

If you are an acoustic amateur musician, or would like to be, folk music tune sessions are a great way to get started playing with other musicians. Instruments played in the sessions include all types; it depends on who turns up. At this session, there were concertinas, melodeons, piano accordions, whistles, recorders, a bodhran, my soprano sax (not playing in the video because I was doing the recording) and probably others I've forgotten.

The tunes are simple and generally played through about three time before switching to the next one. Anybody can start a tune and in most traditional English tune sessions, musicians who have just started a tune will wait for a few other musicians to start a tune before jumping in with another one so everybody gets a chance. This means that, even if you only know one tune, you can jump in with your tune and be involved. Even if you don't know the tune being played, if it's a good session with plenty of musicians (the more the better), you will probably be able play along with many of the tunes, picking up bits of the tune as you go along without upsetting anybody (which is how most of us have learned our repertoire of tunes.

If you just like listening to folk music, pub folk music tune sessions are a great free source of entertainment for the price of a drink at the bar available in most places around the UK and, when the roof is being lifted to the sounds of really great traditional English tunes, you may well find it hard not to jig around a bit, tap your foot or a table and join in.

Traditional tunes are as easy or as complex as you want to make them and are a great way to get started as a musician. More experienced musicians merely tend to enhance the simple tunes with flourishes (extra notes in-between the main notes). Beginner musicians can just play the straight forward simple tune. Even more advanced musicians might provide harmonised variations too. Whatever the level of the musician, folk music tune sessions are a really nice way to get in lots of practice on your instrument while having a fun social time with others that share your interest in music! Perhaps I'll see you at the next one :-)

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