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Tune Of The Month For June: La Luna Dins L'aiga


Jim Besser

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Are the reeds more 'equal' on a duet or do you you train your left hand to lighten up? Or, indeed, do you keep the accompaniment side of the concertina away from the recording speakers?

I must admit that yes, I have been recording my TOTM submissions with the microphone on the right side of my Wheatstone Hayden Duet. The balance problem is such an ever-present issue that any way to deal with it must be considered. It never occurred to me that it might be controversial. And while I'm being honest, when I recorded La Luna, one note failed to speak, so I used a sound-editing app to copy and paste the same note from 8 bars later. :o

Open fifth? Isn't that a string instrument thing? What other kind of a fifth would there be on a concertina?

No. String instruments have open strings tuned in 5ths (I play the cello) but the expression "open 5th" has nothing to do with that. An open 5th, on any instrument (including a stringed instrument, whether using open strings or not) is simply a 5th without an intervening 3rd. If you play only two notes and they are at an interval of a 5th, it is an open 5th. It's a little redundant, like saying "a bare minimum." There's no other kind of minimum, but the extra word emphasizes that you really mean that and nothing else. If you play a major chord, you are playing a 5th, but that's not all you are playing, so it is not an open 5th.

 

By the way, there are also diminished 5ths (B - F, for instance) and augmented 5ths (C - G#) and those are not open 5ths, either. The word that corresponds to "diminished" and "augmented" that refers to the 5th in an open 5th is "perfect." C - G is a perfect 5th. "Perfect" can only refer to 5ths, 4ths, unisons, and octaves (or multiple octaves).

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Open fifth? Isn't that a string instrument thing? What other kind of a fifth would there be on a concertina?

No. String instruments have open strings tuned in 5ths (I play the cello) but the expression "open 5th" has nothing to do with that. An open 5th, on any instrument (including a stringed instrument, whether using open strings or not) is simply a 5th without an intervening 3rd. If you play only two notes and they are at an interval of a 5th, it is an open 5th. It's a little redundant, like saying "a bare minimum." There's no other kind of minimum, but the extra word emphasizes that you really mean that and nothing else. If you play a major chord, you are playing a 5th, but that's not all you are playing, so it is not an open 5th.

 

FWIW, these "open fifths" are frequently referred to as "power chords" as well (a term used mainly for electric guitar playing. NB: The pun freak in me just LOVES the wikipedia side note "Not to be confused with Power cord." in the article on power chords! :D )

Edited by Ruediger R. Asche
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Here's this month's attempt and my continued work on adding accompaniment:

https://soundcloud.com/mildredestelle/la-luna-dins-laiga

 

A question for EC players -- how do you keep the accompaniment notes (esp low sustained ones) from overwhelming the tune? I seem to have trouble keeping some notes from blasting out with a great HONK! How much is the nature of hte beast and how much my overzealous fingers?

 

Before uploading I listened again to all the versions so far and it seemed to me that the duets manage the tune/accompaniment balance in a very nice way. Are the reeds more 'equal' on a duet or do you you train your left hand to lighten up? Or, indeed, do you keep the accompaniment side of the concertina away from the recording speakers?

 

thanks in advance for any ideas/ suggestions

Sarah

Very nice version, Sarah and Canon too.

Concerning soundbalance, I find - the more confident I get with a tune, the easier it is to emphasize the melody. It happens kind of automatically when I concentrate on the melody. But, as a Duett-player, this is probably easily said.

About recording: a mistake I made in earlier recordings was, that I didn´t take care about walls being close to only one side of my concertina. The reflection of a wall adds up quite a bit to the volume of the recording.

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My contribution here on Wakker W-W1. Played in GM....

 

 

Melodic indeed. These duets get more and more compelling. Darn...

Been away from the net for a while & just catching up (and enjoying) the submissions so far. Here's my effort- this time played on my newly acquired ( and first "traditional" concertina) Jones A-flat / E-flat. http://snd.sc/188ZRA6

 

Such a treat !

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Here's this month's attempt and my continued work on adding accompaniment:

https://soundcloud.com/mildredestelle/la-luna-dins-laiga

 

A question for EC players -- how do you keep the accompaniment notes (esp low sustained ones) from overwhelming the tune? I seem to have trouble keeping some notes from blasting out with a great HONK! How much is the nature of hte beast and how much my overzealous fingers?

 

Before uploading I listened again to all the versions so far and it seemed to me that the duets manage the tune/accompaniment balance in a very nice way. Are the reeds more 'equal' on a duet or do you you train your left hand to lighten up? Or, indeed, do you keep the accompaniment side of the concertina away from the recording speakers?

 

thanks in advance for any ideas/ suggestions

Sarah

Very nice version, Sarah and Canon too.

Concerning soundbalance, I find - the more confident I get with a tune, the easier it is to emphasize the melody. It happens kind of automatically when I concentrate on the melody. But, as a Duett-player, this is probably easily said.

About recording: a mistake I made in earlier recordings was, that I didn´t take care about walls being close to only one side of my concertina. The reflection of a wall adds up quite a bit to the volume of the recording.

Thanks Stefan.

As someone new to recording, I found the same problem as you ie too close to walls. As I'm only using an ipad to record I now have it on a music stand and am trying various locations around the house! One thing I've noticed is that the Jones has a greater inbalance between left and right than my Marcus hybrid.

 

 

 

 

My contribution here on Wakker W-W1. Played in GM....

Beautifull rendition! :)
I second Geoff's comments- very nice!

 

 

 

 

 

Been away from the net for a while & just catching up (and enjoying) the submissions so far. Here's my effort- this time played on my newly acquired ( and first "traditional" concertina) Jones A-flat / E-flat. http://snd.sc/188ZRA6

Well done Cannon ,

some nice ideas !

Thanks Geoff.
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Ah ha! And here I thought an 'open fifth' meant playing adjacent open strings (as on a cello or violin as you say David), but now see that 'open' has other meanings depending on context. But by this definition I see one can play an open fifth 'power chord' on a string instrument with stopped notes. Whew.

 

Great thoughts about instrument placement when recording too -- what a difference a wall can make.

 

My education continues apace -- much appreciated as ever.

 

Sarah

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Ah ha! And here I thought an 'open fifth' meant playing adjacent open strings (as on a cello or violin as you say David), but now see that 'open' has other meanings depending on context. But by this definition I see one can play an open fifth 'power chord' on a string instrument with stopped notes. Whew.

 

To play the "power chord" with stopped notes enables you to fall below the perfect fifth as well as to overstep it when using the fifth as a starting point for melody over the "first" drone or some ornamentation...

 

And it's the same with any fifth on the EC! :)

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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Thanks for the kind comments regarding my efforts. I've been finding the totm to be an enjoyable challenge. Now that I've put my contribution in, as with last month, I'll collect the Soundcloud recordings together into a set.

It has been mentioned elsewhere that it could be convenient to set up a Concertina.net group on Soundcloud. I think there could be some advantage to do so... and am happy to set up the group. The hesitation is that I wouldn't want to step on any toes by volunteering to moderate.

Among other things, a Concertina.net group on Soundcloud could help users quickly find CNET contributions.

Any thoughts?

Edited by SqueezeCat
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Hi all, Total newbie here. I've greatly enjoied learning from this forum. Here is the first (too slow) tune off Elise, my first concertina. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Patrick,

I think this is good. Nice and steady with ample chord structure. Better it is slow with accuracy . I think that although it is your first concertina , this is not your first attempt at playing music.

Geoff.

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Hi all, Total newbie here. I've greatly enjoied learning from this forum. Here is the first (too slow) tune off Elise, my first concertina.

Excellent! Great to have another Wicki/Hayden version. I look forward to hearing your next TOTMs.

 

... added to the Soundcloud set....

Edited by SqueezeCat
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