Sarah Swett
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Posts posted by Sarah Swett
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Here is my attempt:
I use the zoom on the camera to get further away to reduce volume but wasn't far enough.
I wish I had more control over what my left hand does. I tried for jolly.
Graham
Very different flavor than the other recordings. Nice!
Yes, a fabulous flavor -- I got totally caught up in it. Thank you.
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Here's my attempt (I thought I would share after all) -
A couple of bum notes to give it that live feel, and boy oh boy that push low B is flat, but my Concentina Connection Jack baritone gets its moment in the sun.
A wonderful rendition. The Jack sounded great -- rich and a little bit serious. Thanks!
Sarah
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That's fairly good, your playing's got that nice swing... (you know: "It don't mean a thing...")
Swing is good. Thanks! One of the great things about the concertina-- sometimes, if all is going well, it feels like singing and dancing at the same time.
Sarah
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Hello all,
TOTM is wonderful and I'm having a grand listening to everyone's contributions. I love this tune and it is a delight to hear and read about all the musical approaches. Thank you all for the ideas on how to add chords to my beginner melody EC playing. In the interest of participation, however, I won't wait for the months and months of practice before posting, so here is my first simple attempt, recorded in Quick Time on my computer. Hope the link works as I've also just joined Sound Cloud (again, thanks to all of the encouragement).
best,
Sarah (aka Mildredestelle)
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Plinky Plonky does make a tune easier to learn it by ear, after which one might, if one had the capacity, embellish in all manner of ways. Not yet having those skills on my EC, I look forward to hearing what everyone does with whatever tune wins. I love TOTM!
And are Scollay's Reel and King of the Fairies the same tune? I 'know' them both, but having learned the former on the concertina and the latter on the octave fiddle, the similarity had never occurred to me. Last night I lay in bed trying to match them note for note, but I think of them so differently that this kept me awake for an awfully long time. Today I've tried playing them back to back on both instruments and though there are definite similarities they still feel like different tunes, esp the B parts. Perhaps I'm just deluding myself because I want them to be different. Anyone have an opinion on this?
Sarah
Different tunes with - in some renditions - similar A parts. I pulled up a good dozen versions of King of the Fairies on Spotify; clearly, a very different B part. Most often played as a slow reel. A really beautiful fiddle version by Kevin Burke.
Aha! Thank you for that. I can sleep tonight. I suppose part of the reason it never occurred to me they could be the same is that I learned The King of the Fairies from a Kevin Burke teaching video from Homespun tapes where he offers it as the one slow tune among a collection of polkas, jigs and slides. With his rendition in my ears I couldn't imagine it any other way. Scollay's Reel, on the other hand, I saw (rather than heard) as sheet music in The Portland Collection; as it is all contra dance music I couldn't imagine the tune as anything but that. Talk about a creature of habit!
Love that Nyckelharpa!
Sarah
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Plinky Plonky does make a tune easier to learn it by ear, after which one might, if one had the capacity, embellish in all manner of ways. Not yet having those skills on my EC, I look forward to hearing what everyone does with whatever tune wins. I love TOTM!
And are Scollay's Reel and King of the Fairies the same tune? I 'know' them both, but having learned the former on the concertina and the latter on the octave fiddle, the similarity had never occurred to me. Last night I lay in bed trying to match them note for note, but I think of them so differently that this kept me awake for an awfully long time. Today I've tried playing them back to back on both instruments and though there are definite similarities they still feel like different tunes, esp the B parts. Perhaps I'm just deluding myself because I want them to be different. Anyone have an opinion on this?
Sarah
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A friend and I recently came up with the phrase 'hedonist generalist' which allows one to pursue and learn things, not because one 'needs' the information and skills, but because the pursuit and the learning feel soooo good.
As for ease -- I've played the fiddle about 8 times longer than the concertina so it feels easier, or at least more intuitive, but I've progressed much faster on the Concertina than I ever did with bow and strings. Whether this is due to the relative ease of the instruments or because I came to the concertina already reading music (after a fashion), and with tunes in my head, I couldn't say.
Certainly one of the joys of playing both (at least for me) is that some tunes (though it is probably my fingers) seem to prefer one instrument over the other. When some sequence of notes just baffles me on one, often as not it'll come dancing out on the other. Another of the joys that the concertina has helped to fine tune my intonation. I get sloppy when playing by myself, flats and sharps not quite what they should be, but when I get to know a tune thoroughly on the concertina, I am less likely to be satisfied with almost-but-not-quite-in-tune with the strings. And since one of my goals is to 'play well with others', decent intonation is a must.
And yes Rick, I, too adore my fiddle. Would that I will be a fair hand with both, some day.
Sarah
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All I can say is that after spending five years learning to play the fiddle (an adult beginner), the poor stringed instrument now spends most of its life in its case because six months ago I picked up an English Concertina and have scarcely put it down since.
I chose English over Anglo after much deliberation (none to try locally so it was cerebral/concertina.net/youtube deliberation rather than hands on), because I didn't think I could live without all the sharps and flats I was used to on the fiddle. It's still a bit odd not having adjacent notes, well, adjacent, and my two hands don't always cooperate with one another, but golly do I love this way of making music. I might also say that the concertina is MUCH easier on my body than the fiddle so I am able to play for longer periods of time. It is also wonderfully obliging, ready to hop onto my lap and play a tune at a moment's notice.
This is my first post, so I'll take a moment to say many, many thanks to all of you loquacious concertinists (is that a word --and if not, what is the proper term for a concertina player?). I learn from you every time I log on.
Sarah
Tune Of The Month, May 2013: Parson's Farewell
in Tune of the Month
Posted
Did I hear it wrong, or did the lute player sharpen the first note in fourth and eighth measures? (A g to g# in the a minor version, c to c# in d minor ). It sounded slightly different anyway, and I liked it -- it gives the A part a decidedly unfinished feeling, leading on on to that very cheery B part.
I love this tune -- thanks so much for letting us vote on it, and even more for all the fabulous early bird versions to get me thinking and playing on a gloriously sunny (at last) Idaho May day.
Sarah