This style of music is essentially dance music and long before rhythm instruments (like guitar) entered the realm of traditional music, everyone played a melody instrument. Particularly when playing for dances, the music is played with a heavy accent (louder notes) on the beats and softer emphasis on the notes in between. This is intended to give the dancers an audible cue as to when to land on their feet and to help indicate when each part of the dance happens, with the steps of the dance beginning again when the tune starts again. In modern times guitars, percussion and bass are all common in traditional music which provides this accent to the rhythm of the music but the pulsing beat is still an important aspect of the musical style that all players put into tunes weather they are playing for dancing or just the enjoyment of the music in a session setting.