I agree that it is much more difficult for someone who did not grow up listening to ethnic/cultural music to follow along with the unusual chord changes. I think the most common mistake is to assume that the rhythm is a 4/4 count. The tendency, these days is to play songs with a 4/4 rhythm because is rocks things up a bit. There is nothing wrong with that, but be **** sure everyone is familiar with the song and its chord changes. In my opinion, most of the melodies in Cajun music, two-steps of course, were originally played with a 2/4 feel. It is true that in many cases, the chord change will come in at the right place either way, but sometimes you will find a song that doesn't. For example, if you walk a bass in 4/4 time on J'etais au bal, you will have to cut a measure in half in the b part.

I would suggest that they play it in 2/4 until everyone is familiar enough to test out the 4/4 feel. On the particular song that was mentioned in this thread, I would definitely stick with 2/4.

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