There will always be a tension in folk music between tradition bearing and self expression, and in the latter we will generally make different choices from Grandpa? But therein, the fun?
There's certainly lots of fun to be had by winding up traditionalists on thesession.org
I'm generally of the opinion that you can do whatever you like with any music you like, and others can either like it or not; there's no need to fight about it. Obviously maintaining traditions is important, but new traditions and styles are just as important if you want the old music to survive. I especially like hearing tunes being played by people of different nationalities to the tune's origin
(e.g.
Remco Sietsema playing Princess Royal), they often bring something unique to a tune which has been played millions of times.
And yeah there's definitely something to be said for being able to play in a variety of styles; I already get confused enough by similar sounding tunes that there's no need to play everything the same way
