Informal rules structure equitable turntaking and the determine the focus of music played, whether bluegrass, gospel, country, or old time, and the presence or absence of amplified instruments. Along with fiddles string bands and backup musicians play from a varied list of instruments determined in part by family and regional preferences. Musicians, now as ever, play on what is available, attainable, affordable and acceptable to their particular region and tradition. Piano, banjo, string bass, and guitar are common in bands, at contests, and at community sessions throughout the state. Accordions, buttonboxes, autoharps, harmonicas, zithers, mandolins, spoons, bones, and portable pump organs fill out the band as needed.
Individual choices reflect economic exigencies and mirror each family's ethnic inheritance.
Hammered dulcimers, for example, were once fairly common in the midwest where they were the instrument of choice at wedding parties of those who were of German-Russian American heritage. Collector-performers revitalize traditional music as they research and relearn styles which were not directly transferred to them within their family or folk group. Relying on older practitioners as resources for stories, technique, and tunes, or by going to historic archives, letters, and reports of local historic events, collectors rebuild tunes, words, and aesthetics within the old time framework. Several mid-Missouri musicians, for example, have been guided by the late Taylor McBaine, a fiddler who regularly joined gatherings in the 1960s to share tunes and assist technical development of younger guitarists, banjo players, as well as fiddlers. Active performers, validated by the old timers as interpreters of their music, these collectors and researchers perform repertoires from several regions or masters, passing on more than a single local tradition.