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Looking For Music For The 34 Hayden Duet?


Button Pusher

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I am a beginner trying to learn to play the Elise, Hayden Duet concertina. I choose the duet because from what I read, it was the easiest to learn to play and was a good choice for solo playing. Living 25 miles from the nearest town, playing for my own enjoyment is my only real option. I’ve been through the lesson book that came with the instrument, but I am finding additional sheet music for this instrument to be non-existent. Playing by ear is a non-starter for me; I need to see the notes to play. There seems to be a lot of lesson books and music written for a 30 key Anglo, I am beginning to think I made a mistake choosing this duet. But before I give up on the Elise, I would like to find out:

 

1. Can anyone recommend any beginner lesson books or where I can purchase sheet music for the 34 key Hayden Duet?

2. I would like to play some Sea Shanties, does anyone know of a book or sheet music with the lyrics for this music?

3. What sheet music written for a different instrument would be best to play with a duet concertina?

 

Thanks,

Damman

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You could try 'easy piano' scores... there are quite a few books available; one I've pulled off my bookshelf called " The joy of First Piano Collection" from Yorktown Music Press. This has simple arrangements that can be adapted for the Duet Concertina. I'm sure there are lots more 'beginner keyboard' sheet music books available. You may have to transpose arrangements to fit onto the 34 key Duet .

 

I look for sheet music books at garage sales and flea markets... there are often to be found ,less complex arrangements for the amateur musician can be ideal for the concertina

 

Check out the music for Duet concertina at www.concertina.com

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Duet specific music tends to take advantage of the duets ability to play fancy stuff like counterpoint, or simultaneous harmony line with the melody. Gorgeous but frustrating for a beginner.

 

Try learning the left hand chord shapes. Just 2, major and minor will get you a long way. There are links to diagrams of the shapes on this site if you search, or shout if you can't find them.

 

Then get music with melody notes and chord symbols ("C", "G", "D", "Em" etc) so you can play the melody with your right hand and accompany yourself with the left.

 

A great beginner book for this if you like English folk is Easy Peasy Tunes by Dave Mallison: http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/local/sales/products/GM07028/easy-peasy-tunes-by-mally/

 

And the Internet is full of a lifetime supply of free such scores. Try: http://www.8notes.com/school/search_fsm.asp?keyword=free+folk&x=0&y=0

Search musescore.com, folktunefinder.com. Have fun.

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I’ve been playing the Hayden for 30 years and I’ve never seen music published with the Hayden in mind. You have to go with what you can find and adapt as necessary. But the sources are limitless. If your musical tasted overlap with many of us here on concertina.net, you’ll find much to chew on in books of Morris Dance tunes, Contradance Tunes (The Portland Collection books), English Country Dance tunes (The Peter Barnes books), English Session Tunes (“Hardcore English”) or The Waltz Books. Many of these can be bought at store.cdss.org, although it’s poorly organized for browsing. Better for browsing, if a little less complete is buttonbox.com/tune-books.html.

 

Good luck, have fun, and welcome to the world of Hayden concertinas.

Edited by David Barnert
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I'm not sure if it's the kind of sea shanties that you're looking for, but I recently ran across two books of Newfoundland songs: "All Around the Circle" and "We'll Rant And We'll Roar". The publisher's website has a sample song from each book you can try for free: http://www.avondalemusic.com/tilthillsongbook2.html

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The definitive book on sea shanties is "Shanties from the Seven Seas" collected by Stan Hugill. It includes lyrics and a melody line and extensive background about each song.

 

It does not include any accompaniments because, as work songs, they were sung unaccompanied.

 

If you can't find a new copy then try ABEbooks.com.

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Duet concertina workshops usually cover all duet types together. So music for any duet type should suit the Hayden. But your 34-button model may be a bit limited for range, so you may have to fudge things a bit.

 

I know you say you live in a remote area, but if you can get to a squeeze-in somethere which caters for duets you should get some music to play and meet others who are dealing with the same problem.

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But your 34-button model may be a bit limited for range, so you may have to fudge things a bit.

 

The 34-button Elise can play diatonically in F, C, G, D, and their relative (natural) minors. Enough for many of the tunes in the sources I mentioned above, not enough for the Bach 2-Part Inventions.

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  • 1 month later...

Thank you for all the great information! I've picked up a "easy peasy tunes" which are a little to easy, in that the tunes lack a bass clef. A couple of sea shanty song books and down loaded some sheet music from 8notes.com. Nothing specifically arranged for the Elise, but playable.

 

Just out of curiosity, I picked up a good used Rochelle off eBay for $275 with a hard case. I figured it was cheap enough, that I could easily resale it for the same amount if I didn’t like it. Like starting out on any new instrument, it takes some getting used to, especially when switching from the Hayden duet key layout to a 30 button diatonic. It’s too confusing to try and learn both instruments, they each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I’ll keep squeezing away until I decide on which way to go. Thanks again.

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Not too sure of the capabilities of that thing, but maybe 18th century Scottish music might fit - as published (by the Gows among others) the arrangement usually fitted a violin in first position and a cello played in a very simple agricultural vamping style. So - left hand down to C below the bass staff up to the D above it, right hand from G below the treble staff up to B above it.

Edited by Jack Campin
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I wrote a beginners tutor for the Hayden concertina, which gives a very simple bass line for the left hand side. Included in it is "The High Barbary" one of the sea songs that Bob Roberts of Penmill used to sing along with many of his sea shanties.

This gives a simple counter melody to the tune. However for sea shanties I would personally suggest a good rhythmic um-pah bass to get the anchor up and the sails hoisted might be more suitable.

You will find the above mentioned tutor on the other concertina site (concertina.com).

If you have any other questions about Hayden concertinas you should post on the teaching and learning section of this web site.

 

Inventor.

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Maybe the best way is beginner piano or accordion music and try to adapt the bass and treble to fit the Hayden. Ron

 

Like Charlie Chan say: “Every ‘maybe’ have little brother: ‘maybe not.’”

 

I disagree. Use books of tunes like the ones I suggested in post #4, above. They’ll tell you what to play with your right hand. Figure out for yourself what to play with the left hand. Use the published chords as suggestions, but not as a straitjacket.

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Maybe the best way is beginner piano or accordion music and try to adapt the bass and treble to fit the Hayden. Ron

 

Scratch the "best" to avoid trouble. TMTOWTDI So much depends on where you are and where you are inclined to go. I have found easy piano music to be fun, educational, and quite available for many tunes.

 

How about "Beauty and the Beast" as an example: https://musescore.com/score/2335211/download/pdf

Edited by Patrick Scannell
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I bought the Elise a few weeks ago and have really been enjoying myself. I have very little experience in music and wanted a compact instrument that I can use to learn a few simple songs. Just for extra fun, I have been working with lilypond and my own software to create some type of a 'TAB' system. One of my first attempts is attached. It might be of use or interest to others.

 

Joy.pdf

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I bought the Elise a few weeks ago and have really been enjoying myself. I have very little experience in music and wanted a compact instrument that I can use to learn a few simple songs. Just for extra fun, I have been working with lilypond and my own software to create some type of a 'TAB' system. One of my first attempts is attached. It might be of use or interest to others.

 

 

Congratulations, and welcome to the world of concertinas and the Hayden system.

 

The tablature is interesting. Although shouldn’t the first page be “F G A c Bb Bb” rather than “A F G A c Bb”?

 

I would strongly encourage redirecting the effort you’re putting into creating and learning to read this tablature into learning to read music notation. It took me a while to figure out how your tablature worked, and I’ve been playing the Hayden for 30 years and reading music for 50. [Edited to add: ... and playing “Jesu, Joy...” for 47 of them.]

 

The only thing your tab provides that’s not in the dots is fingering, and that shouldn’t be carved in stone. For instance, in this tune, many would use 2, 3, and 4 (where you have 1, 2, and 3) to finger the F, G, and A at the start, and to start any major scale. Why limit that choice? Music notation is much more useful (it tells you where the beats are, for instance, and gives you the rhythm). And ultimately, it’s no harder (probably easier) than reading the tab.

 

Also, the longer you wait to start using your left hand along with the right (even if it’s just drones), the more difficult you will find it.

 

Good luck.

Edited by David Barnert
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Thanks for the feedback. Im sure you are 100% correct. The only information I had on the fingering was pg 2 of the Elise tutor. "...to make sure you use the correct finger" It seemed like a good starting point. The raw data (notes in any song) are translated/shifted/transposed to fit the available notes on the Elise, then output into the three formats (midi, sheetmusic, and my tab) My Goal is to have the left hand filled with the chords of silent night (with words) in time to learn it for Xmas. The learning curve on lilypond alone is pretty steep. My test right now is to see if my notes (regardless of source) are accurately reflected in the output. If there was another Tab system out there, this is where someone would point me in the right direction. My apologizes to Mr Bach for just using a snippit of his tune. Thanks again.

joy.pdf

joy.txt

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As a very late learner of music, I have to agree with David's advice about learning to read music notation.

 

I realise that I will probably never really learn to read music notation the same way that I might have had I not wasted my youth on mathematics and computer science instead of focusing on what is really important: music.

 

A fluent reader can look at a multi-part piece of music notation and just hear it in their mind. I don't expect to ever be able to do that, even for a single melody line. But now, I can read music a bit like I could read English when I was 5 years old: slowly and with lots of hesitation. But, in most cases, I want to read the music notation for a piece that I already know so I find that I can usually play the melody line directly from the notation without having to look at the buttons or thinking overmuch on which button to press.

 

The big problem with tab notation for our instruments is that you cannot find any music published in tab notation. It sounds as if you are trying automatically convert from Lilypond format to your own tab notation. While I do not really think this is a productive idea, you should at least be converting from the abc format to your notation as there is so much more music available in abc notation.

 

Standard music notation is really a very efficient way of expressing musical ideas, and it has stood the test of time, so don't fight it.

 

How to learn to read music fairly quickly? There are lots of smart phone 'flash card' type apps that will drill you through the basics. Load one of these on to your phone and practice whenever you are waiting around somewhere. Before long you will instinctively know the notes on the staff without having to run through a mnemonic. Then you need to practice with your instrument until you can simply press the the button that corressponds to the note without having to think where the button is. You have to train yourself not to look down at the button while you search for the right button. Practicing your scales and calling the notes out loud can help with this. Then start reading through tunes you know in your head so that when you press the wrong button you will know it is wrong. I find that reading the rhythm is much harder but if I count out each measure note by note then I can get there, albeit very slowly.

 

Sorry if I am being a bit pedantic here.

Edited by Don Taylor
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