As I get more comfortable with this new instrument I'm doing a lot more fooling around for my own amusement, and have started to play some favorite modern stuff. Lots of things that I have always played on harmonica (like Neil Young's "Comes a Time"), or always wanted to play on harmonica but didn't have the accidentals (Beatle's Eleanor Rigby for instance) sound great on concertina, and have the added benefit of being more acceptable to my long suffering captive home audience than my strangulated rendition of "Porthole of the Kelp"! A cruise through tune-o-tron and Youtube doesn't reveal much beyond trad music and tin-pan alley stuff for the anglo. (Not that there's anything wrong with that ) Is anyone playing contemporary, popular music and sharing approaches and arrangements?

Edited to add: My primary interest is English Traditional Music, but a change is nice once in a while!

May I assume you're now playing an EC? I just got a trainer (Jack), but my main squeeze for the past 4 years has been a Hayden Duet.

I don't know how contemporary it ranks next to the Beatles et al, but for a couple years I've been playing the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland" by George SHearing. It's amazing how well it works out on the Hayden's button setup, with all those diminished chords. Likewise ragtime tunes. Usually only accordionists venture into the jazz world.

And I like the usual trad contradance tunes and Irish airs, including recent dance tuens from Jody Kruskal and the Connecticut River valley (western Mass etc.), but I came to the concertina with no preconceived notions of what to play on it, so I play what I like and what works on the box.

Nope, I am learning on a Rochelle AC, and have just ordered a Morse in GD to play with my Longsword side. I too like to play by ear whatever tune is in my head at the moment, but am looking for some inspiration to go beyond just playing the melody.

I have really enjoyed the videos of some of the early jazz standards and late 19th/ early 20th century stuff played by people like Jeff Leffert and Jody Kruskal.

[quote name='Bill N' date='Sep 22 2008, 01:04 PM' post='78805']
As I get more comfortable with this new instrument I'm doing a lot more fooling around for my own amusement, and have started to play some favorite modern stuff. Lots of things that I have always played on harmonica (like Neil Young's "Comes a Time"), or always wanted to play on harmonica but didn't have the accidentals (Beatle's Eleanor Rigby for instance) sound great on concertina, and have the added benefit of being more acceptable to my long suffering captive home audience than my strangulated rendition of "Porthole of the Kelp"! A cruise through tune-o-tron and Youtube doesn't reveal much beyond trad music and tin-pan alley stuff for the anglo. (Not that there's anything wrong with that ) Is anyone playing contemporary, popular music and sharing approaches and arrangements?

Edited to add: My primary interest is English Traditional Music, but a change is nice once in a while
some Beatles tunes,work well,I recorded yesterday and all my loving,ON VINYL LP .20 odd years ago.
lea nicholson played a lot of Beatles numbers.

agreed

It's all in French. However it's like asking if anybody playing contemporary pop on C/F Hohner Pokerwork. Hmm. it really all in French, and in G/C.
May be you'll like some playing of Göran Rahm.
Does anybody have the links?

Sorry M3838,

I don't understand what you're saying about it all being in French. (I do understand French, however )

I suspect he might mean 'Greek' or 'Double Dutch' Bill.

I also find Jazz numbers sound very good on the concertina; I'm trying to work out 'Cry Me A River' at the moment and, having just seen the film 'Alfie' I'm going to do some detective work to find out what the recurrent theme there is called and see if I can find some dots for it, because it's going round and round in my brain, man...

Ahhhh... still don't understand his point though. I thought my post was pretty straightforward.

Yes, some of those old standards can really stick in your head. My wife calls them "ear worms". I've got Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust" on my "to learn" list for the same reason.

I'm now at the point where I can pick out a melody and play it at a reasonable tempo, so am trying to move along to the next step of adding some ornamentation, left hand chords, etc. to make my playing more interesting. I've found lots of good examples for traditional styles, but it would be great to hear some skillful players performing modern pop music in a sophisticated way.

It's interesting that the 30 button anglo concertina is so strongly tied to just a few types of music, almost to the exclusion of all others, when it seems to have the potential to be a very versatile instrument. (at least more versatile than a C/F Hohner Pokerwork )

I've always thought the the Kinks' songs deserved to become part of 'the folk tradition'; they are witty, have good tunes and often deal with amusing and quirky subjects. But during my fairly lightweight attempts so far I find I descend to a less than convincing '3 chord trick' rendition so I couldn't claim I play any.

To be exposed to a concertina you usually have to move in folk circles. Concertinas are typecast. Only folkies buy them, non-folkies think they are 'only suitable for folk music' so wouldn't even think of getting one. Nothing wrong with folk, and it's surely a good thing that concertinas are cherished at least somewhere, but I think this is why they are trapped where they are. By and large, only people that live for folk music really know about them, with everyone else crossing the road to go round, metaphorically speaking.

One day the latest version of drippy inoffensive and heavily promoted pop chanteuse will use one instead of the ubiquitous guitar and it'll all change.

I was at an environmental fundraiser a few weekends back. It was an outdoor concert featuring Sarah Harmer and Bruce Cockburn (a Canadian folk/jazz/but mostly un-categorizable guitar legend). A surprise guest was Fiest, a good Canadian girl who has had some international hits. She is anything but drippy and inoffensive (hence her appearance at the event), but she has a quirky singing style that would work very well with Anglo concertina IMHO. She was walking around talking to the crowd (it was a small event) and my son showed her some sketches he'd done while she was performing, so she gave him an e-mail address. Maybe I should send her an e-mail, and tell her to check out this forum!

He also drew the guitar player (with flames coming off his instrument) and the melodeon player. When he showed them both their portraits, the button box player seemed a little miffed that he didn't get flames as well!

I just listened to a "Great Big Sea" CD (Canadian Celtic Rock band with strong Newfoundland roots), and there is a lovely concertina solo at the end of a tune called "Sally Ann".

No Bill, not mainstream enough, according to my theory you need someone who wants to be the next 'Dido' or 'Amy Winehouse' and needs a gimmick to lift her above all the other wannabes and into the MOR record label executive's gaze!

(my wife spends money on CDs by these people whereas I have a modest 3 concertinas and have never bought a CD in my life that I can recall, and it's ME that gets the grief...)

That's what you get for having a young babe wife!

Alan

Erm, can't think of anything to say that isn't dangerous apart from, no you've assessed the situation incorrectly...

My friend is always saying to me I should learn a song by Evanescence (sort of a goth-punk band http://www.evanescence.com/) on my AC...I think that would be fun, but I have no idea where to start...or if it would fit.

But it always seems to be the safest assessment.

I meant if you research the French links, you may find far more interesting EC sites and music, encompassing wider range of genres, then in English. English are crowded around ITM and English traditional melody-right/chords-left with rare exceptions.
If you want to find something else, and speak French, that's the direction of research. Within minutes you'll find tens of sites with hundreds of tunes, few of which will be Irish or English trad.

words of wisdom.

Well at least you didn't come home from NESI with your wife telling you since you have two working concertinas, she can use your twenty button. Never mind she has 7 guitars and 4 mandolins.

Alan

Mine has a lovely singing voice, but doesn't play an instrument , or have any desire to. But she bought me my Rochelle, and offered to pay for the Morse I just ordered. Seems to run counter to the behavior displayed by some other "concertina widows", as reported by other members of the forum.

She did mention to me that scientific studies show that learning a skill that develops new neural pathways (at my "advanced age" she added) is a good way to ward off dementia. As she's quite a bit younger than me, there might be some self-interest in her apparent support of my new obsession

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music.

I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html

I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato.

I wonder if I should move up to Brittany.

Merci bien. J'essayerai cela!

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music.

I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html

I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato.

I wonder if I should move up to Brittany.

Forgot to say........ contemporary/pop, I've been making my way through a Queen Greatest Hits book. Nice for the EC to play the second treble-clef part.

Unfortunately most of those written by Freddie Mercury are in keys with three or four flats. They're tricky!

Here's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. http://www.musicnotes.com/download/viewer/...57&dltype=0

I do enjoy playing some modern pop songs on my concertina sometimes, but I never add them online because of copyright issues. I only add my own original songs, or public domain ones.

Some seem to fall into place nicely on my EC, and then others I just give up on after a while if they don't fit.

My choices are totally random and include songs written and/or recorded by Van Morrison, Cat Stevens (now called Yusef, I believe), Bonnie Raitt, Bessie Smith, Nora Jones, Maddy Prior.... many others. Also, many songs from the 'Rise Up Singing' songbook, some which are PD (public domain) but not all.

Well....there was the one time I did share my version of a Foo Fighters' song. But, of course, not making any profit from it, and probably not hurting the Foos in any way!

Hi
Ishtar- you could try downloading 'Finale NotePad' (free) and entering the music you wish to play and then use the key change facility in 'finale' to transpose it to an acceptable key. Bit long winded but it works
have fun
chris

Sorry Chris but the closest I come to this is playing with our singer when he does Sting's - 'Fields Of Gold'.

We can't be doing too bad a job of it though, cause someone came up last week & said he'd really enjoyed it, so much so that he wanted us to sing it again & he explained that he'd never realised it was actually an old traditional song!
Well, it was tempting to just let him think it was an old trad song, but we came clean .... well, after all, he did buy us all a drink, so I guess it pays to be versatile, after all!

Cheers
Dick

What about Rock n Roll...stuff you can jive to? Is that plausable to play?

The riff in "Burning Bridges" by Status Quo is very danceable and playable to and sounds very similar to an Irish Trad tune (which *might* be a Kilfenora slide).

I'd be very curious to actually hear something like this.
It has always been my impression that you can't play anything on anything. An epoch creates instrument for the music and music for the instrument. While I realize that contemporary pop music is based on Anglo-Afro-American tradition, it's very difficult for me to imagine a Concertina in rock or jazz environment. The approach is very different, it seems (to me). Modern jazz or classical music put such complicated goals before the musician, the instrument must be absolutely flawless to rely upon. A concertina as it commonly is, is unsuitable simply by it's technical capabilities. In most of the cases, that I personally observed.

Sure, but you being the girl genius you will have to figure it out on your own, as I doubt there is a greatest rock hits volume for the concertina.

Alan

Rock/Pop bands do occasionally come up with songs that are based on a trad (or trad-sounding) melody or riff and which do or could sound good on concertina.

Apart from the Status Quo "Burning Bridges" example, I've heard Border Morris danced to Abba's "Super Trouper" and Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry" has "Stockport Polka" running through it.

Doesn't happen very often, though, which is probably best for all concerned.

This is "Burning Bridges": http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-HsrqzkywSg

I'll see if I can track down a recording of the Irish tune that it reminds me of....

Edit: It's the middle tune of this set: http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPa...heKilfenora.mp3

Yes, it sounds like your usual English/Irish major melody, there are hundreds of them out there. No, I meant that for me, with, err..., Russian ear, Rock does sound like having strong English influence. I'm sure books are written about it, with concocted terminologies and what not. Russian rock is made up of two interwoven tendencies: English/American emulation and exaggerated Russian Folk. Bayan or Accordion, Balalaika and some sort of flutes are common. So I would actually expect a concertina to be bigger part of at least Irish home grown rock scene, than it appears to be. I'm guessing, it doesn't have enough appeal, be it look or sound or expressiveness, sought by Rock artists specifically.
Though I personally tried to persuade a friend of mine, head of Rock band, consisting of one bass guitar (he plays) and two large drum sets, to introduce some folk instrument with unlikely sound, like concertina, or Hurdy-Gurdy. Or even harpsichords, just for the novelty and interesting sound. They have become pretty successful without my ideas, and with less, as they say, hemorrhoids.

I've never been called a genius before.
There isn't a concertina rock n roll book? Awwww.....now I'm all dissapointed.

Burning Bridges is out again on a Quo CD for Christmas in the supermarket, so it's folk music now

I always thought Jona Lewie's song was based on a Welsh tune to do with taking a horse's head effigy around at festive time, The Grey Mare or something?
We used it for a Sheffield City Morris dance quite nicely

Ah, the Mari Lwyd! http://www.folkwales.org.uk/mari.html

I've never seen this being performed, so I don't know what music they use. Stockport Polka (or Southport Polka - I think the names are inter-changeable) is usually the tune used for a Morris stick-throwing dance that various sides do in various styles (I've seen Adderbury, Bledington and Bucknell versions).

Cock & Magpie Morris from Chesterfield used to call this dance "MFI" because it usually ended in a pile of bits of wood on the floor in the middle of the set.

Wow that's a good find! Some recordings here too.

While half-heartedly looking for a pic of one of my duets to goad everyone with I was reminded I have the music for 'Classical Gas'. Is that contemporary enough? It's on 'to do' list, I can only stumble through it at the moment; does that count?

I think it'll sound good on the 'box. Still not really rock and roll per se though, is it?

But is it beyond the Mason Williams Line?

I started a similar thread on melodeon net out of interest , there are probably more melodeon players than concertina players with dance sides.

One reply was that the Burning Bridges riff is a tune clled Darby Kelly. The cavalry tune is said to be Swedish !

Check out the 'competition' squeezers site

Interesting! There's a MudCat thread talking about Darby Kelly, and one poster refers to the "Quo connection": http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30123

If Darby Kelly was indeed an Irish drummer, perhaps he came from Kilfenora and the tune associated with the song became the Kilfenora Slide?

There's a good "chicken & egg" discussion to be had on whether the Cockney rhyming slang "Darby Kelly = Belly" preceded the song (or the other way round) .

This may have been the father & son referred to in the song:

"Kelly: Darby Kelly departed Jan 1st 1794 aged 52 years. His son Darby Kelly died Oct 15th 1819 aged 30. Erected by his sons Tim Pat and John Kelly."

http://www.from-ireland.net/graves/kilmachonnaoffaly.htm

The dates would certainly fit!

Interesting that Darby Kelly had been with Theobad Wolf Tone and the United Irishmen against English rule.Then went with Wellington to fight Napoleon. The Irish must have eventually realised that Napoleon was not the supporter of Republicanism now he was imperialist. One wonders what would have happened to Ireland had the French won! Many Irish songs did make an anti English hero of Boney as did many in England, intially, who were Republican Jacobins. Why do we fall for false totalitarian prophets?

I'm sure Status Quo had all this in mind !

Would these be contemporary enough?

One - Metallica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sEjwWxFLuE&fmt=18

The Unforgiven - Metallica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouRpnUYmrcM&fmt=18

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDU5Uch52TI&fmt=18

Stairway To Heaven / The Celtic Tribute to Led Zeppelin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ_q_ORctQk&fmt=18

By: The Boys of County Nashville

Thanks
Leo

It's all accordion.