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"75 Irish Session Tunes For Anglo Concertina"


gcoover

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I'm pleased to announce a brand new tunebook of traditional Irish tunes, all in standard musical notation and also with the same easy tablature for Anglo concertina used in my other books.

 

Featuring a mix of 75 favorite reels, jigs & slides, hornpipes, polkas, slip jigs, airs and a few miscellaneous set dances and waltzes typically found in Irish sessions. Attached is the Table of Contents plus an example page for "The Lilting Banshee".

 

Every tune has a graphic showing which buttons are used, and about half the tunes can be played with a 20-button instrument.

 

Irish flute maker and player Hammy Hamilton was nice enough to give his permission to include his jig "The Woodcock". It turns out the version played by Teada is quite different from his original, so just for fun both are included.

 

There are also two versions of "Wind That Shakes the Barley" since Mrs. Crotty's octave-style version is so unusual.

 

And Emily Peterson (YouTube Concertina Hornpipe Project 2010) gave her ok to include her arrangement of the hornpipe "Plains of Boyle".

 

Sorry, there are no big discussions or lessons on ornamentation - this is more about learning the basic tunes first.

 

It's already on Amazon UK, US and Europe, will probably be available at the Button Box fairly soon. I'll let you know when Amazon's "Look Inside" preview feature is activated, usually takes a week or two.

 

Enjoy!

 

Gary

 

3-TOC-1-75IST.pdf

52-LiltingBanshee-Am-ANGLO.pdf

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hillsider - not as much as you're probably looking for! The intent of the book is to teach the basic tunes first, so I've only included a couple with ornaments - "Plains of Boyle" as played by Emily Peterson, and "Wind that Shakes the Barley" as played in octaves by Elizabeth Crotty.

 

The video classes taught by Edel Fox and Ernestine Healy on The Online Academy of Irish Music (www.oaim.ie) are probably the best source for learning ornaments if you don't have a good Irish Anglo player or any workshops handy.

 

Gary

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Every tune has a graphic showing which buttons are used, and about half the tunes can be played with a 20-button instrument.

 

This was exactly the question I came to ask, thanks for mentioning it right out!

 

I've always been a fan of "limited" and minimalist instruments, so I've enjoyed playing the 1-row melodeon and 20-button concertina a lot even though more "versatile" options are available. There's also something to be said for the 20b since the old Italian ones are still really cheap on eBay and are at least basically serviceable, and an old Lachenal 20b is way more accessible than a 30b.

Edited by MatthewVanitas
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Shameless Plug Department: For 20-button Anglo, of course I highly recommend "Civil War Concertina" since all 60 tunes are playable on the ol' 2-row Anglo. And not just single note tunes either, many are arranged with full harmonies, and all have QR codes to corresponding YouTube videos.

 

And yes, there's something very satisfying in getting something nice and musical out of a seemingly very limited instrument!

 

Gary

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  • 3 weeks later...

Cnet member Daria just earned herself a free book by catching a minor typo on p.16, "Bucks of Oranmore". In measures #1 & #5, the final two numbers should be 2-1, not 1-2.

 

The first person to catch a particular typo gets a free book, your choice from the 5 out so far. Plus my eternal gratitude!

 

Gary

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gcoove, a question about the 20b-capable tunes in your Irish book: broadly speaking, do you find that the 20b-capable tunes are ones that even if you have a 30b you would've only used just those two rows anyway, or is it more that one would typically use all three rows (to get some alternate direction notes or whatnot) but for the purposes of this book you've done a 20b-capable version?

 

Put a different way, are the 20b-capable tunes arranged in the same way as they would be for a 30b player anyway, or does that deliberate imitation of the arrangement evoke a specifically 20b style that's outside of the normal modern Noel Hill school?

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I can't talk for the book's author, but I'm pretty sure someone like Noel Hill would not require the accidental row for 90% of his G tunes. There's only that low A or alternate A/G that could be interesting for G tunes I'd say, and that's very optional.

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To answer your questions, the only two 100% G tunes in the book that use the accidental row are The Gravel Walk (using the RHS push #2a in the D part to play the high A, but a pull #7 would also work, maybe even better) and Cliffs of Moher to catch that last crazy low note with LHS push #2a instead of jumping to #6 pull, but one could play a push #6 and pull #6 at the very end instead of a pull #2 and push #2a.

 

So those would be the only ones that were altered due to the availability of 30-buttons. Otherwise all the G tunes fit on a 20-button, except...

 

...there are some other G tunes that have accidentals found only on the top row: Rights of Man, Carolan's Draught, Cuckoos Nest, Road to Lisdoonvarna, Maggie Brown's Favorite and Frieze Britches. And King of the Fairies if you want to play the low D# instead of a D.

 

And it looks like 4 tunes in the key of D are playable on only two rows: Rolling in the Ryegrass, Connaughtman's Rambles, Lark in the Morning and Peg Ryan's Polka.

 

And the single note version of Eleanor Plunkett is playable on a 20-button, but the version with harmonies will require the accidental row.

 

Hope this helps!

Gary

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Thanks for the detailed answer, Gary!

 

I've always found really interesting the 2003 thread thread here on Cnet, where a member ran an analysis of 1425 Irish tunes from Henrik Norbeck's tune archive, a conclude that 40% of them could be played completely as-written on a 2-row C/G:

 

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=490

 

 

I don't want to haul my Beaumont around West Africa, since here in Monrovia my leather shoes mildew just sitting on the shelf, so a cheap 20b Italian is going to be my beater for the time being, so I'll be making use of your several 20b-friendly books in the near future.

Edited by MatthewVanitas
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To answer your questions, the only two 100% G tunes in the book that use the accidental row are The Gravel Walk (using the RHS push #2a in the D part to play the high A, but a pull #7 would also work, maybe even better) and Cliffs of Moher to catch that last crazy low note with LHS push #2a instead of jumping to #6 pull, but one could play a push #6 and pull #6 at the very end instead of a pull #2 and push #2a.

 

Aren't Gravel Walk and Cliffs of Moher Am tunes?

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And right you are. I was just looking at the key signatures too quickly, and for some reason these two are usually notated with one sharp (like the key of G).

 

Not sure why. The F#'s could just as easily be handled as accidentals.

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And right you are. I was just looking at the key signatures too quickly, and for some reason these two are usually notated with one sharp (like the key of G).

 

Not sure why. The F#'s could just as easily be handled as accidentals.

 

I'm really not knowledgeable in music theory but I think if we want to be as accurate as possible, those "Am" tunes could actually be "A dorian" ? I think A dorian has an F# instead of F. I always saw A dorian and E dorian as being like A minor and E minor, except one note that's sharp instead of natural. Those E dorian tunes have a C# instead of C natural. Something like that.

 

But anyhow, I guess we could say we can easily play most G, A dorian and E minor tunes with a 20 buttons anglo.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Cnet member Daria just earned herself a free book by catching a minor typo on p.16, "Bucks of Oranmore". In measures #1 & #5, the final two numbers should be 2-1, not 1-2.

 

The first person to catch a particular typo gets a free book, your choice from the 5 out so far. Plus my eternal gratitude!

 

Gary

 

Gary,

 

I just received my copy of Easy Anglo 1-2-3 today and it's excellent. I did notice a typo on page 45 (Ballydesmond Polka #3). Measure 7, the high G shows a pull (or draw) instead of a push on button 6.

 

-Don
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Don,

Wow, believe it or not I was playing through the book just this morning and noticed that exact same line was just a wee bit too long - good for you! Send me a PM with your address and I'll send you whichever book you want. The correction has been made to the master file so all future books will now show it correctly. Big mahaloz to you!

 

Gary

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Gary,

 

Thanks very much for your generous offer.

 

I tried to send you a PM, but I got this message: The member gcoover cannot receive any new messages

 

I couldn't find an email address for you.

 

Thanks,

Don

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  • 2 weeks later...

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