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Again On The Issue Of Bellows Control...


RAc

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Hi all,

I had a chance to talk to an extremly talented and proficient (while yet still rather young) accordeon player on the issue of bellows control.

As it turns out, he is able to control the tone of his instrument masterfully via bellows control, getting the full tone and volume spectrum out of the instrument with virtually invisible differences in bellows action (ie for the outside observer, there is no visible difference in bellows attack and pressure even though the sounds produced are radically different).

No surprise that he had a go on my Crane and within a few minutes was able to play a rundimentary tune with the same superior bellows control; eg while I frequently run out of air when playing louder passages, he hadn't even worked the bellows half way in and produced a far clearer and (for the louder passages) even louder note.

It appears to me that the effect of bellows control is similar to the effect of the right hand in (right-handed) guitar playing. Those of you who play the guitar will know what I refer to; a good guitarist will use the right hand very subtly to control the tone, introduce grooves, percussive effects, volume and 95% of everything else. There is a very true saying in guitarist's circles that says "your left hand is what you know and your right hand is what you are." Or conversely, there are a number of guitarists who have a super fast and extremly dexterious (is it spelled that way?) left hand yet their music sounds somewhat meaningless, whereas some guitarists get away with only three and a half chords but make amazing and truly beautiful music by emplyoing their right hand masterfully.

As someone who has attended a lot of workshops held by world class guitarists, I understand that the effect of the right hand is amazingly underrated and understated. Many guitarists will go at length explaining their left hand chord positions, changes and fingering techniques while handwaving the right hand away (when questioned they'll frequently say things like "oh well, I just pluck this," disregarding the fact that they choose one of a great number of possible plucking techniques for any given note they "pluck").

The issue of bellows control with pneumatic free reed instruments appears to be treated similarly. Virtually everyone I've talked to so far will handwave questions about bellows control away, giving some kind of generic answer like "oh well, no big deal, it'll come over time." The adverse interpretation would be that a lot of folks know about it but are unwilling to give away secrets of their trade; a more benevolent interpretation would be that they aren't themselves aware of the issue and therefore seriously don't consider it a big deal. Most tutors I have browsed give the issue peripheral attention at best.

Nevertheless, I am now certain that bellows control neccessarily is the secret to good concertina playing (for obvious reasons that holds true especially for bisonoric concertinas but also applies to for unisonoric ones) as well as a topic of almost infinite depth. Is anyone aware of sources such as YT videos, Skype teachers, books or tutorials that address the issue of bellows control beyond obvious superficial beginners hints such as "schedule direction changes such that long notes or phrases fit into one draw or push?" I'm happy to also receive responses via PM.

Thanks!

Edited by Ruediger R. Asche
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I have just started listening to some fiddle tutorial sites on Youtube. (I do not play fiddle, nor am I planning to learn but I do love the way excitement and emotion can be wrought from a fiddle or a violin).

 

Anyway, maybe we have something to learn from listening to the bowing techniques of a good fiddler or violinist.

 

Don.

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Hi Rüdiger,

 

I absolutely agree on the importance of bellows control - however this aspect seems in fact to be to some extent debatable. There are really experienced and skillful fellow concertinists who will have full bellows control in the sense of getting enough air from the bellows, not running out of air at inadequate points asf. (and are producing some lovely music too), but apparently don't give much weight to modeling the single tone, which I think is essential for playing out the strength of our great little instrument (which leaves me with the impression of "something" missing then)...

 

IMO it's about the entire envelope curve (to put it in terms of programming a synthesizer, which I did back in the 80's), attack - decay - sustain - release (as to the last, I'm finding it very effective to sort of cut off the note with full or even increasing pressure). As to volume, this is a thing I can better do - and learn, practise - at higher volumes, but once it is established it can be done in a surprisingly quiet mode as well... The key issue will then be mastering bellows control hand in hand with holding a steady beat (and only intentional variances - but this would make for another discussion...).

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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I have just started listening to some fiddle tutorial sites on Youtube. (I do not play fiddle, nor am I planning to learn but I do love the way excitement and emotion can be wrought from a fiddle or a violin).

 

Anyway, maybe we have something to learn from listening to the bowing techniques of a good fiddler or violinist.

 

Don.

 

Well, there is no point in debating the importance of listening for music. Music IS listening; the better one trains one's ear, the better a musician he or she becomes. This is almost too trivial to state...

 

Still I don't see how this answers my question. Certainly the most talented violinists (as well as masters of other instruments of course) have learned their trade by ear and deducted the technique from what they heard (or in extremly rare cases developed new techniques), but that doesn't change anything about the fact that the relationship between the technique and the resulting sound can (after having been listened to of course) be analyzed and re-conveyed, and exactly that should be one of the tasks of instruction, and I do see a huge discrepancy between what instruction does in this respect and what it could do...

 

 

Edited by Ruediger R. Asche
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...

IMO it's about the entire envelope curve (to put it in terms of programming a synthesizer, which I did back in the 80's), attack - decay - sustain - release (as to the last, I'm finding it very effective to sort of cut off the note with full or even increasing pressure). As to volume, this is a thing I can better do - and learn, practise - at higher volumes, but once it is established it can be done in a surprisingly quiet mode as well... The key issue will then be mastering bellows control hand in hand with holding a steady beat (and only intentional variances - but this would make for another discussion...).

 

Best wishes - Wolf

 

This is very interesting and intriguing, Wolf, thanks a lot! However, it is still fairly vague. When you write "The key issue will then be mastering bellows control hand in hand with holding a steady beat" you still assume that the term "Bellows Control" already HAS a defined meaning, which means you take the answer to my question for granted and stack a new question on top of it... that still doesn't give me a good grip on bellows control, I'm ashamed to confess...

Edited by Ruediger R. Asche
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I'd say that Don was agreeing with you, that instruction in bellow control is far too limited compared to what it could be, and was offering the techniques of bowing control as a possible alternative source of inspiration, as he has started doing. So while listening is obviously necessary, knowing to listen to an entirely different type of instrument is not really trivial at all.

 

And while violinists do have to learn to listen if they ever hope to develop their technique, bowing technique is a very significant and explicit part of any formal violin instruction. I haven't seen much formal concertina instruction to compare, and I have only been an observer of violin instruction, not a participant, but I would agree that specific bellows technique instruction is harder to come by.

 

Bertram Levy published a book "American Fiddle Styles for the Anglo Concertina - Thirty Studies in the Art of Phrasing" that may be of interest. I can't say I've delved into it yet, but as I recall from a first look it does address bellow technique quite a bit, and the genre of music is once again dominated by fiddle playing, so perhaps that brings us back to listening to fiddle techniques as a source of inspiration? I can't say how well the techniques in the book translate to English or Duet system concertina though.

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Rüdiger,

I really like your guitarists' adage: "your left hand is what you know and your right hand is what you are."

 

I think this answers your question why certain aspects of playing are talked about ad nauseam and others ignored. Quite simply, you can add to someone's knowledge by teaching him effectively, but you can't alter his personality. Teaching left-hand fingerings - and right-hand picking patterns, too - will help a guitar beginner to realise his personal potential as a musician. But this potential cannot be enhanced by a music teacher, unless he is also a psychotherapist or mental coach.

 

Translated into concertina terms, your quote would read: "your fingers are what you know and your hands (arms and upper body) are what you are."

Having said that, I must distinguish between two meanings of "bellows control." One has to do with avoiding extreme compression or extension of the bellows. I believe this can be taught, or at least coached. The other sense is what you're talking about: making the notes that your fingers select via the buttons sound musical.

 

There's a similarity to the piano here. In my young days, most middle-class Irish girls had piano lessons, so there were always plenty of competent accompanists around. Competent, in that they could read a simple piano score and get the notes and timing right. But the difference that my mother (who taught piano for a while) noticed between them was what she called "touch." It's more subtle than just heavy-handed or light-handed. It's what you as a listener instinctively evaluate when a pianist sits down at a piano and starts to play. Some provoke your amiration by playing a long, difficult piece correctly. Others convince you of their musicality after playing just a few notes. What you know vs. what you are.

 

In a group I played in, we had a guitarist with a very quiet acoustic guitar - or so we thought, until one day the other guitarist picked it up and strummed a few random chords - loudly! It wasn't the guitar that was quiet, it was the guitarist. He just had a very shy, unassuming "touch." And, interestingly enough, when we played a gig, he would always stand backstage, screened by the broad backs of the fiddler and myself. (We had a good sound man, who was fortunately able to give him his rightful place in the loudspeaker output ...)

 

To go back to your accordionist, I'd say that he was one of those innately musical people whose personality shines through - even on an unfamiliar instrument like your Crane. He had the quintessential "touch."

 

Cheers,

John

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When you write "The key issue will then be mastering bellows control hand in hand with holding a steady beat" you still assume that the term "Bellows Control" already HAS a defined meaning, which means you take the answer to my question for granted and stack a new question on top of it... that still doesn't give me a good grip on bellows control, I'm ashamed to confess...

I "hear" what you're saying... (wrote that last bit partly adressing myself I guess). Well, I mentioned one aspect (cutting off the tone).

 

Another one, of wider importance (though hardly for a PA Player...), would be a thing I'm really forced to do due to the rather small amount of air provided by the bellows of my instrument: applying frequent changes from push to pull and vice versa in order to allow for lively phrasing (as opposed to the advice of "fanning" the bellows). This might be tried out best with some dance tunes (I started with a jig, playing 6-1-2 / 3-4-5 (or maybe sometimes all those quavers in one direction before changing), if I'm not mistaken without having the instrument at hand.

 

Bringing these two aspects together, cutting off a note could very well precede a direction change...

 

Hope that helps a little, to be continued if desired.

 

Best wishes - Wolf

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ok, so I take it that one possible exercise would be to take a piece one already knows really well (so the focus on bellows work is not distracted by concurrent memorizing effort) and deliberately attempt several variations of, example given, "thrust force" (in lack of a better term) or direction changes (of course the latter one wouldn't work well with bisonoric instruments)?

 

As for the topic of cutting off notes, this has been depicted as bad playing practice by the aforementioned protege... I take it that (since there is no rule without an exception) this would qualify as one of the things that you can do when you know exactly what you are doing?...

 

Could you elaborate a little more on the envelope curve and how it translates onto concertina playing (if need be via PM)?

 

Thanks so much!

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Reudiger - Good to hear from another Crane player. One thing you don't mention - but it might , other than technique, be central to solving your problem. How many bellow folds does your instrument have?

 

My main/ favourite instrument is an Aeoloa Wheatstone, 58 buttons,and has eight folds. I find that ideal. I have other very playable Edeophone Lachenals- 55 buttons- with seven bellows- and controlling the volume/ dynamics etc is noticeably different.

I also have a 48-button Crane with just six folds - although the reduced bellows in this smaller machine does not seem

so critical.

It may seem drastic, but if your Crane only has six folds, you might consider new bellows and increasing it to eight.

It would not be any more unwieldy and, in fact, because you would probably not have to change bellow direction so often, might even be easier to handle.You can control the dynamic and volume in one direction far better with larger bellows - especially when you are playing big six-finger chords.

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Speaking for myself, I don't think I really began to grasp the possibilities of bellows control until I started applying myself to the single-row accordion/melodeon. I thought I understood the analogy between the button box player's left hand and the fiddler's bowing hand, but with a two-row box (never mind a concertina) there's so much else going on that I was always just a bit distracted.

 

The melodeon (in the Irish sense) changed that. Apart from tapping out a rudimentary I/V bass accompaniment (if that), my left hand has nothing to do but phrase the tune, finding new rhythmic variations along the way. The tune's heartbeat asserts itself with a new immediacy, and lays down the law about which ornaments are of the essence and which are just showing off.

 

Obviously the division of labor between one's two hands is very different on a concertina, but I've found that the lessons carry over. It's been a huge help, and I think it's made me a better player.

 

Bob Michel

Near Philly

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Reudiger - Good to hear from another Crane player. One thing you don't mention - but it might , other than technique, be central to solving your problem. How many bellow folds does your instrument have?

 

My main/ favourite instrument is an Aeoloa Wheatstone, 58 buttons,and has eight folds. I find that ideal. I have other very playable Edeophone Lachenals- 55 buttons- with seven bellows- and controlling the volume/ dynamics etc is noticeably different.

I also have a 48-button Crane with just six folds - although the reduced bellows in this smaller machine does not seem

so critical.

It may seem drastic, but if your Crane only has six folds, you might consider new bellows and increasing it to eight.

It would not be any more unwieldy and, in fact, because you would probably not have to change bellow direction so often, might even be easier to handle.You can control the dynamic and volume in one direction far better with larger bellows - especially when you are playing big six-finger chords.

Hi there,

 

thanks for the response, very much appreciated!

 

I'm very aware of the issue, being myself an owner of both a 6 fold 48 button Lachenal and a 55 button 8 fold Aeola Crane.

 

You are absolutely right - it makes a tremenous difference, but I also tend to think of a higher volume box as some kind of cheat, knowing in the bottom of my heart that the accordeonist I referred to initially would without any question be able to make something decent of the small box as well. Sometimes I feel that the smaller box forces me to be more diciplined due to its limitations; if I learned to play that one properly, I'd most likely have a better overall control also for the large one.

 

Do you agree?

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Dear Ruediger,

 

We had a few lessons on Skype back in 2011. It was so long ago that I don't really remember how much we worked on bellows control. I do work on this subject with my students, but only after they are able to play a few tunes with confidence. Perhaps we didn't get to that point back then.

 

Regardless, the one best exercise for starting to get control of the bellows is to play something you know well, but as quietly as possible. Playing as loud as you can is good too, but you probably already know how to do that. Learning how to use the absolute minimum bellows pressure needed to sound the reeds in a tune is not as easy as it sounds. It will take some work. It will not happen by itself.

 

Before you can make it happen on your instrument you have to make it happen in your head. That is to say, only if it is your intention as you practice, your over-riding priority as you play your music, will you be able to extend your dynamic range and widen your dynamic possibilities.

 

Bellows control means that you have control over the pressure of the bellows, in both directions. A wide variety of pressures results in a wide variety of musical dynamics. That is to say that the difference between the soft bits and the loud bits is under your active control. To gain control, you must separate the action of the muscles needed to depress the buttons from the action of the muscles needed to open and close the bellows. They are not the same muscles. If they operate as one intention then the music will tend to sound flat, lifeless and mechanical. Creating elegance, lift and rhythmic authority requires the muscles for the bellows and the muscles for the buttons to operate independently. Of course, having a wide range of dynamics available as you play music is only the beginning, but using them wisely is only possible if you have them available.

 

What I'm talking about here is true for all systems of bellows driven boxes.

Edited by Jody Kruskal
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Anyway, maybe we have something to learn from listening to the bowing techniques of a good fiddler or violinist.

 

Don.

 

Still I don't see how this answers my question.

 

By listening, I meant listening and trying to emulate the (envelope of) sound, not just the note but the attack, volume and decay.

 

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Anyway, maybe we have something to learn from listening to the bowing techniques of a good fiddler or violinist.

 

Don.

 

Still I don't see how this answers my question.

 

By listening, I meant listening and trying to emulate the (envelope of) sound, not just the note but the attack, volume and decay.

 

 

Right. After learning how to play quietly you can apply those skills to emulating a fiddles attack, volume and decay or the envelope of a guitar or plucked string or better yet... the human voice. But first you must learn the decay part of that envelope... that means the quiet part, the hard part. That is the part where the depth of music resides. It might only last for a few dozen milliseconds but those brief moments of dynamic shape in a note are crucial to creating tone on a squeezebox. The free reeds expression only exists as variable volume (bellows pressure), there is no other expressive quality that a free reed is capable of, yet it is a very sensitive quality that can communicate musical ideas with conviction and immediacy. This deep and sudden sensitivity to volume (created with the bellows) is the joy and pleasure of free reed instruments but only if the quiet end is mastered. Otherwise, blah, blah, blah... it's just a bunch of notes. See what I mean?

 

Sorry for the rant, but this is a matter I feel strongly about and I appreciate the discussion on the subject.

Edited by Jody Kruskal
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Jody, I may have misunderstood. You suggest that 'variable volume (bellows pressure)' is the only expressive quality that a free reed is capable of. I would include a bit of tremolo and vibrato as expressive qualities available to a free reed.......when applied, of course, with appropriate discretion.

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Anyway, maybe we have something to learn from listening to the bowing techniques of a good fiddler or violinist.

 

Don.

 

Still I don't see how this answers my question.

 

By listening, I meant listening and trying to emulate the (envelope of) sound, not just the note but the attack, volume and decay.

 

I'm finding that quite useful too, but would add (i.e. repeat mentioning) the particular shape of releasing the note. Same as with the attack, the dynamics are creating not just different levels of volume (as maybe with a PA) but as well different tone colours with our instrument, including some "scream & shout" things... and this is perfectly unique to the concertina as prominently featured in this forum (Anglo, English, Duet - with true concertina reeds asf.).

 

Furthermore, the double-stop (or even triad-arpeggio) playing of a fiddler can be emulated by inserting a delay over just fractions of a second bewteen pressing the buttons (which is not a matter of bellows control but will required some special and adequate bellows control then) from the low to the higher, or "upward".

 

I never came across the advice to avoid cutting off the tone as sort of bad playing practise, Rüdiger. Of course it should happen deliberately, but then it can be applied to very nice effects, both on the (strong) beat, or with off-beat notes, or even notes between the beats.

 

With Jody I do agree as well, the quiet decay part is essential too, as to be stabilised and shaped following the more or less "hard" attack. So many options here, from just holding the lower level to slightly further decreasing the volume to even raising it over the time in a sort of sighing way, be it one note or a short legato phrase... (maybe to be played rubato in this case, but in general - again adressing myself - not shortening the note values is essential here!).

 

As to the dimension of the bellows I can easily understand what Geoff has been saying, and I'd most likely appreciate an instrument providing a feeling of always being on the safe side myself too. Nevertheless, I would agree with you, Rüdiger, that a smaller bellows can very well be one of those limitations that are challenging, and thus even style-forming, when you're catching up with the challenge.

 

With my own playing of the English I would avoid any form of mimicry, be it of a fiddler's up-bow or down-bow (tried that out - only - once; preferably adopt taking a phrase "on one bow" then, as long as there's sufficient air supply - which would lead us to Geoff's point then), or an Anglo (or Melodeon) player's bisonoricity - rather developing personal ways of bounce in general, and changes of the direction in particular.

 

I'd guess it could be done with a Duet as well, possibly prompted by just having a not-so-comfortable small bellows at hand... :)

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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I attended a workshop held by the great Alistair Anderson at Dartmoor Folk festival a couple of weeks ago , obviously mainly English players. But alot of what he said applies to all concertinas. It was ALL about technique - and especially attack, volume and decay.This included punching notes (s) and then letting them fade - then, conversely, starting softly and increasing

the volume of a note.

Likewise, I can only point you towards the accurate and eloquent advice of Jody ( above). Having said that - we are all striving to be better players/ musicians and that should be encouraged.But to try and emulate the likes of Alistair, Jody and John Kirkpatrick or the jazz player Simon Thoumire, for example, is a tall order.They are all virtuosos and have dedicated their professional life to this instrument. Most concertina players are trying - alot of the time- just to hit the buttons in the right order !

It just takes infinite time and patience to improve and acquire these subtleties.

I, for one, would be alot happier with concertinas if you could truly bend notes because that would make the dynamics of playing more interesting..But - to finish my contribution- I would say that, instead of thinking too much, the more you play and get control of the bellows , the more natural/organic it becomes.While I made mention in my earlier post about the differences in concertinas with different number of bellow folds, I now find that I compensate automatically when switching machine, and that I may be changing bellow direction at different times on the same tune......but I am probably not aware of it at the time.It WILL come more naturally the more you play.

"Let the music keep your spirits high"

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