I came across this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
It seems like a nice idea. Has anyone in this group tried it already? If so what do you think about it? Do they play Irish music with an English accent? 
Iāve played along to it in the past. They seem to play pretty faithfully. Good for someone who canāt get to a session. I like the little flash animations.
I like that site a lot. The tunes are played as they are in my session which makes it handy. I do wish theyād expand it as Iāve learned most of the tunes I want to know from thereā¦
Eric
-I like it because Iām too lazy to relearn note reading, and this serves as reference for ear learning. Consulting it helps keep tunes accurate, especially āBā parts remembered incorrectly & played with liberties of horrific degree, error building upon error until the tune is something else entirely.
Iāve never played a wrong note, and this helps preserve that tradition. 
That looks pretty good. Seems to be a good place to find a few tunes. Also, itās fun to listen as well.
-Casey
I actually dislike the site and donāt recommend it much as the music is played in a rather nondescript and bland way.
Bland or not -it provides the basic tune. Its not the equal of some recordings nor is it trying to be. I wonāt play it blandly nor complain if my chops someday approach those of Michael McGoldrick.
Just because a ācelebrityā musician like Mike McGoldrick contributed to that hardly means its of much standard in terms of musicality (gasp!) or educational value. What I can see it doing is contributing to the upbringing of musicians with nondescript and similarly bland playing. At the end of the day you are what you listen to.
In the musiciansā defence they probably just did the āvirtual sessionā for kicks without caring too much or thinking that it would be such a cited source. It had an aspect of novelty to it after all.
Itās a wee bit pretentious to assume you know why anyone else did anything, isnāt it?
And it seems like your implying itās OK to slavishly copy the way a musician you consider to be great plays (or the way they play a certain tune)ā¦but in the end arenāt you just copying someone elseās style, too?
I agree with Brian completely here - it provides the bones of the tuneā¦what you do with it after you know the bones is entirely up to you. I could care less if anyone can play a tune just like (insert your favorite player here) - mimicry, no matter how technically proficient, rarely gives the tune any life of itās own.
I reread my posts back and forth and I still cannot see where it is implied that I condone slavish copying of musicians. I donāt know where youāre reading that from.
The ābones of the tuneā argument is bollocks in practice, especially when youāre talking about anyone who does not already have a fairly deep understanding of the music. This is the majority of the forum demographic as well as just about every patron of the site I have encountered. People who are under this level arenāt capable enough to flesh out a tune effectively after they learnt from a nondescript source, simply because they are still learning the idioms of the music. Supporting the learning of tunes from playing that is meh, has unengaging rhythm and suffers from a lack of character will not result in any better in the learnersā playing because this is a time where they are not just learning the tunes, they are learning the music. Otherwise people would be advised to go learn from midi files and sheet music a lot more now.
You have a very keen and erudite understanding of ITM for somebody so isolated from it but I think you are pushing it here, Eldarion.
For one, Session playing is probably not the context for the most expressive playing. In a good one the players are firing ideas back and forth but to the listener, that may not always be audible. And really, how many of us get to those kinds of sessions or have the chops to play in one? But the majority of sessions are just people playing tunes together.
Is the music on the BBC Virtual Session wrong? Are the phrases off the mark? Is the rhythm unsteady? Sure, the experience may not be quite the same as hearing how Mike Rafferty might treat the tunes but itās reliable. What McGoldrick may do with a tune on his own is by no means any kind of divine proclamation but he knows the ropes of ITM and knows his tunes frontwards and backwards.
Gaining this ādeep understandingā of which you speak has to start somewhere and playing tunes is as good a place as any. There are countless worse places than the BBC Virtual Session. I wouldnāt suggest a person rely solely on that one resource but few people would make any such suggestion unless that one resource was a great player him/herself.
The BBC Virtual Session is just a resource to get a few basic tools in playing ITM. Itās not best by any means but one could do far worse. At the end of the day, you learn music by playing it. Listening with an analytical ear will help you make informed choices but if you canāt put a few tunes together it doesnāt really do any practical good. The Virtual Session helps a player put a few tunes together. Musing on ādeep understandingā does not.
One of my faves. Iāve gotten up to speed on a couple there.
Anyone who knows more than I do can teach me a thing or twoā¦ now, whether that thing or two mactches your estimation of whatās worthy or not, is something else all togther, as has been argued incessantly here beforeā¦ Itās a good place for most folks to make some progress towards learning to play the music. Those who seek absolute purity in the tradition will certainly seek other options. That doesnāt negate the value of the place. Not everyone has their sights set on the same goal you have.
At worst (and I donāt think that resourse rates that lowly at all), playing the music in āmediocrityā beats not playing the music at all. As long as I donāt settle for one source, I will be learning, progressing, and getting closer to my own goal.