What are the best tunes to learn before going to my first session?
You’ve sat on the edges of a room full of musicians playing through what sounds like an endless stream of tunes they all know. You’ve read the section of this FAQ about ‘What is a session’; you’re confident enough on your chosen instrument to play a few tunes, and you fancy giving it a go. Good stuff. It would be nice to go to that first session reasonably confident that there’ll be at least a few tunes that you’ll know and be able to join in with. Every session is different, and the appearance of any of the following tunes cannot be guaranteed – but … For an English music session, the following have been suggested: Enrico, Speed The Plough, Michael Turner’s Waltz, Soldiers Joy, Walter Bulwer’s polkas, New Rigged Ship, Harpers Frolic / Bonny Kate, Bacup Coconut Dance, Sweets of May, Captain Leno’s, Steamboat hornpipe, Nutting Girl, Maggie in the Wood, Three Around Three, Jimmy Allen, The Keel Row, Captain Pugwash (aka Trumpet Hornpipe), Morpeth Rant, Oyster Girl, Hunt the Squirrel, Q
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- What are the best tunes to learn before going to my first session?
