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(by the way, Fisher's Hornpipe and Devils Dream are well established in the American tradition, the latter known as "De'il Among the Tailors" in Scotland)

Also I think if you learn tunes at a steady pace, somewhere in the region of 90-110bpm as you're doing, you won't have a big problem speeding up when the fiddler or accordion drags you that way. It's...

Indeed Ranald, we foreigners sometimes call it "the Canadian national fiddle tune" but we still mix it with Scots and Irish tunes at the ceilidhs.

Outside of formal dances and competitions,...

I use "left index distal phalanx" for a capo myself but it would be difficult on an octave instrument.

Daniel Gilchrist, son of Steve, makes a nice looking solid body electric 8-string mandolin, called the Victorian. Never tried one, but I'd like to.

G7th range.
They have both yoke and C-style in their banjo/uke capos add generally work well on radiused fretboards
Their thick-neck classical guitar capoes might also be suitable.

However,...

These days, I'm brazen enough to ask, Do you mind if I play a tune?

Having said that, the sessions in Aberdeen, even if they have a fairly tight core of regulars, always get irregular visitors...

Here's a version in blue from Scottish tune book publisher Taigh na Teud
https://www.scotlandsmusic.com/Product/SM-FPVIF6/the-scottish-violinist

I have that book, "The Scottish Violinist" which is in fact a book of selected JSS compositions from several of his collections, and some of his variations on tunes like "East Neuk of Fife".
It's a...

I often post on questions like this that I take my mandolin everywhere I go.
In a gig bag since you can't be sure a hard case will be accepted as cabin luggage by many airlines, especially budget....

Henry James was quite clear on the matter.
British are Europeans (as opposed to Americans, in his case).

The best new inexpensive mandolin I heard last year was a Loar bought online by a friend in Aberdeen. I was amazed at what a good sound it made.

I was last in Cork in 2019 and the pints were very good in the Corner House but it was daytime and I didn't see any of the music there. I went to a session on Saturday night in the Sin é also on...

Baby boomers were hitting the 45-55 year old range, peak earnings for many, their kids were grown etc so they had more disposable cash.
I wonder if Harley Davidson sales went up then too?

In 1998...

Simon Mayor is a Yorkshireman and excels in many kinds of music.
I don't know if he'd be offended to be told that his playing sounds English more than French.
But do check out his recent CD of...

A tantalising short piece that left me wanting more.

Looking through that list of tunes, I realised that:
I would only confidently start one or two of them, (although some might be tunes I know but don't recognise the name)
I would be able to play a...

They'll definitely play all or some or none of those tunes.
My top beginners tip for any session:
Learn at least one tune that you can start confidently and steadily on your own. Don't play it...

I would play one first and then the other and not sweat too much about getting the attacks precisely simultaneous.

I don't think any of these outstanding musicians phone it in.
The passion and engagement they bring to their performances are what keep people coming to see them. Maybe it takes a toll on them,...

If the tunes are just 65 years old they're younger than me!

All good.
If they suspect they're younger they'd be blocking them for plagiarism or something.

Brunello , a bothy was a kind of hut or outhouse for farm workers. Hence the great northeast Scotland tradition of "bothy ballads" - often comic, but sometimes tragic songs and stories of rural...

Thanks John.
Brings back fond memories of playing impromptu sessions until all hours in the 1990s in the bothy bar behind the Invercauld Arms Hotel in Braemar with piper and local identity the late...

Mine comes and goes, with a will of its own. Often in my left index finger which makes my playing even clumsier than usual.

It all started last year when I was using a hedge trimmer. The vibration...