I saw an ad the other day for a new anglo concertina book from Mel Bay Publications...."All American Concertina Album" by Alan Lochhead. It only costs 10 bucks, so I sent for it.

I don't know anything about Alan...never met him. I have a vague memory of this book being originally published back in the 1980s, and advertised in the old C&S magazine. There is precious little information besides music inside the book, other than that there is a thank you expressed to Paul Groff.

The book consists of arranged music for the 30 button anglo, in the harmonic style (chords left, melody right). Some interesting tunes....ragtime pieces, marches, some English Music Hall; I've copied the advertizing blurb from www.melbay.com below. All the notes are shown, with press and draw symbols, but no button tablature.

It looks quite interesting, and I may try out one or more of the tunes, but it is a pity that more was not done with this. Few of us anglo players, I would guess, are so adept at reading combined treble and bass clef arrangements that we would put the effort into reading full arrangements without having a sound track (CD) to show what the author himself has done with it. Alternately, the button tab could be shown; that would make it a bit easier. But without either, it looks to be a fair amount of effort to sight read (at full arrangement) what an unknown player has put together. There are arrangers and then there are arrangers...how to know whether it is worth the effort to struggle with reading it on an anglo? Andrew Blakeny Edwards did a marvelous job with Maple Leaf Rag on Anglo International, and Lochhead has a version of that rag in this book too. Given a choice, I think I'd rather try to learn from Andrew's recording than the dots written by someone I haven't heard. If anyone knows Alan Lochhead, try to get him to post some recordings so that we can see what he is up to with this music.

From time to time, folks on this Forum are looking for arrangements for the anglo. This is an interesting one, regardless of these issues. How many times, after all, have you heard anyone tackle the Stars and Stripes Forever or the Washington Post March on an anglo? Amaze your friends (...and scatter your enemies)!

Cheers,
Dan

Product Description, from www.melbay.com :
This is the Concertina book for anyone who wants to play Classic Ragtime, Marches, and popular themes, arranged for the 30-button Anglo Concertina. "The Maple Leaf Rag", "The Liberty Bell March", and more classic selections are presented for musical enjoyment. Each piece is carefully chosen for its playability on the Anglo-Chromatic concertina. Players with a "duet system" may also want this music for their repertoire. The arrangements are fully voiced, between the right and left hands to create a piano-style approach to concertina playing.

* The "All-American" 30-button Anglo Concertina Book
* Classic Ragtime - Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer, etc.
* Patriotic Marches - The Liberty Bell March, The Radetzky March, etc.
* Popular themes
* Encompasses two-handed "piano-style" playing.

I know Alan, though I haven't heard him play in several years. We live in the same area but our paths don't often cross. His background is in classical music, which may explain his preference for disseminating these arrangements via sheet music rather than recordings. His arrangements have always blown me away. I now feel my chordal-style technique might finally be at the point that I could try them, so I've ordered the book too. Info about it, including some sample pages, is here.

Some biographical info: "Alan Lochhead is an accomplished classical musician who appears in concert with several bay area orchestras playing with his 5 string German bass literally older than America. He earned his master in music at the San Francisco conservatory and has taught string bass at U.C. Berkeley. He is known internationally for his Adaptations of a variety of pieces for the concertina. He has published two collections of his works."

And I like Andrew Blakeny Edwards's playing very much too, but isn't he playing a 50-button Anglo?

Daniel

Do 30 key Anglos really go down to the C below the bass stave, because there's lots of them in the samples? Most of them are just octave bass notes so I doubt it's a problem, you just ignore it, I'm just curious.

What a coincidence!

I just got a copy of the new (Mel Bay) edition of Alan Lochhead's book and came here to announce it.... but I am late.

Dan has done a good job of describing the book, so I will just answer some of his questions about it.

This book has gone through a number of editions. The earlier versions included some other pieces which Alan couldn't get permission to arrange and re-publish.
I am not sure when the first edition came out (I loaned my copy to another concertina professional who promised to mail it back to me.....), but I know Alan had already done it when I met him in the mid 1980s.

Alan has a background as a double-bass player in symphony orchestras. He is a brilliant musician and arranger. He got interested in the concertina quite a few years before I did (1985 in my case) and by the time I met him he had learned a lot of Irish music, been to Ireland and met John Kelly and others of my heros, and there is a story that he was broadcast on Irish television PLAYING AN INTRICATE PIECE WITH THE ANGLO HELD UPSIDE DOWN (HANDS REVERSED), one of his many unusual accomplishments.

It was always a show stopper at any musical gathering in the San Francisco area to hear Alan play his remarkable arrangements of the Looney Tunes theme, the Radetsky March, Sousa marches, etc, on his 1960s Mateusewich Wheatstone 40 key C/G Aeola. Later on, he commissioned a nice G/D from Steve Dickenson and generously loaned it to me for a recording session -- a session that he also gave me.

When Noel Hill first visited San Francisco, Noel met many fine players, also friends of mine whose music I still admire very much. But Noel was particularly impressed with Alan's playing in a "Paddy Murphy" style ("There is great tradition in Alan's music, great tradition," he told me) .... as well as Alan's more virtuousic arrangements.

Dan, I have to agree with you that the book may seem at cross-purposes relative to most of today's anglo players. What Alan chose to publish was not created to fill any "ready made demand." It is not a tutor in any way (at the time I am replying to this thread, the subtitle indicates that this book is a tutor). It documents a series of very well crafted arrangements for 30 key anglo, of pieces not usually associated with that instrument in our present time. Though Alan has a 40 key instrument and uses every button, he made the arrangements for 30 keys so that more players could potentially play them.

I often suggested to Alan that he would find a wide (well, wider) market for a cd of his beautiful performances of these arrangements. Then thousands of concertina enthusiasts could enjoy them..... whereas, very very few anglo players today would have the chops or the patience to learn these from the book. But Alan, like many individualists, has done what he wanted, not what he thought others want... and he has done it to a very high level. Perhaps he is communicating with players of some future time who may discover and appreciate this book. As much as I love orally transmitted, musically nonliterate, traditional music on the anglo, that is not this instrument's only possible use. I am very glad Alan's approach to the concertina is more original, more disciplined, and more musically informed, than just another amateur's attempt to imitate the currently popular player of the year.

Who might use this book, today? I think someone interested in arranging complex music for the anglo could learn a lot by working (probably for weeks at a time) with any one of Alan's arrangements. That is the context in which I discussed the earlier edition of Alan's book when teaching "american music on the anglo" a couple of years back, and when mentioning the book in a thread on this website that was begun by Craig Wagner, about a book Craig wanted to write. Possibly Craig, like Alan, discovered he was writing the book that documented his own personal journey in creating an anglo style.

I actually think it is just as well that the arrangements are not cluttered with tab notation. There is a fingering chart at the beginning of the book (though since concertina systems differ, I would prefer that any serious student create her/his own chart with the exact layout). Before tackling this book, you had better know where all the notes live on your concertina, and you had better learn to read music. That does eliminate many concertina hobbyists today (including many fine players), but the book is just not addressed to them. It would be an insult to concertinists though to suggest that (unlike so many other musicians) they can't learn the note layout of their instrument and to read standard notation. The anglo concertinists who can and will do so (and yes, there are some), or who want to learn these skills, may be few but they will appreciate Alan's accomplishment.

Finally, my only contribution to this book was to encourage Alan, a humble man who has profited far less from his work and achievements as a musician than many with a fraction of his talent, to keep his book in print *just in case* his musical ideas might someday find "fertile soil in which to germinate." I mentioned above that I often asked him to make a cd of these (and other) arrangements. If he can ever do this I hope every anglo player will give it a listen.

Peace,

PG

Paul, Daniel,

Wow! Sounds like this is a guy the concertina world SHOULD know about. Since you both know him, is there any way either of you could convince him into recording a tune or two, either for the recordings page on the Forum, or perhaps for You Tube? It is a pity not to be able to hear someone with this much talent. I was blown away when I first heard Andrew Blakeny Edwards recordings of ragtime tunes....Alan seems like he is cut from the same cloth, and should to be encouraged to connect with the worldwide anglo tribe of today.

Here, by the way, is a picture I found of him: http://piperhq.com/ceilidh-music.htm

How about a techie question on this. If his sheet music were in a digital music-writing software (which it undoubtedly was before the publisher got it), it could be played back....not as good as hearing him, of course, but much better than just sight reading those arrangements. Does anyone know how to scan sheet music to get it 'automatically' in a software form?

Now I shall add my little bit about writing complex arrangements for anglo. Alan used the standard treble and bass clef two-staff approach, which is of course the way to go for anyone with piano and/or classical background. The unfortunate thing about that for anglo sightreaders is the bass clef...we are used to reading in treble. Maybe it is a small thing, but some notes (like C above middle C) are on both the left and right hands...so that the same exact note 'looks' completely different on the left hand staff than it does on the right hand staff (and, also a bit peculiar, all notes are written an octave lower than they sound). To get around this, I usually put my two staffs both in treble clef, and never mind the fact that some get a bit high or low relative to the five lines. Classical types may well recoil, but I find it much easier to sight read. A small matter, perhaps, but one that works against anglo players in reading fully arranged music, in my opinion...or am I a minority of one in this? I suppose I could just get over it!!

Regardless, the arrangements are quite an achievement, especially given the high praise from Paul and Daniel. I'd like to hear him play...they and the book have whetted my interest.

Dan

PS to Dirge: The notes are all intentionally written an octave lower than they actually sound...one of the problems I was mentioning above.

The bass clef is exactly like the little lines that you use to extend below the staff anyways. Middle C has its own line is all.

Do tell!

The point here is that the 'standard' for anglos since Hoeselbarth's tutor in 1840 through Minasi in 1846 is to write for the CG anglo completely in treble clef (see figure, from Minasi 1846). Minasi, by the way, was a classical composer of impeccable standing in his day, and did not feel he had to use 'standard' classical (piano-style, double clef) notation for this instrument, even when writing 'full' arrangements as in the attached example. Double clef (treble and bass) notation is of special utility for the piano and harpsichord...that scheme, which classical music lovers seem to consider the 'standard', can alternately be considered as a useful 'tab' for piano...but not necessarily for other instruments. Pianos have a single keyboard running the length of the instrument, through many octaves. Both the left and right hands migrate all over the keyboard during use. An anglo, on the other, has TWO keyboards, each a fifth apart, and each of which is halved, with each half restricted to one hand or the other. THis is very regimented, and means that a tab scheme for a piano would not necessarily be the best way for the anglo....as we anglo players all know. For Irish style players, there is no big problem...they only care about the notes, not which hand plays them. A single treble clef is used, just as in the Minasi example, and just as a classically trained violinist would use.
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The rub comes for players who treat the anglo essentially as a duet....chords principally on the left, and melody on the right. This has different requirements for sight reading. Alan's solution reflects his classical background....he prefers the look of a 'standard' classical piano notation. But the only way he can keep it from looking messy is to drop every note down an octave....a decidedly non-standard approach for anglo sight readers. There is nothing wrong with it, and it would work just fine...but we shouldn't call it 'standard' notation, at least for an anglo. And it can cause confusion....note Dirge's post above. Nearly every anglo tutor I have seen (maybe all of them, and I've seen scores of them of all ages) use strictly treble clef for a CG instrument.

The second picture compares his notation (from his book) with 'standard' anglo notation for left and right hands (from Bertram Levy, for example). Note the circled D and E notes. See how the D and E 'look different' in the treble and bass clef in Alan's notation? Minor, you may think, but some times the right hand melody drops down into the left hand....they are not completely segregateable, of course....and if you are sight reading up to tempo, it is disorienting to the eye to have that same E note appear different in the upper score as in the lower. We are not talking of a single continuous keyboard here, but two separate hands each playing halves of two keyboards. More complicated for sight reading. Hence I follow the standard, time-honored anglo practice of using two treble clefs....note that in Levy's notation system, the D and E look exactly the same on both left and right hands. An additional benefit is that a fiddle or flute player reading with me can readily read the notes of either hand, as they also use treble clef. A final advantage is that the notes appear in the proper frequencies....not an octave off, as Alan uses....Levy's D and E are shown in the proper octave. A third example shows the idea...two stacked treble clefs. It is from my Kimber book, but such an example could have come from, say, Roylance's Anglo German tutor of 1878, for example, or Bertram Levy's tutor, or...you get the idea.
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I don't put all this down to try to be argumentative....and I am increasingly in awe of Alan's work. But I definitely reject any argument that 'standard' classical (piano) notation is something that should be shoved down an anglo player's throat just because it is the proper Julliard thing to do...not that that is anything Alan is trying to do, of course! There is a 170 year tradition of writing full arrangements for anglo that use treble clef notation, and that works best for me. Nice to see another take on notation, but I think I'll pass. Now I'll get off this silly computer and see if I can somehow struggle through Alan's Liberty Bell...I won't pass on that.

Otherwords, take the notation and copy it painstakingly into Finale Notepad, using one G-cleff stave and two layers. On one layer is the left hand. On the other is the right hand.
Just transpose the right hand one - two octaves up, omitting the clashing "left-right" notes alltogether - and you have English transcription?
Hmm. A project! A CD would be very handy to see if the arrangement suits one's taste beforehand.
Other than that, looking the pieces up on the Youtube may be a good substitute.

Close, but no cigar!

For an EC transcription, take both clefs up an octave, and then smash the two clefs together. I think most EC players would prefer a single treble clef for the result....as in Frank Butler's tutor.

For a standard anglo transcription, take both hands/clefs up an octave, then change the bottom (left) clef from bass to treble. Keep the two hands/clefs separate.

For duets...dunno. I think they might be happy with just transcribing everything up an octave, and then leaving it in piano (treble and bass) notation. I don't play duet, but I've a Crane-playing friend who sight reads standard piano sheet music.

It would indeed be a project, but once in digital form, Finale or otherwise, the proper transcriptions for our various preferences would be easy peasy. And a sound file could then also and easily be created for ear players. Any takers?

Oops...must keep off this keyboard...back to the Liberty Bell.

What you're describing is very much like notation for the classical guitar, except that guitar music is notated an octave higher than it sounds (all on a single treble clef).

Hold on with that Liberty Bell.
I'd like to tackle this, but why do you suggest taking both cleffs an octave up?
Wouldn't the upper part (almost wrote "Yapper part" ) be too high and at places just outside of the range?
Similarly, the bottom part has issues:
One is that by transposing it up it may at times have the same notes as the upper part, and would benefit from leaving it down an octave for powerful sound.
The other issue is again, the range. Moving double bass up an octave may still not be within those trebles. So some dropping off will happen.
Yet another is when bass run goes from way down (where it is easy to move up an octave) to the middle C and up(which is preferrably to leave where it is). So an arranger is called. I'm not the one, I'm blind kitten, amused by the abilities of free version of Finale Notepad.
I've "arranged" Bach's Invention in C (or Amin with no # and and my Finale playes it OK, with some character even. But I'm not convinced by the sound from my Albion (it's to blame, of course). Some intervals are impossible to play in a sequence. So changes to the "arrangement" are needed.

David,

Perhaps correct, but do the guitarists try to consciously separate melody and accompaniment into two clefs? I wouldn't know!

I'm still fiddling with this music, but about to give up...I'd have to transcribe it by hand to really be able to read it properly...or play it on the piano an octave away and then learn it by ear. (And alas, I'm no use on the piano.) Paul is right in that most serious anglo players should be able to read 'standard' musical notation. But that 'standard' musical notation is not the same for each instrument, and its format is important (and I'm not talking about tablature). Individualism is fine in and of itself, but by putting it in a format with which most anglo players are unfamiliar, not only does he lose the ear players (lost them anyway), he loses the majority of sight reading anglo players too. It is a shame that Alan couldn't have gotten some peer review from the greater concertina community before releasing this major and very interesting piece of work...this could have been easily fixed to standard anglo format before it went to press. I think that would have been a major, if not essential, improvement to its presentation. I'd be very happy to hear that I'm wrong, and that some angloers find his bass/treble clef, octave off writing easy to sight read.

Cheers,
Dan

Please DO take this on!!!
The reason that I say to take both clefs up is that he says this on his explanation: "All pitches sound one octave higher than written notation". Meaning both hands/clefs as I see it. To be able to reproduce the sounds he made on his anglo, all notes have to be changed one octave. You can see that on both hands of the keyboard explanation, by comparing his notation with Levy's. Now that may not be the way an English or duet player would play this....but to fiddle with that would be modifying the arrangement. Anglo players would just like to read the arrangement as is, I should think; he is by all accounts a very skillful player, and his arrangement should be good for our range.
Try the Liberty Bell first!

I see. I guess it's done for the ease of reading in G cleff



OK, OK, give me the music. Or at least a link, or the name of the book where it is.

There are several samples, here:
http://www.melbay.com/samples.asp?ProductI...mp;s=&next=

If you page through the samples, you'll see several, but first pages only. No Liberty Bell, but either the Maple Leaf Rag or Lassus Trombone would do nicely indeed.

I have e-mailed him to let him know that he and his book are being discussed here, in case he feels like joining in.

D'oh!

Maybe I'm just coming at it from too many years of piano lessons. I don't care so much which clef it's in. The whole octave off thing, though, is a major head-trip. I always dreaded the 8va sign, because it meant I had to think. Thinking = hard.
The thing with the piano lessons, and then 5 years in school bands is with the single line stuff like what you get from most of the tutors and such on the net (and I've D/L'ed and printed all of the ones on the concertina.com site) is that they don't give you the accompianment. Sure, there's the fake-book stuff, but again there's that whole 'thinking' business again. Also, from all of the structured instruction there is this whole idea that the music is all there on the page, it just flows from paper through your eyes to your fingers. If it isn't on the paper, you don't play it -- beyond the odd grace note or twiddle here and there (and the band beats it out of you right quick if the piano teacher didn't). Only the lead trumpet players get to improvise at all in the band, fat show-offs that they are.
So any way I can get the harmony bits written out, I'm pretty happy.
Each tutor seems to have their quirks; but, oh yeah, the 8va thing is giving me second thoughts.


Speaking o' which....


Don't forget the pbpbthththth at the end. Mr. Sousa wanted it that way, I'm sure.


Also, to m3838: the issue is that this collection writes all of the notes an octave lower than the notes that you are playing, all the time. So where he has a middle c in the notation, you're supposed to actually play the c above that. It's like he has an 8va at the beginning of the book, for the whole thing. For any kind of sight-reader that can be a hassle unless you had always trained that way. Or done it a whole lot. And here I spent a lot of time with flash cards getting used to matching the notation to the buttons. Phooey.
The other part is that this ends up making the notes that are shared between the two hands look different from each other on the page. Well kind of -- if you're used to it, it isn't as bad as that. Truthfully, the 8va isn't that horrible, either, for the squeekier notes -- but for middle C? ugh.

And the squeeky bits at the top of the range are more yipper than yapper.

I think it would be more that on a piano, you have your left and right thumb on middle c, so the bass clef is your left hand bit, and the treble is for your right hand (mostly). One way to bring that same concept to an anglo is to drop the notation an octave. Kind of. I think I agree that it isn't the best solution, though.

On the flip side, I think you'd only have to stumble through it a couple of times before the sheet music is much less important, and the notation is more of a reminder than something that you're actually reading.

This is a busy thread.

Couldn't agree with you more. That is why this book is so interesting and important....it is like pulling teeth to get any anglo player to write down a full arrangement. Ask an English-style player to write down those accompaniment notes, and you get a blank stare, or worse, an are-you-stupid? stare. I've often felt that arrangements for anglo (and presumably other systems) are very interesting simply because everyone has a brain that is wired slightly differently, and that means your arrangement will be quite different (and likely better!) than mine. It is well worth studying the arrangements of gifted players...there is always something to be learned; Paul Groff and you and I certainly agree on that.
Let's not give up on it though; maybe m3838 will come through for us, Sousa's raspberry and all. Or better yet, maybe Alan will now read this discussion, thanks to Daniel's note, and find a way to send a reformatted set to anyone who buys his book. I can dream.

I placed an order at Amazon.com.
It's out of stock, unfortunately.

.
Well, tell you what: Rarely (if ever) I had the luxury of having a score that falls directly to my instrument Looks like I will have to spend a week to learn the shortcuts of Finale, so it becomes more like typing.
In any case, octave up/down is of no importance to me, I'll have to dive in and spend an evening hand typing the music into Finale, moving it up or down as needed. I go piece by piece, as I learn them and I'm a slow learner. And some pieces I drop after I learned them, like those pieces published by Pauline de Snoo. It was very challenging to learn them, I learned alot, real schooling. But when I learned them to good speed I found them not been to my taste. So every new transcribed piece is a long story.

I'm not impressed with 'This is how Anglo music is written', Dan; if you gain ledgers below the line with your new 'treble' bass line in return for losing some above the line, where's the profit? If there is no gain in clarity it is just more difficult for most musicians to sight read it. Reading bass is not a mighty step, and it is surely part of developing musicianship, which is why I am so unsympathetic.

I am starting to learn a piece in Db at the moment (Humoresque, Dvorak); I'm not screaming because I can't get it transposed to D natural or whatever, it's just another challenge that will do my playing no end of good. Where's the difference? On the other hand if you insisted that a piece in D be transposed to Db because some people found that easier to read...

Anyone looking at this book will hopefully come to want further interesting material which will probably lead them to piano music anyway, and then they'll be forced to get used to it, so what does it achieve?

The octave transcription thing is another matter altogether. That does seem odd, although not as odd as my first understanding, which was that ONLY the bass goes up an octave; not a problem on a duet as the appropriate notes are duplicated, but that also does your head in.

I think the scope of the book is excellent though; getting players thinking in terms of tackling a wider range of musical styles has got to be good for the cause, so well done to him for getting it together.

I'll spare you my opinion on guitar tablature.

(Misha; try the ICA library for English music; there's lots, arranged specifically for the instrument. (all the ones labeled 'con' I think it is; this is apparently the work of a past librarian who must have felt that there were concertinas, then there were Anglos and duets...). You can see the index on-line whether member or not.)

So I went to the ICA music library, but can't find the written music. Cataloques - yes, with names and tytles, but no clickable links.

Dirge,

Are you an anglo player? 'Tisn't the same on a duet or EC.

I don't mind bass clef on a piano, as it makes good sense, and I played in bass clef in my high school trombone years, so I have nothing against that either. I can read music. And if we were talking about melodic (Irish) style on an anglo, again no problem. But when we make a duet out of an anglo, and separate the two hands into two scores, we are doing something different, and there is a reason that every anglo tutor or tune book (at least I'm pretty sure it is all of them) that treats a harmonic accompaniment-style on the anglo in the last 170 years has used either a simple, combined treble clef or a stacked double treble clef....that tradition is trying to tell you that the compass of the two hands overlaps, and moreover, sometimes you have to play parts of the melody on the left hand rather than the right, or vice versa....so if you are writing for folks to sight read, it is worth knowing that everyone heretofore has preferred to keep the two clefs the same. Why fix something that is not broken....and why make it harder? Certainly not to bow to the gods of classical piano-style notation. I am unsympathetic with your unsympathy. Easy is almost always better (and of course especially in regard to the octave issue). Because of the double keyboard, duplicated notes, and illogical upper row, anglos are hard enough to read music with without making it yet worse.

But can one cope with it as is? Certainly I agree that we shouldn't make too big a deal out of it....although fun to discuss, it is a side issue in regard to the pleasure of Alan's excellent arrangements. I did work my way, slowly, through one of them this evening....and can recommend the music now first hand.

This thread has been fun. Here is a parting gift....a nice arranged Quadrille from Roylance, 1888 I think. Note the clean notation....both hands on the one treble clef (in more modern times, some folks separate that into two clefs, as discussed above). An added frill is that fingerings are shown. Upper fingerings for right hand, lower fingerings for left. All frequencies/octaves are as written. Simple and light. I plan to put his entire tune collection on the web, with some other similar books, once I first finish another project.

Cheers,
Dan

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No you have to be a member to get the music; you join, it's not extortionate, and ask the librarian who will email you copies (if you ask nicely; it's beyond his official remit but he's really helpful). This is the main reason I'm a member; access to the Stanley duet arrangements, but as you saw, there's even more English stuff. Having said that Dave B the librarian is on extended 'holiday' at the moment, cycling to the North Pole or something, so no music until July...

But it is routine to pick up notes from the upper stave with your left and vice versa on a duet too. Music is very rarely written obligingly to fit the sides of the 'box. And I have 71 different keys to find, which must roughly equate to a 35 key Anglo? Of course the Maccan system is famous for it's logical layout so you have my sincere sympathies having an Anglo on your hands; I couldn't make head or tail of it when I tried.

My argument is with the idea that Anglo music gets written in treble, full stop. If you are saying that it only happens when it makes the music clearer then we have no argument. If you are making it 'default setting' I still think it is a negative step, precedent or not. This is not a nod to piano players, it's a belief that it is important for the written language of music to be as consistent and accessible as possible across the board, to assist the 'busy bee gathering nectar from flower to flower' aspect of hunting for new tunes. This is both for Anglo players to be able to play this delightful game and for non Anglo players like me to be able to have a good go at Anglo pieces. The common good, even?

I read standard notation so I can look for new music and know I will be able to understand it; the day I finally get off my backside and try arranging some music I will do so confident that others can play it; except, apparently, the odd recidivist Anglo player...

I'll make it as easy as I can, Dirge.

It's the big night for our local amateur symphony orchestra, who are playing a string of popular broadway melodies and light classics. Five minutes before showtime, the conductor comes rushing in and says that their rich patron has given them some last minute sheet music of a favorite song from The Pirates of Penzance. Not a problem...these are very skilled players, and everyone should be able to sightread a little piece for the patron. The trombone section, in the back of the orchestra (whose scores are always in bass clef) get their sheets, only the music is shifted to treble clef and, additionally, all the notes are an octave higher than they are supposed to be played....a sweet little note on the sheet says to transpose that as they go. The conductor picks up his baton...you're on. I don't know about YOUR local amateur symphony, but a microphone in the trombone section of any Texas one would record a string of muttered barnyardisms that would make a deepwater sailor blush.

Alan's book is written FOR ANGLO PLAYERS. If you are just grazing through some piano music that you found, sure no problem....try to read whatever it is, and accept some difficulty in transcribing. But if the book is for anglo players, why put it in a weird format with jumped octaves and unusual clef positions? THere is no reason for this that I can see, and it hurts this book. The average sight-reading anglo player will have little patience for that. 'Nuff said. Your lack of sympathy is respectfully noted, but I intend to continue whining!!

According to the Anglo International CD notes, Andrew had both 51 and 38 key Anglos. Sadly, I did not hear him play before his untimely death, but did hear his brother, Simon, play the instruments at a subsequent Sidmouth.

Regards,
Peter.

Hello again to everyone.

Forgive me for repeating, this book is not a tutor and is not addressed to beginners. It will pose *many* challenges for anyone who wants to work with it.

There are many, many variants of (what we call) traditional staff notation. In all of these, not every parameter of music making is exactly specified. That's why you really CANNOT just plug staff notation into a computer program and get anything like an authentic musical performance. Traditional staff notation always has to be interpreted by the performer, informed by the performer's training in particular musical idioms. Anyone who is not very skilled at such performance from written music will need to work with a good teacher to learn how to translate the written notation into a living, breathing musical voice from their instrument.

Almost all serious musicians who use written music (and no, I don't believe all "serious concertina players" must be able to do so!) become conversant with MANY ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS of notation including various clefs and other conventions. Some musicians also learn various early-music tablatures and other forms of notation, not to mention the 19th century "shape note" etc. This is just a matter that the musician "goes to the mountain, since he cannot always expect it to come to him." It is not that big a deal to develop the mental flexibility needed. Maybe harder for those of us over 50 ... but if every book were geared to my diminished abilities at my advanced age, the whole world would have to be dumbed down.

Many musically literate concertinists may already play piano and be very familiar with two-handed parts written on conjoined staffs with bass and treble clefs. Others in this thread have reminded us that octave transposition (for a whole piece, or even for only part of it) is a very common convention. Congratulations to Alan for choosing, and carefully, clearly specifying, a convention of notation that expresses his ideas in a very clear and readable format. If it is not the format to which you are accustomed, of course you will have to learn it to work with his book .... but the job of learning his notation conventons will be nothing compared to the challenges ahead in working out good interpretations of the arrangements. As I said in an earlier post, most good players could expect to spend months working with this book, should they choose to take on the challenge.

So -- don't buy this book expecting to be spoon-fed. Let me say more generally though, even being spoon-fed will not necessarily solve the real problem of learning music from a book. Other tutors or simpler tab-based notations that may seem more immediately approachable will still not guarantee that the music played from them is listenable. Even simple music is hard to make good, if we are really honest with ourselves. How often have we heard on this site about the spouses who don't enjoy the music played by a middle-aged hobbyist, no matter how many hours of practice....It is not always the non-concertinist spouse who is wrong about the quality: sometimes the concertina hobbyist, no matter the effort invested, is not learning to create the quality that makes music sound good. Bless all the spouses who actually *do* very kindly tolerate the nonmusical noisemaking by their partner..... and sometimes (especially if they find a teacher) the nonmusical players really do cross over and get some quality in their playing. Having been a music teacher, and a sort of midwife to some of these transitions from awful to listenable playing, I can tell you that the confidence generated by "spoon feeding" in tab-oriented tutors can be part of the *problem* when adult beginners play poorly.....if they think music making can be made easy, they may be off-track.

A related general issue also distresses me.... the cry for "standardization" in everything. Again, this can be defended in the early stage of musical education. Say up to a year or so, or for the kind of "club" music making that has sometimes been popular among amateur hobbyist musicians. But the work and art of mature, craftsmen musicians is almost always a personal journey away from the limitations of mass-market instruments, cliches of musical expression, and even entire defined musical "styles." I remember as a beginning student on the french horn, I had a double F/Bb like every other student I knew, but reading the liner notes of Dennis Brain's recordings took me into a strange universe of different horns in different keys, of fixing a weak note with a broken matchstick..... and whatever uniqueness, even idiosyncrasy, was expressed in the instruments was nothing compared to the personal exploration that shone through the performances. To cite only one concertina example, Alan Day of this website (like many advanced players) has his own preferred modification of an anglo layout.... Music is not a competitive sport where such personal choices are "breaking the rules." When we play (or write a score) we get to make the rules, we create a universe. There may be a community of listeners who enjoy it, or not. Sometimes the appreciation may be very long delayed but eventually arrive.

So -- if you want a different book, write a different book. If you are interested in spending a good deal of time and effort to share in the work and discoveries of a very unique and advanced anglo concertinist, Alan Lochhead has given you an opportunity to do so. It is a great advantage to me that he has notated his arrangements himself, in the way that most directly reflects how his mind works. It should be repeated that these arrangements are simplified versions of the ones he actually plays; these are revised for 30 key anglos. I think that was a very kind concession on Alan's part, but if you are given an inch there, don't try to take a mile in demanding that he customize his notation to YOUR exact preferences. Of course, you could hire a skilled transcriber to rewrite the arrangements if you want to invest in that. Which raises the point, you might easily spend 2 to 5 times the cost of this book taking a single lesson from a professional music teacher. I can't even begin to estimate the time and effort (and more important, the quality and judgment) that have gone into creating and notating the arrangements. In our world of xeroxes and downloaded free pdfs a lot of this kind of work has become devalued by the consumer....

Dan, with all respect, if you do not value this book please mail me your copy and I will buy it for your costs (price, postage cost to you, and postage cost to me). I know of a very talented concertina student here who will make very good use of it. Such students and players who *will* find a welcome challenge, rather than frustration, in this book are probably few. But that is not Alan's fault. He is who he is, he plays what he plays, it is amazing and beautiful to me (you don't have to like it, and if you don't I don't care), and I am very grateful he took the time to produce this document exactly in the form he wished.

PG

The cry for "standardization" is most often really a demand that everyone be forced to do things "my way". It's a rare person indeed who will say -- or even accept, -- "I have a way of doing things that I'm really comfortable with, but I'll be happy to change to another way, as long as everybody else does, just so that it's standardized." (Or should that be "standardiSed"?)

No, it is not true. A good example of standartization is the language.
If you want Babilonian Individualism - you'll be all alone, doing things your way to nobody's satisfaction.
The issue here was probably inability of said arranger to provide transcription in convinient way. He simply may not have been even thinking that Piano score may be difficult, and having been told, would have just shrugged.
Usual story

On a Piano or a Hayden, moving up and down an octave isn't a huge deal -- the patterns your fingers use are still the same, you just have to remember to move your hands to the right place -- two changes and you're done. For an Anglo or a whistle or a clarinet (or a fiddle probably) the octave shift is a bigger deal, because you have to adjust the movements and positions of all of your fingers -- that's up to eight or nine changes, most of which aren't really consistent with each other. It's almost like having to re-learn how to finger the notes from scratch. So I can see that as a valid concern. I think I understand why it was done, and I can appreciate that, but Like Mr. Worrall I think there may have been a better way to accomodate that goal.

But again, the sheet music is just to learn the tune. Once you have it, it's just a guide to what's already been memorized at most. So I'll probably spring for the book for the tunes in it eventually, but I reserve the right to complain about it if I wanna. I got a God-given right to complain about all manner of things.

And now for something completely different....
I do so very much want to play the liberty bell march!.

[quote name='wntrmute' date='May 24 2008, 01:11 PM' post='72766']
On a Piano or a Hayden, moving up and down an octave isn't a huge deal -- the patterns your fingers use are still the same, you just have to remember to move your hands to the right place -- two changes and you're done. For an Anglo or a whistle or a clarinet (or a fiddle probably) the octave shift is a bigger deal, because you have to adjust the movements and positions of all of your fingers -- that's up to eight or nine changes, most of which aren't really consistent with each other. It's almost like having to re-learn how to finger the notes from scratch. So I can see that as a valid concern. I think I understand why it was done, and I can appreciate that, but Like Mr. Worrall I think there may have been a better way to accomodate that goal.


Dear wntrmute,

If I understand you correctly, you are not going about tranposing up an octave the way I would. I read the music, and *in my mind* I make a calculation (which if practiced, becomes almost immediate) that I want to PLAY the note an octave above the one notated -- then I play that note. I do not find the note on the concertina that is in the octave notated, and then move up an octave.

I really believe it is harmful to your understanding of musical notation to immediately make a one-to-one correspondence between any written symbol and a particular button/direction of the concertina. Instead, understand that (for example), a middle C is notated. With advance notice of an octave transposition, you will read this as a C an octave higher.

Many players of wind instruments learn to transpose at will, not only very easy octaves, but seconds, fourths, fifths, etc. You have to learn some theory and then practice.

Think of composers (and conductors) reading scores!

PG

edited for clarity -- I originally wrote how I would transpose down an octave, but to use Alan's book you transpose up an octave.

and to add: Actually, if you know the notes of an anglo and how to play them, it is not too hard to play any passage in multiple octaves (the idea you proposed) even though the fingerings are different. Playing the same passage in two or more octaves simultaneously (requiring different fingerings in the two octaves) is a lovely effect on the anglo and widely used in traditional as well as notated music.

I've been in piano and band competitions where there's a written theory part and a practical where you play a song or two. Placed in them, too. I'm not saying that this book is impossible, or even wrong. It's just that there's a 'knack' that this book seems to call on that I haven't got. There's the knack of being able to sight read at or near speed. I've never had this naturally, and it'll take a few more years of study before I can even stumble through something passably at first glance. But I've known people who within a year or two of touching an instrument who could run through something they'd never seen before at speed. It's a knack. I've known people who could transpose any tune into any key on the fly. I've never been one to be able to do that without working it out ahead of time, I'd have to play it out a couple of times to be able to do it at speed; but these people just play it like that's how they've always played it. It's a knack. There's the other knack of being able to hear something, and then reproduce it right off. I've never had this. I have to work at music, it isn't ever easy for me. I enjoy it, but I have never had many of the gifts that allow it to be easy. Not everyone does. There's few who have all of these knacks.
So, while I don't expect to sit down with this book and be able to rip out every tune in it at first glance, I really don't have that expectation of any sheet music. I just don't have that knack. Like I've said before, it will just be a bit harder than usual the first several times remembering to play an octave off.
The octave playing thing is recommended in several tutors, and you can hear it in the professionals' playing. I'm still working on that. The individual notes I've got, it's the moving from one note to the next that I'm fumbling still. I'll get that down, eventually -- that's less a knack and more of a familiarity with the instrument kind of thing. I've been at this for a pretty short time on this insturment, after all.
Not a lot of octave playing on a clarinet, y'know.

Dear wntrmute,

Patience and faith! I don't know if you mean to equate "knack" or "gift" with an innate, unlearned ability, but in almost every musician I know these skills must be learned and developed by many hours of practice. Like learning a language, learning some of these musical skills does come very, very easily to a few rare individuals, especially if they start very young. Most of the rest of us can learn them, even if not so easily.... but again, the older we are, the slower and more frustrating it becomes to learn them. Still I have students who have made amazing progress through hard work and persistence, even if starting in their 60s or later, with the right guidance....and a few days beyond my 50th birthday I do hold out hope for myself learning a few more things in whatever time I have left. J. S. Bach is supposed to have said "Anyone could write music as fine as mine, if he would work as hard as I do." What may seem like a "talent" "gift" or "knack" in many cases --- the apparent ease with which another musician does something -- is often the "tip of the iceberg"......the bigger part of the thing, that is unseen, is the thousands of hours of patient, disciplined effort.....including millions of mistakes made, then corrected, then the correct thing reinforced.....

I am sure you will gain all the skill you have the patience to develop! And of course many skills, including reading music or playing arrangements like Alan's, are just not a priority for many players. There are other styles, other ways to make great music. You will work, work to master those also....and when you do, someone will say "I wish I had that knack." :-)

PG

Hi Paul,
I think I said several times in the above that it is an impressive work...that is why I initiated this thread, so that people would be aware of it. And I am certainly one of the persons on this Forum who appreciate how much work goes into producing a book like this for anglo players...untold hours with no expectation of monetary reward. Hats off to Andy.

Andy is a professional bass player, and this unusual format reflects that...it works for him. That particlar format, including the octave jumps, has never been attempted, to my knowledge, in the history of our instrument for a published work. It is a pity that it will cause more 'thinking' (as someone said above) and difficulty, and thus put off, many sight reading anglo players, when it seems to offer little advantage. It is a grand experiment. I could easily be wrong, but I don't think the format will catch on. I hope you are right, and that there are many folks who will work through it.

The world of modern published arrangements for anglo has just increased from a tiny handful to a tiny handful plus one. That in itself is worth celebrating.

Dan

And it's got the Monty Python theme song!!! Sheesh, whats not to love.

Andy is a professional bass player, and this unusual format reflects that...it works for him. That particlar format, including the octave jumps, has never been attempted, to my knowledge, in the history of our instrument for a published work. It is a pity that it will cause more 'thinking' (as someone said above) and difficulty, and thus put off, many sight reading anglo players, when it seems to offer little advantage. It is a grand experiment. I could easily be wrong, but I don't think the format will catch on. I hope you are right, and that there are many folks who will work through it.

If only the world would switch to MY notation system, not only it would make me rich beyond my wildest dreams, it will effectively eliminate the whole problem of writing the notes below or above the octave or learning to read various cleffs.
It just shows you that common sense has nothing to do with logic in simple mathematical way. That's why Art is present and that's why Art is the only mean of true communication between people, and that's why Art is the most important aspect of human civilization.
Said I , packing the dirt on the tomb of my financial future.

I have no idea how well it works but here is a link http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/pdftomusic.htm and http://www.myriad-online.com/en/products/omer.htm

An anglo player who can just about read music but hasn't mastered the bass clef, so I have to first learn bass clef, just play an octave higher. It is off putting.

Graham

(edited to delete)

Hi Graham, many thanks for the two links.

I tried out the 'Omer' software the other night and thought I'd report on the experiment. It was free for testing, and I already am a bit of a power user of myriad's Harmony Assistant. I was able to convert a couple of pages pretty quickly....but I got only about 40% success in playing recognizeable music for Lassus Trombone, and much less still for Maple Leaf Rag. There are some features of the book's printed music format that the software doesn't like (some are non-standard, like the inclusion of notes above middle C within the bass clef in Maple S R). I have a feeling that this software is pretty hard to please for anything; I put some 19th century sheet music from a concertina tutor into it, and it couldn't read it at all. The mistakes in conversion can be fairly easily edited, one by one....but that starts to become a very big job pretty quickly. And there is no way to rewrite it in a more convenient clef format once you are done. Oh, well.

By the way, the 40% of Lassus Trombone that 'worked' sounded pretty good!

Dan

Too bad. That was a great post. I read it in the e-mail before it was deleted. My wife asked me why I had a broad smile on my face as I was reading it (it was the bit about school kids learning piano). I think all of Dan's and Paul's posts have very compellingly laid out competing arguments, and I don't know which I agree with more. Bravo to both of you.

The selected arrangements are presented as repertoire, (in musical manuscript--sight reading not required). All of these arrangements were done at the Concertina, not on paper. The idiomatic playability of this repertoire will be self-evident and may readily bring musical enjoyment. The piano 2-staff system (up an octave) does lend itself to the concertina's two-handedness in 3 1/2 octaves, and it allows presentation of the notation without excessive ledger lines.

Alan Lochhead (Anglo Concertina)

Alan,

Welcome to the Forum. As you can clearly see, we are a lively bunch here!

Your book is very impressive. I remember seeing an ad for it years back, in an earlier incarnation, and later kicking myself for not getting it when it was available. Great to see it in print again. Full arrangements for anglo are, as you well know, scarcer than hen's teeth, and yours treats material not often heard on Anglo.

Have you ever considered putting out some recordings? Either formally in a commercial CD, or informally on someting like YouTube? If you search around the Forum, you'll see that Leo keeps us abreast of new video clips ( e.g., this post http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=7613 ). It would be wonderful for us to be able to hear your playing, given the rave reviews we have heard from Paul Groff and Daniel Hersch.

Cheers,
Dan

Hi.
I put an order for your book with Amazon, but it's out of print. Are you in the know about where it will be replenished?
Thanks.

http://www.musictime.com/product_info.php?...81358f74cca3fc2

I ordered a copy through Musictime a few days ago. I hope they had stock then.

Graham

Don't know what continent you live on, but I bought mine online from Elderly Instruments...they'll ship anywhere.
Dan

The answer was no they haven't got in stock, it is on back order and will take at least 2 weeks and quoted postage to UK was incorrect. There is no stock in UK showing on www and the cheap postage, $4, was the deciding factor in choosing them. The Button Box have them as well.

Graham

Thanks.
I cancelled my order with Amazon and ordered from the Button Box.
I'm sure I'll have to do fair amount of fiddling with it to adapt to EC.

I will become a member of that Concertina thing Library, but am afraid that the most of EC arrangements are dated, overworldly chorded and the music is..mm. specific. I looked at Regondi arrangements and listened to two CDs I have, and they left me unimpressed. The amount of proficiency needed is not justified by the muical outcome, to my taste, and going three octaves up, then down, then way up again is not supported by the instrument in my posession.

And I have recieved the book.
Already!
Upon first look I must say that I, for instance, will play it as written, not a squeaky octave up. I will adopt the basses and bring it to one stave, will see what will happen. I'm especially interested in Rags.
Secondly, I am lost at some posters, who stated the difficulty of figuring the music out.
The score even indicates the pull and push. What indication of buttons and rows do you need, that is more obvious than pull/push symbols?
Thirdly, the scores have mostly single note melody on the right, and chords on the left.
Whoever is afraid of that is better off picking up a kazoo. It's a more or less beginner's book for the Anglo with music other than "tunes".
Resume: Get this book, especially you, Irish players. It'll teach you a bunch about Irish music, and you'll stop wining about playing chords in ITM, and hopefully start playing the "music", not "ITM", which I suspect stands for "I Talk Much".
Sorry for the "tough love", but so many of you trashed the book without looking at it, and those who offered the Book, described it dead wrong.
I think it's a must for amateur Anglo players, if they want to learn something. None too late.
Hopefully it's not the last one, and other books and arrangements will follow.