Mark Evans

Join with Ole Roly-Poly as I make music with some of my favorite folks on November 8, 2008 at the Fiber Arts Festival in Sherborn Massachusetts at the old Town Hall http://www.fiberartfestival.com/ Fiddler John Garrison and his friends will be strutting some great Old Time sting band music from 10:00-1:00. I'll join with Appalachian Travelers Kathryn Kaufman, harmonica and Terry Thomas, banjo around 1:30 and about a hour later members of the Stone's Session Players will arrive: Connie and Graham Patten on fiddle Pelham Norville on pipes Brian Hebert on banjo George Arata on bouzouki (George has taken pity on Appalachian Travelers and will show up early with his big Martin guitar in tow as well) It's a very nice little festival with some wonderful fiber arts. Come get wild an' wooly! The town hall is worth the visit alone as it still has the original pressed tin ceilings walls and trim with hardwood wainscoating and broad plank flooring. There must have been some fine dances there over the years.

I've nothing profound to add to your loss other than to assure you that little black box and music will heal your wounds and help you accept whatever lies ahead. Welcome!

Okay Misha, you knowing about things like this, how it he switch stops for that one tune without his left had leaving the buttons? Impressive instrument, impressive player. Must have to be one stout lad to drag that thing around though...whew!

Well, you've finally started it...what, close to four years after I inquired. I await with baited breath.

Well yes it should be. Nothing wrong with Peter Pears though. As I learned and performed Albert Herring, the Turn of the Screw, the Britten Horn Serenade and the Michaelanglo Sonnets I really came to appreciate his remarkable voice and mind. I also cursed him (God rest his soul) because there are passages Britten wrote that only he could do justice. This clip I link to is rough as a cobb from a live performance with no amplification. I've sung it better and worse. You can't miss the projection or the lack of any head voice. George and I blathered too much before hand....just push the cursor past that. Not a great recording as it was a hand held digital machine too far away and the levels way too low. Sorry but it is in a windows format. http://www.framingham.edu/faculty/mevans/Jack%20Haggerty.mp3

Tunes I've learned by ear and those by the dots store in my memory differently. The ear learned material easily slips away in the first few weeks. After going back over them and playing at session a few times, they are burned on the harddrive. I may not remember the damned name, but if someone starts the tune there I go playing along. The dot-learned tunes...I'll forget, unless I visualize the written score, then it pulls up from one of those files that need to be defraged and I'm off to the races. If I keep them in the playing rotation they remain fresh. If not, I have to set out the score and take a look. Words...another matter I can't figure out. As a young singer I could memorize in Italian, German, French and yes English quickly. By age 40 anything but English took a good deal of routine. Today, I am happy to read from the score, but me noggin' won't retain anything but the English. One other nutty little detail: In opera I would be really in trouble until we blocked the scenes. Then regardless language I was set.

Such crunchy, interesting points you make! Vocal instruction helping you hold the vocal line against a counter melody on the concertina: Perhaps a few pointers are helpful, but voice teachers are like snake oil salesmen, mostly they need a good beating and told to be off or you'll set the hounds on them. The honest ones can offer you emotional support and perhaps bring out techniques that already function within the vocal intrument. It's up to each singer to wrestle with the demons that keep them from singing their best. Routine and listening is what helps me keep the vocal line and counter melody working together. A tip that may work...the occations where you are in dissonance with the counter melody should be enjoyed. This is where the flavor of an arrangement get's is spice (contrast). Singing, like playing the concertina is trial and error and hard work. Chords are just fine and a good choice, but I have to spend a good bit of time working out the inversion of chords to get the type of texture and haromony I'm looking for. Same octave is tricky...or is it the same octave. Male singers read an octave higher than they are singing. Having less to compare your voice to in my opinion lessens not one whit your exactness of pitch. We play concertina, the most unrelenting of all instruments. There is no way to walk away from that standard. A professional singer is just being paid and the only qualification here is talking someone into paying you. After that all bets are off. Hearing equal temperment all ones life makes is seem natural. It is a learned behavior. I know that when singing with the concertina, I have to adjust particularly intervals of a third to be right with my instrument. I don't see this as any different as a fiddler adjusting to do the same with a concertina. Singers can adjust scales at will. I've had to do so working with period performance groups whose A will be tuned low...415 or lower and thirds tend to sound on the flat side. The voice can make the adjustment, it's the most amazing and versitle instrument on the planet. Sorry for the pontification. I made my living doing it far too long and if the economy doesn't change I may be forced off the jobsite and start selling snake oil again.

For a crowd of old crochety old squeezers, should there be a prize? One bit of information the poll missed is beard or not (for the lad of course).

Ah, the best! Indeed.

At a pub session....amplification? Not for this little fat Hobit. Now the "goon" at the board....I've been that goon and tried to do a good job. Trick for me was to get the monitor sound to reflect what was happening in the house. Then the musicians take care of themselves.

I've encountered a whistle player or two who could really zing my bad ear. It hurts and makes everything sound like I'm listening through old speakers with a broken cone. Yes, a session can get to be too much with everyone going balls out. That's when I might take my pint to a table, talk a bit and wait for the raucous cacophony to damp down. Sometimes I'm the in the midst of it, honking along like a total ass I'm sure. Whatchgonnado?

There was a thread on this a couple of years ago. A number of us had a good bit of fun with it. Cars got involved as well. My present instruments are both female and named. There's Tarty Tess the Morse Albion (she's had a name change with the addition of her wrist straps) and is my constant companion. The Sunflower, my bluegrass banjo who although neglected in her case until a gig where she is needed and burdened with a now six year old set of strings, never lets me down. Unleashed from confinement her beautiful voice and comely looks redden my face and quicken the pulse. Through the evening I plegde to be a more constant owner as I ask her for subtle counter melodies, forward Scruggs style and old time drop thumb drive all the while knowing I will forget about her on the morrow. In fact, the Obi's performed last night and when I pulled into the yard dog-tired it was raining really hard. Who did I take in the house? Yup, Tarty Tess. Guess, I'd best get The Sunflower in now as the sun's up. What a right bastard I am.

How about bombard and lute. The bombard cannot be played softly, and the lute cannot be played loudly. Ah, does it not depend on the bombard player? With Shady Grove I attened a folk festival in Nantes back in Novemeber 84'. At one of the events I got to know a bombard player. He wanted to play, we did and my Wheatstone tenor-treble and his bombard did very well together. We actually had dynamics (yes, there was a lot of wine involved and no I was not totally plowed...I think). As to the lute: It's a rather large family those lutes. I've encounterd players and instruments that had no problem making themselves heard. To David's point we could look at J.S. Bach. In his second Brandenburg Concerto Grosso, the concertino is made up of an ensemble that one would fine a bit odd: violin, oboe, trumpet and recorder. Each instrument states the ritornello in the first movement and then has a duet with one of the other concertino members. Bach has the trumpet and recorder do a turn together . The baroque trumpet is to put it mildly, a beast that in less than expert hands has two volume levels...loud and oh my god! Before the end of the movement the concertino are all going back and forth together with the large ensemble. It can be done and I've been in the audience to wittness it right here in Boston on Baroque instruments. War pipes? Well, they more or less only want to play alone or gather in groups with drums . There is a lad at the fire station on the western side our town park. I live on the eastern edge. When he cranks up, I've pulled out the penny whistle and played along . I'm sure he's unaware of our duets .

I don't see the problem..... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wEZI7HOlzNs http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjux7KtvKmk Excellent! I play with Kathryn Kaufman who is a wizzard on the mouth harp. Along with Terry Thomas and his banjos. It is a very good instrumentation with old time material. Only problem is that we don't get to jam all that often.

If they are inclined to be "put" together and appreciate what the other brings to the table. Being a great musician and a horses arse are not mutually exclusive . No.... agreed..... A pint is mighty fine, but were I flush with coin, my perfect accompaniment would be an excellent, smokey single malt.

I know there are more than a few concertinas out there in meantone. Our David FR had a Lachenal rebuilt by Paul Groff that was lovely. It is a trial for my fiddler colleagues to play with me and the Morse in equal temperment. It does work out though. Flautists also have to make adjustments or the milk jug will clabber up in short order as well . Having a guitar or bousouki around in DADGAD to smoothe it all over, I've found helpful.

Bravo! Feels good doesn't it.

John, "bar" and "measure" are interchangeable for we unwashed Amerikaners. Demisemiquaver....now that's a sho' nuff' mouthful. Sessions and booze, shine, suds, grog, whatever go together, poor Chris and Ann's hiddious experience notwithstanding. After our session at Stone's, there's always a Town of Ashland cop parked along the lane just in case we've managed to get plowed .

Wankers!? Even a yank like me knows this one . I've never bothered with the discussions, but have heard similar remarks on the level of discourse therein. My bone to pick with session transcriptions (poor choice I realize) is some of them lack any resemblence to the tunes as played or keys played in. Imagine, hearing Father Kelly's reel and the next day all excited you download the session trascription.... in D. T'ain't in D now is it. Learning to transpose is a forced benefit, as is turning back to learning by ear even with the mistakes one picks up from the errant voices in my head. the Comhaltas website was a sure life-line. They have little written music, but those clips in the shop page set me to rights on a number of occations. As time has meandered on I've gotten better at hearing a new one at session and by the next time or two, I've got a version that doesn't cause fiddlin' Connie to cut her eyes at me (always kindly though).

Oh yes, NEFFA. Dry indeed. They've moved to another venue...yet another school, and dusty dry.

Oh good lord in heaven! This is all too much for me. I'll just go back to learning by ear. Mark my word, I'll be having nighmares over this crotchet business I guess I've had me head shoved up where the sun don't shine fer so long that I can't stand the light .

I know you've mentioned that before. I guess I don't play the posh clubs and sessions. At Stone's as soon as I walk in the door, a pint of my choice (Speckled Hen or Hobgoblin) is pulled and in front of me as my rather ample arse touches the bench. At Blanchards they make sure I'm well oiled with Newcastle Ale (their fee is so low perhaps it is out of pity). If ever this economy recovers and my haunts survive, you and Ann need to give us another chance to right an obviuos wrong!

Depends on the individual doesn't it. A consistant amount of my meager living as a voice teacher was a steady stream of 40, 50 and 60 something folks who had decided that they were going to find out wether or not they could in fact sing. Some played musical instruments, others not. At the bottom of every last one of them was some sort of Sister Assumpta who had told them not to sing with the other children because they couldn't match pitches, "just move your mouth." They in fact accepted the authority figure's assessment and spent a life not singing and living up to that expectation. Lord what a struggle it was to overcome and in many cases not overcome. Most were able to match pitches in the end and learn songs and eventually sing for others. Several achieved their goal of singing in the church choir! That was indeed very cool and one freakin' load of backbreakin' work for all involved. I don't care much for the universal Sister Assumpta. Talent, I'm an adhearant. Anyone with hard work can learn almost anything and in the end have a pretty good time. Do we all have an equal potential at everything? As a kid I really wanted to be able to play baseball with the other kids in the neighborhood. Well, I'm blind in one eye since birth. Catching, hitting or pitching a baseball was problematical. I worked and worked and worked (acceptance being so important). Made some headway I did and was pretty happy when I got to the point that I didn't completely suck. At age 10 I discovered I could run like a scalded dog, and for the first time played what we Americans call soccer. Hey, I turned myself into a wicked fullback (actually turned out to be a bit of a "goon"). A talented athelete, naw but I loved being involved in a sport where at least what abilities I did have found a use and therefore some measure of acceptance. Ah, but then I signed up for chorus class (by mistake). Like a duck to water it was and girls started to smile at me....didn't look back . Believe what you will, but saying we all have the potential to be a Joshua Bell or a Joe Lewis if we just work hard enough strikes me as daft...sorry.

You and me both Robert. The boy pisses me off though, but I've always known it's none of my business and to keep my yap shut...

And don't think I'm not ashamed! 3:00 in the a.m. and that's what we were down to. JD and Bud...I paid for that choice and then some. It has been a few years and I've mended my ways.