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Seeking Simple Arrangements For Duet


citycat

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Hello! I have been playing an Elise Hayden duet for about a year, and I am having trouble finding music to play on it. I have many books of dance music, which have melody and chord markings, but I was hoping to find some music that is a little more ... constructed, maybe? I'm bored of simply plonking away with my left hand. I am incapable of arranging myself, as my knowledge of theory is pretty non-existent. I really liked the tutor that came with the instrument, and would like to find more music arranged similarly.

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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I don't play duet, and don't know what the arrangements in the Elise tutor book are like, but I would expect that easy or intermediate piano arrangements would be suitable.

 

Also, arrangements for violin duet. or violin and viola duet might be suitable, although possibly difficult to read both lines simultaneously if you aren't used to it. If you are looking for dance or folk music, I've seen a series of such books under the name "Airs for Pairs"

 

Taking it a step further, Dave Townsend has a series of called "The Village Band Book" with arrangements of English dance tunes for three, four, or five different melody instruments. On many of these you could play the main melody line on the right hand and then pick and choose which other line to play on the left hand, perhaps learn to play a dance with several different arrangements that way. I see these are available at the ButtonBox.com Same issue as above with reading different lines simultaneously of course, but that can be overcome with practice, or at least you can learn to play each line separately and gradually work on putting them together later.

 

Good luck!

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I don't play duet, and don't know what the arrangements in the Elise tutor book are like, but I would expect that easy or intermediate piano arrangements would be suitable.

 

Also, arrangements for violin duet. or violin and viola duet might be suitable, although possibly difficult to read both lines simultaneously if you aren't used to it. If you are looking for dance or folk music, I've seen a series of such books under the name "Airs for Pairs"

 

Taking it a step further, Dave Townsend has a series of called "The Village Band Book" with arrangements of English dance tunes for three, four, or five different melody instruments. On many of these you could play the main melody line on the right hand and then pick and choose which other line to play on the left hand, perhaps learn to play a dance with several different arrangements that way. I see these are available at the ButtonBox.com Same issue as above with reading different lines simultaneously of course, but that can be overcome with practice, or at least you can learn to play each line separately and gradually work on putting them together later.

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you! I can read music with a double staff, no problem, although I tend to find it a little confusing when the bottom line is in treble clef and not bass. That I can fix, though! I will look for the Townsend book.

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Thank you! I actually downloaded this yesterday ... I haven't had a chance to play through any of it yet. Some of the pieces on the latter pages look rather promising!

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Hello! I have been playing an Elise Hayden duet for about a year, and I am having trouble finding music to play on it. I have many books of dance music, which have melody and chord markings, but I was hoping to find some music that is a little more ... constructed, maybe? I'm bored of simply plonking away with my left hand. I am incapable of arranging myself, as my knowledge of theory is pretty non-existent. I really liked the tutor that came with the instrument, and would like to find more music arranged similarly.

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

You may have trouble finding part music for viola (LH) and violin or flute (RH) that doesn't exceed the ranges of the Elise (in either hand or both). I would recommend trying arrangements for two recorders in C (i.e., soprano or tenor, or one of each). I think it should be possible to find these at various levels of difficulty, and at least the beginning ones shouldn't go beyond the range of the Elise's two hands.

 

I can read music with a double staff, no problem, although I tend to find it a little confusing when the bottom line is in treble clef and not bass. That I can fix, though!

Well, the recorder music would be dual treble clefs, but you say you can fix that. Besides, the more you work with that format, the easier it will become, just like when you originally learned the piano's grand clef.

 

Good luck and have fun. :)

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>You may have trouble finding part music for viola (LH) and violin or flute (RH) that doesn't exceed the ranges of the Elise (in either hand or both).

 

I already experience this problem ... the range is so small. And I can't tell you how much I want a G#! (An Eb would be awfully nice too.)

 

>I would recommend trying arrangements for two recorders in C (i.e., soprano or tenor, or one of each). I think it should be possible to find these at various levels of difficulty, and at least the beginning ones shouldn't go beyond the range of the Elise's two hands.

 

I do have a lot of recorder music, although very little of it is duets. But what a good idea!

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Citycat,

There is a set of duet arrangements by David Cornell on the website concertina.com.

They were written for the Macaan duet, but you might be able to play them on the Elise.

I am sorry that I cannot put in a link, but I do not know how to do that.

 

I have a book called "The Great Family Songbook," which has fairly simple piano arrangements.

I have tried some of them on my Crane duet. If you can borrow a copy from the library, you could see if they would work on the Elise.

 

I have an old (copyright 1954) method book for the recorder called "Enjoy your Recorder" by the Trapp Family Singers.

It has many of the tunes written as duets. I do not know if it is still available, but maybe there is something newer that is similar.

 

Good luck on your search.

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Try " The Joy Books" from Yorktown Music Press. I picked up a copy of their "The Joy of First Piano Collection" which has a good variety of sparse arrangements from " Baa Baa Black Sheep" to classic pieces from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc.There are plenty more books in the series covering many genres and the arrangements, especially those for keyboards, could be adapted for Duet Concertina.

 

As MaryB says those arrangements by David Cornell on the concertina.com website can be adapted for the Hayden keyboard without too much dificulty. I am currently adapting one of the Henry Stanley arrangements for Maccann Duet, which is available on the same website, for use on the Hayden keyboard and it is working out reasonably well.

 

Good luck with the Elise,

Geoff.

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hmmmm, books with melody and chord markings sound like either books for melody instruments such as flute or violin, or "fakebooks" for players who can just look at the melody and chords and arrange on the spot. the mel bay publishers have some good books of accordion music from various cool world genres....a couple of french musette books, a french cafe accordion set by dan newton, and a title "international accordion favorites" which has some tango, some eastern europe, etc. the Kaminer series of international folk stuff (lots of eastern europe, gypsy) is also great. you can alter/simply/adapt as you like, and learn a lot about arranging and how left/right are broken down, while you're at it.

 

the other resource that could be great are the books in the palmer-hughes progressive-graded accordion course. the pieces in these include a lot of schlock (well, unless you love john philip sousa), but also include great folk or folk-inspired waltzes, tangos, etc., and some international folk-influenced classical pieces, hungarian dances, russian dances, etc. those books are great for learning to arrange on duet concertina because piano accordion's left side buttons are not only chords. there are 2 rows of single notes. and these books teach and show counterpoint, harmony, or walking bass using the single-note buttons.

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Fakebooks are great (providing a wide range of chords (triads or tetrachords, at times even indicating a special bass note) - combine them with a chord table if you should need that additional info, and there you go...

 

Moreover, someone has provided a chord generator for the concertina (all systems), don't have the spare time for a search right now).

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I have an old (copyright 1954) method book for the recorder called "Enjoy your Recorder" by the Trapp Family Singers.

It has many of the tunes written as duets. I do not know if it is still available, but maybe there is something newer that is similar.

 

Good luck on your search.

 

This seems the most likely! Thank you!!

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Try " The Joy Books" from Yorktown Music Press. I picked up a copy of their "The Joy of First Piano Collection" which has a good variety of sparse arrangements from " Baa Baa Black Sheep" to classic pieces from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc.There are plenty more books in the series covering many genres and the arrangements, especially those for keyboards, could be adapted for Duet Concertina.

 

As MaryB says those arrangements by David Cornell on the concertina.com website can be adapted for the Hayden keyboard without too much dificulty. I am currently adapting one of the Henry Stanley arrangements for Maccann Duet, which is available on the same website, for use on the Hayden keyboard and it is working out reasonably well.

 

Good luck with the Elise,

Geoff.

I will look for these; thanks very much. A question, though: how do you go about adapting for the Hayden keyboard?

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hmmmm, books with melody and chord markings sound like either books for melody instruments such as flute or violin, or "fakebooks" for players who can just look at the melody and chords and arrange on the spot. the mel bay publishers have some good books of accordion music from various cool world genres....a couple of french musette books, a french cafe accordion set by dan newton, and a title "international accordion favorites" which has some tango, some eastern europe, etc. the Kaminer series of international folk stuff (lots of eastern europe, gypsy) is also great. you can alter/simply/adapt as you like, and learn a lot about arranging and how left/right are broken down, while you're at it.

 

the other resource that could be great are the books in the palmer-hughes progressive-graded accordion course. the pieces in these include a lot of schlock (well, unless you love john philip sousa), but also include great folk or folk-inspired waltzes, tangos, etc., and some international folk-influenced classical pieces, hungarian dances, russian dances, etc. those books are great for learning to arrange on duet concertina because piano accordion's left side buttons are not only chords. there are 2 rows of single notes. and these books teach and show counterpoint, harmony, or walking bass using the single-note buttons.

Eeeeeenteresting. A lot of the books I've been playing from do have chord markings, but that's what I'm trying to get away from ... the accordion books are a good idea. I don't mind Sousa ... in moderation! Thanks.

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Fakebooks are great (providing a wide range of chords (triads or tetrachords, at times even indicating a special bass note) - combine them with a chord table if you should need that additional info, and there you go...

 

Moreover, someone has provided a chord generator for the concertina (all systems), don't have the spare time for a search right now).

 

Absolutely right. A duet works somehwat like a guitar where you can come a long way knowing the chord positions on the fingerboard.

 

In my opinion, here is one valid strategy to tackle arrangements:

 

- memorize your chord positions and practice chord changes on the left until you get fluent. It is a good exercise trying to do this in as many keys as possible.

- practice a few basic accompaniment patterns such as oohm-pa, pa-oohm, oohm-pa-pa and arpeggios. When doing so, generally avoid the third in accompaniments

(which is of course a rule that can be broken whenever it suits the piece).

- when tackling a new piece, refer to the fake chord symbols to decide which chord to finger. Then pick a pattern appropriate for the piece and practice it against

the melody.

- As you keep getting fluent at this, you may wish to embellish your left hand work using for example walking basses, pattern deviations and variations, breaks and

full chord emphasis of single notes.

 

 

Thanks! This assumes a level of knowledge I don't yet have, which is why I was trying to find some more thorough arrangements. I don't know the basic accompaniment patterns. I am primarily an early musician; all my long previous training stopped at the Baroque, basically. So stylistically, this is all fairly new to me and I don't yet know what is appropriate. I am not an improviser. I do not "jam." On the plus side, I can play the rebec and I own an entire consort of recorders ....

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Are you looking for this sort of thing?

 

http://www.flutetunes.com/tunes.php?instr=2&difficulty=easy

Hey, thanks! This is about the level I'm looking for, for sure. I'll have to dig around in this list; the quick look I just took was mostly out of the Elise's range. But I could definitely play these on the recorder, so that's a win!

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