Best Playing Hint, Advise Or Tip?

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I was wondering what is the best hint, advise or tip you have ever learnt re playing concertina?

 

During my one lesson with Mary MacNamara she said, to try and help me achieve a smooth transition between each note, "to imagine that ever note is played in the same direction".

 

I find that this advice does help, although I'm not always successful - yet

 

Cheers

Morgana

[JimLucas]

"...imagine that every note is played in the same direction".

With the English and duets, you don't have to imagine.

 

I was present when the following advice was given to someone else (obviously a beginner): "If you don't need to watch your fingers on that end, you shouldn't need to watch them on this end, either."

[Clive Thorne]

Morgana,

 

By contrast an early tip given to me (actually for melodeon, but also relvant to Anglo) was to make sure that I 'took my finger off between notes' - especially when the next note was the same button but the other direction - to keep each note distinct.

 

This slowed my initial learning, but the difference in sound between that and simply using bellows reversal was, for my repertoire (at that time playing for morris), and to my ears well worth it.

 

Of course no rule is sacrosanct, and I sometimes now find myself deliberately holding the button down to get a legato affect, but for me it was a very good place to start.

 

It just goes to show that there are almost as many opinions and styles as there are players.

 

 

Clive.

Edited December 8, 2003 by Clive Thorne

[Alan Day]

Without doubt ,the most helpfull was when I put down on paper all the notes push and pull on my anglo concertina.I then purchased a piano chord book which listed all the chords and the notes that made up those chords.I then went out and purchased from Cecil Sharp House a simple country dance book which gave the chord sequence above the tune and worked on it from there.If I ran out of air or the chord was in the opposite direction to that which I was playing,Iworked out by use of accidentals or by slipping in extra notes in the opposite direction so that I could obtain the air or direction I wanted.It is by working through this type of book that chord sequences for different keys start to form a pattern in your mind so that you automatically start putting them into tunes when you play without music.I have never been musically trained so that is the only way I found to progress with the instrument.

I hope you find this usefull.

Regards

Alan

[goran rahm]

I first told myself to shut up but I couldn't control myself after all since I think there are a couple of aspects on this question that despite not making you any happier still ought to be mentioned...

 

- Are there any good hints,advice,tips..at all?? Probably, but not what you firstly think of. I see one case at first:

 

1) IF you have decided to become as much a copy of *one* other performer as possible do get as much advice as possible from that individual.That probably inceases the chances. If you are good you will be better than the master and find your own style afterwards...maybe completely different and opposing the 'idol'...

 

Another one...IF you want to *know* the instrument as good as possible

 

2) Find as many 'masters' as possible and get all possible advice particularly from direct opposite positions and opinions on everything....try it ALL critically by yourself and do not believe in ANY "authority" whatever they say or do....unless you are sure to be able to judge it all...and then you likely is a greater authority yourself....

 

Goran Rahm

[Clive Thorne]

I submitted a posting but changed my mind.

Edited December 12, 2003 by Clive Thorne

[Guest]

Goran: I don't strive to copy anyone, but I do think that I can learn much from the experience of others And whilst I'd love to be able to have lessons with as many masters as possible, concertina players are very thin on the ground around here, let along any teachers.

 

In the meantime I'm just as happy to be sharing and chatting with good friends here

 

Cheers

Morgana

[Chris Timson]

Two tips I got from John Kirkpatrick, one of which builds on Clive Thorne's point.

 

1) When learning a tune it is a good idea to practice playing it as staccato as possible a few times. You can then wind back to whatever is right for the tune.

 

2) I haven't had the courage to try this one, but I fully intend to soon, and I'll give feedback on the results, but John suggests taking a tune and playing it it for an hour without break. He says it's good for the soul. We shall see.

 

Chris

[Clive Thorne]

Chris,

 

Thats where I got the tip from as well! - and I've also heard his thoughts on playing the same tune for a long time.

 

I don't think I've ever played a tune for a whole hour, but when playing for dancing I'm definitly of the 'one dance one tune' school. Having said that, by the end of the dance the tune may not bear much resemblance to how it started (although its always still in there somewhere)!

 

 

I was brought up in Shropshire and spent many years dancing with the Shropshire Bedlams*, which is where I started to play. JK was thus obviously a great, indeed probably the only, influence on me in those early days.

 

Clive.

 

* A "Border" morris team in the UK started by John Kirkpatrick.

[Robin Madge]

Don't breath in time with the bellows!

 

I found that I had to learn not to when I started accompanying myself singing, having been learning to play for some months.

 

Robin.

[David Barnert]

Don't breath in time with the bellows!

I would think that's less critical if you're not playing an Anglo. On my duet I change bellows direction at the logical phrasing points, where I would breathe if I were singing (but perhaps more often). I don't see why I shouldn't breathe with the phrases even if I am not singing. I've never noticed if I actually do.

[Chris Ghent]

Its not something she said, but indirectly from Martha Clancy I realised the need to keep it simple. This translates into not using exotic fingering when there is simple fingering available, and not playing it fast if I can play it better slower.

 

Chris

[Clive Thorne]

My wife's saxophone teacher always maintained that a tune played slower but more crisp would actually sound faster anyway.

 

Clive.

[Helen]

Hey Morgana,

 

What a terrific thread. I know so little that I don't have any advice yet. BUT some day I will and then I will drag out this thread and POST IT.

 

I like to read about tips because some of them can be useful right away, some later on when I am more proficient and others might just not fit me.

 

Sort of like reading a book of quotations.

 

Thanks,

 

Helen

 

I always wanted to use that one!!!

[Sharron]

i have been thinking about this thread from the start and now i have a little time on my hands here goes.....

 

while playing the melody pick 1 note to start eg. d..... then everytime i play it in the melody i also play the octave down d.... from there i would keep adding notes until all the notes were included.

could work on the higher octave too in the same way.

i don't use chords as such but odd drones like the pipes, so it comes in useful without the brain having to think too much, but as i just said by playing a tune and adding the lower octave note every time on every tune the alternative fingering can still produce the low note drone automatically. eg normally you would find it convenient to pull a high b..... but would have to change to a push to accomodate the middle b and so on.

it just helps me take on a little at a time

 

also means that playing the same tune in different octaves isn't a problem as well as playing in octaves throughout or in part of a tune.

 

as usual just my rambling thoughts

 

sharron

[Simon Wells]

Morgana - since you are a member of the concertinadownunder discussion list, you will soon have access to my online Anglo tutor, which will be published through the list in the new year.

 

This tutor has pages of general tips, both from me and gleaned from other players. I'm sure that some of it will be of use. It is a work in progress, and as other people contribute their own suggestions i will incorporate these over time. I'd say the tutor will be up and running by mid-Jan.

 

If there appears to be enough initial interest I will also ask Concertinanet to make it available to non-Australian players. It's meant to be an adjunct to all the commercially available tutors.

 

Bye

[Samantha]

It really is very worthwhile playing a new tune over and over again at a much slower speed but with regular rhythm. Don't be in a hurry to speed it up to tempo - reinvent it as a slow air and revel in it that way for rather longer than you think is necessary. Then gradually increase the tempo to a little faster than you'll ever need. This works a treat!

 

Samantha

[Guest]

Hi Samatha,

 

Yes, I definitely agree with playing the tune slowly. I have a wonderful program called transcribe in which you can open MP3s or tracks directly from a CD and either change the temp without changing the pitch (that's just one of it's great features

 

I've also found that my continously playing a CD track over and over and over and over etc that once I have it pretty much "in my head" it jumps into the fingers a lot easier.

 

Cheers

Morgana