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[squeezy]

My first reply probably appears to be garbled due to the sheer amount of information I was trying to say all at once.  Some of this stuff doesn't translate well when you try to describe it!

Obviously there is a need for muscle memory when playing something at performance standard, but I personally find it fine to change fingerings/directions/chords on the fly if necessary (often when playing in sessions to fit it with chord players).  It has not always been this way, and I remember very well the frustration of finding that the way I'd learnt a tune was not how it was played in the session.

To get to a place where it is possible to adapt fingerings in real time takes a deep and instinctive knowledge of how every note and chord combination works, and I think that only comes with actively playing tunes in different ways rather than being happy with a tune in a single fingering. 

Playing right hand chords along with left hand ones in all their inversions both as an exercise and as accompaniment for songs is a great way of helping to build up this instinct.  However, this only works if you are listening hard to the music while you are playing it and thinking chordally like a guitar player who can hear a chord sequence behind a tune does. 

I also find that it helps to do a kind of mindfulness thing (stop me if it's getting a bit mumbo-jumbo) - by which I mean actively concentrating the brain on the muscles used when playing certain chords on both hands - thinking about how it feels almost more than the music.  By doing this, I've got to a stage where if I think about going from a G to a C chord in any music, my brain is already thinking of the finger positions on both hands and how it feels to go from push to pull.  Again this is something which takes a very long time, but it has worked for me.

[playandteach]

All good. I would like to point out that the best chord is not necessarily consonant. Dissonance is my friend. I just meant not using the chord you prefer because of favouring the right hand simplicity.

[Chris Brimley]

Squeezy, that was extremely useful - many thanks!

P&T, absolutely - I'd taken your point.  It was a purely personal choice on my part many years ago to select a bigger box to learn, with the aim of minimising dissonance with other band members, but more recently I find myself deliberately re-inserting it sometimes!

[Andy Next Tune]

To follow your wine metaphor, enjoying drinking the wine is the objective.
Some people will enjoy wine, irrespective of whether it is drunk from a paper cup, a crystal glass or any random vessel capable of holding liquid.
Other people can only really enjoy their wine if it is served in a wine glass.
We can all argue about which is most appropriate and who gets the most enjoyment, but it is a personal choice.

The same applies to picking up new tunes in sessions, there is no one 'right' answer as this thread has proved. It is what works for you, your brain, your fingers, your box and gives you most enjoyment.

There is one point that most people have agreed on - do not assume the way you 'learn to play' a tune in a session will be the finished product. That bubbly double jig might benefit from a crystal champagne flute rather than the burgundy glass available at the session 

[Mike Carney]

  However, this only works if you are listening hard to the music while you are playing it and thinking chordally like a guitar player who can hear a chord sequence behind a tune does. 

[Caroline]

Oops sorry Squeezy 😂
Anyway does anyone have a copy of the dvd they would like to sell please!

Available on a certain auction site if no one can help

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Traditional-Melodeon-Mastering-the-Art-DVD-Learn-How-to-Play-Method-John-Spiers-/272527554989

Thank you for the link, I’ll have to pass at the moment.

[Rob2Hook]

...this only works if you are listening hard to the music while you are playing it and thinking chordally like a guitar player who can hear a chord sequence behind a tune does. 

Would that all guitarists could do this and all box players used more than two bass buttons!  I have certainly benefited from spending my youth strumming stringed instruments, giving a (limited) understanding of applying an extended three-chord trick.  Indeed when we formed a "scratch" ceilidh band for the Friday night at Swanage one year, I was playing an octave mandola rather in the style of rhythm guitar in Joe Brown's Bruvvers.  Well, I liked it anyway...

Rob.

[squeezy]

Would that all guitarists could do this and all box players used more than two bass buttons!

Well it would be lovely if that did happen all in one session!  But obviously sessions are not performance pieces, they are social activities, and it rarely goes well if one person tries to fight what is going on with regards to the chords, speed etc. ... I'm very happy to leave out my left hand if there's a guitarist going somewhere I cannot predict, and I'm happy to knock along with 2 chords as well.  It's more gratifying knowing that you're doing something together than doing something clever!

Having said that - I wish everyone had the same approach to sessions (got a clever chord sequence, or unusual syncopation? then it's time to get yourself a gig!)

[george garside]

seconded!
G

[Helena Handcart]

... it rarely goes well if one person tries to fight what is going on with regards to the chords, speed etc. ... I'm very happy to leave out my left hand if there's a guitarist going somewhere I cannot predict, and I'm happy to knock along with 2 chords as well.  It's more gratifying knowing that you're doing something together than doing something clever!

^ This, completely :) 

[playandteach]

Wise words. It is of course the best in any field who are also the most generous and most patient. Lesser mortals have sharper elbows.

[george garside]

I would see it as knowing how best to join in, enjoy  and contribute to a session rather than being generous and patient

george

[playandteach]

That's you being generous and patient. QED

[Chris Brimley]

Sessions are useful for swapping tunes and maybe learning a bit, but the main thing about them is surely that they are musical fun. So a spot of well-timed dissonance, some interesting harmonies and some innovative accompaniment can be great, if it makes everyone smile.  I confess I've been to one or two where everyone plays a tune perfectly, without a trill out of place, and then we all sit there glaring at each other until someone dares to start another tune!  Great discipline, but no
fun!  But I digress.

[george garside]

I agree with what Chris has said about sessions being fun and would aadd that they should be inclusive . My dislike is when a relative beginner or someone new to session playing starts atune  perhaps a bit on the slow side, perhaps with a few bum notes only to have it hijacked aand taken up to warp speed by the smartarses

george

[playandteach]

And those smartarses might be more of the second part of the word than the first. Really skilled people have an extra sense. I'm lucky that the only session I'll be going to is full of gentle souls, and has a clear leader with good social and management skills. More of a pub open rehearsal than a come-all session.
But we are straying onto session etiquette territory now. Maybe time to rest the thread?

[Roger Howard]

I'm lucky that the only session I'll be going to is full of gentle souls, and has a clear leader with good social and management skills.

Just to add, before this closes, that I took my box along to a session for the first time on Tuesday, and was able to join in with pretty much everything by going up and down the rows (mainly). One or two tunes meant that I could only add a bit of oom-pah.

This session, too, has a good leader and a "gentle" atmosphere, with the emphasis on helping people learn and develop. The first half is always slow and simple, partly so that someone who is just starting piano accordion can learn (with kind help from another PA player who sits next to him). The second half has three or four tunes arranged in F so that two of us who play NSP can bring them along. The melodeon attracted a good deal of interest because most of the other instruments are fiddles, flutes, recorders and other non-specifically folk instruments (if you see what I mean), and people commented on its lovely tone. It's no surprise that the room is absolutely full, and that the pub does a good trade with people coming to listen on what used to be a very quiet night for them! 

Roger

[Tone Dumb Greg]

... some interesting harmonies and some innovative accompaniment can be great...

Definitely been there many times
As for sessions being for fun, with you 110% on that Chris

[squeezy]

... some interesting harmonies and some innovative accompaniment can be great ...

I agree - I love both doing it and hearing other people do it.  It's just when 3 or 4 different people try to do it at the same time that the whole thing falls apart!