gcoover
-
Posts
1,138 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by gcoover
-
-
Can't go wrong the the EC accompaniments of Lou Killen and Tony Rose, both sadly now gone from us, but what a wonderful legacy they left behind, even if their music is probably a little difficult to track down.
Gary
-
Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?
I think the 1a-10 part is described here
http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/fly_around_assets/Concertina_tab_explaination.pdf
but the layout is a bit different.
Yes, Jody uses the same Anglo button numbering system, which is also what the first German concertina tutors used in the early 1870's when the third row began appearing on top of the two more "normal" rows. It's my favorite numbering system since it easily shows what can be played on a 20-button instrument, yet also gives 30-button players a heads-up that some of the notes are up in the accidentals/alternates row.
Jody has since ditched all those annoying P's and D's and clutter of extra staves, and now writes music very similar to what's in "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style". He shows the melody button numbers in bold type, which I really like, but haven't figured out how to do yet!
There are lots of different Anglo tablature systems out there, and I think I've tried every one at some point, but for me, this one is by far the easiest to learn and play from, and works especially well even if just writing out tunes in pencil. I also like the way the overhead line (or lack thereof) can help indicate potential phrasing. Simple is good - no need to make learning the Anglo any more complex or difficult than it already is!
Gary
-
I love the Salvationist angel on top!!!
-
Thanks for the kind comments, all! The book is indeed now available on Amazon US, UK and Europe, and The Button Box will have copies shortly.
I have really enjoyed working up these wonderful old tunes, and hope you all have at least half as much fun learning and playing them.
Mentioned elsewhere, but worth mentioning here, is the "Concertina Video Advent Calendar" - one tune a day from the book will be uploaded to YouTube (angloconc) between now and Christmas. So far, the three tunes from the excerpt have been posted - The First Nowell, In the Bleak Midwinter, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. More to come. Requests possibly accommodated. Enjoy!
Gary
-
Absolutely brilliant! And totally insane.
-
Instead of the including a CD with "Christmas Concertina" (a new book for Anglo concertina), and in the spirit of those wonderful Advent calendars where you open a different panel each day before Christmas, I'll be adding a new YouTube video of a tune from the book every day between now and Christmas.
We'll start with "The First Nowell":http://youtu.be/fIbxPj6f81g, which is included in the free excerpt available elsewhere here on cnet.
I'll not clutter this forum with announcements every day, but you are more than welcome to check the "angloconc" YouTube channel every day for the newest tune: http://www.youtube.com/angloconc. Enjoy!
Happy Holidays!
Gary
-
I've actually got one of these wavy Anglos, exactly like the photo. You should hear the wonderful tremolo that comes out of it, like a perfect sine wave....just kidding, it's pretty much junk and leaks like a sieve, but it does look like it SHOULD have a cool sound!
Gary
-
Well done, Gary, and thanks for your effort in creating this. That is a niche that needed filling. And so nicely done...the chords are nicely chosen.
One question though. Where is Mele Kalikimaka, the Hawaiian Christmas song (usually sung by der Bingle)? Given your new domicile, I should think it would be a natural. Just the thing for sitting back with a yuletide Mai Tai on the lanai!
Very best wishes for success with the book, and congratulations. Santa will find it on my wish list.
Dan
All I can say, is for those of us in tropical climes, Christmas songs are easily adaptable.....just substitute the word "sand" for "snow", "balmy" for "freezing", "Mai Tai" for "eggnog", "surfboard" for "sleigh"...you get the idea!
There's a great really rare LP (oops, dating myself here) that is bright green plastic and shaped like a Christmas tree that has, in addition to the best punk rock version of Silent Night EVER, the Malibooz singing "Santa's Gone Surfing". Maybe some intrepid concertina players out there will tackle these newer tunes and at least post them on YouTube?!? The challenge is ON.
Gary
-
Yes, chasing down copyrights and permissions can be quite the task, which is why this Christmas book is only oldies but goodies. There are lots of great newer tunes that I would have loved to include, and would love to hear played on Anglo, but there were already so many good old ones out there it was really hard to pare down the list.
I really wanted to include Brian Peters' arrangement of the Dark Island TV theme (real name: "Dr. MacKay's Farewell to Creagorry) in "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style", but the original copyright holder wanted a ridiculous amount of money, especially for something like a tiny-little-micro-sub-niche Anglo concertina book. I did have the distinct pleasure of telling them to forget it, and Brian very graciously gave permission to use his beautiful melody "Sweet Sorrow" instead, so it actually turned out for the better!
Gary
-
Thought you all might appreciate this sneak preview of a new book of Christmas tunes especially arranged for 30-button Anglo concertina, which will be available shortly through Amazon in the US, UK and Europe and hopefully through The Button Box as well.
110 pages, 50 tunes, utilizing the same tablature system as "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style".
In addition to old standards like "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", it also includes folk classics likes "Jacob's Well" and "Shepherds Arise".
The melody lines of all tunes are shown in standard musical notation, so can be played by any concertina, or any other musical instrument.
2013-11-30: Mentioned elsewhere, but appropriate here as well, I'm adding one tune a day from the book to YouTube (angloconc channel) in the spirit of those wonderful old Advent Calendars.
Enjoy!
Gary
-
Reminds me of my old band!
-
I'm a complete beginner to concertina (or any other instrument) although I sing. Getting my first concertina very soon. I've done some reading and would like to learn the 'harmonic' style. Would this book be good for a complete beginner or should I try something else first?
Don, if you're wanting to play in the harmonic style on an Anglo, then I think this book would be perfect for you. The tunes start off easy and do get difficult fairly quickly, but it's a pretty big learning curve to get both hands and both directions and all those buttons working the way you want. Granted, there are other beginning books out there, but they often use different button numbering systems and some make it very hard to learn. This one has the easiest tablature system of all, and you don't even need to be able to read music.
You can preview a lot of it on www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com, so that's a good start to see if it's what you're looking for. And a lot of the tunes are on the Anglotutor playlist on the "angloconc" YouTube channel.
Feel free to PM me with any questions. Between this book and the good folks on these cnet forums, we'll get you up and playing in no time!
Gary
-
30 buttons will give you a lot more options for singing in different keys, and yes, 5-fold can be limiting especially if they (or the pads) are the least bit leaky or if the reeds need lots of air.
-
And here's mine, also a Morris tune - "Lumps of Plum Pudding", learned from the playing of John Watcham: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLg9mawZub4.
Other big time favorites being Monck's March and Glorishears (Fieldtown). Can't seem to put the concertina down without having a bash at these three at the very least.
Good concept, Jim! I'm guessing/hoping there might be other themes in the offing?
-
Absolutely brilliant! Best video ever about Irish concertina. Especially loved the interview and playing of Kitty Hayes.
Gary
-
Could they make it any more confusing, calling an Anglo concertina an "English Concertina"?!? And "Gallo" would imply a French connection. Or maybe too much California wine. Well, it most likely means it was a product of the Gallo Record Company in SA who also built (labeled?) guitars in the 1950's.
-
I haven't seen this posted before, but due to the recent retirement of Sid Kipper it seems only fitting to share his valuable and little-known historical information with the cnet group:
BEWARE THE IDEAS OF MARCH
Many years ago the countryside was innocent. Life was easy, & people spent their time singing songs, telling tales, & dancing to pipes and drums. But there's a mystery. If life was so good, how come the squeeze-box got invented?
I'll tell you the story: There was once a blacksmith, who'd always wanted to be a musician. But he couldn't find any instrument he could play, because he was such a big useless lump. He'd tried the pipes, but his hands were too big. He'd tried the drums, but his brain was too small. And, one March day, he was working at his forge, smithing some black, when the fire grew as dim as he was. So he pumped his bellows. And as he pumped he had an idea. At first he wasn't sure what it was, because he'd never had one before. But he asked about, and decided that it was definitely an idea.
Now, there's nothing wrong with ideas - as such. Ideas are quite safe if locked up and kept away from other ideas. It's doing things with them that causes trouble.
For instance, you might come on the idea of having a proper job. Nothing wrong with that - as long as it's just an idea. My uncle George says if you ever come on the idea of having a proper job you should get on your bike and keep peddling till the idea wears off. Some people do morris dancing for similar reasons.
But the blacksmith didn't do that with his idea, because the bicycle hadn't been invented, and morris dancing wasn't in season. So rather than doing something useful - like inventing the bicycle - he kept working on his idea.
First, he took his spare bellows, and put ends on them. Well, that meant he couldn't squeeze them, because there was nowhere for the air to come out - nothing wrong with that.
Then he made holes in the ends, which meant the air could come out, but it just made a wheezing noise - nothing wrong with that, either.
But then, for reasons known only to himself - if that - he put different reeds over the holes, so the air blew through them. Well, there was something wrong with that, because now it made a noise like a squeeze-box .
Hearing that, the blacksmith lost interest. He put the Thing he'd made on a shelf and forgot all about it. And all might have been well if a wandering minstrel hadn't dropped into the forge to get the blacksmith to straighten his ferrets.
Now I don't mean live ferrets. Not the sort you and I keep. No, they were a tool from the glass-blowing trade. You see, in those days there was a shortage of words, so people would take the names of things they saw about them to use to call other things. So a lark was messing about. A mole was a beauty spot. A tit was a sort of garden bird. You wouldn't get it now. You wouldn't get people looking at their desk and saying 'Oh look, it's got no tail, no legs and no whiskers - so let's call it a mouse'.
Anyhow, while he waited for his ferrets, which he used to juggle with, this minstrel saw the Thing the blacksmith had made, and he said "What's one of them?". "Buggered if I know", said the blacksmith. Well, the minstrel got it down, and soon found that if you covered some holes with your fingers you could get a tune out of it - not any known tune, but a tune nevertheless (and neverthemore, either).
Now it just so happened that the minstrel was looking for a novelty item for his shows. Something to do between the long boring ballads. Not that long boring ballads weren't popular back then, because they were. Because there's nothing like hearing about other people's misery and misfortune to cheer you up. But you need a break to gloat properly.
Up to then the minstrel had done the ferret juggling, but he wasn't a very good juggler, which is why his ferrets were bent. It was why his head was bent too.
Which may be why he struck a deal with the blacksmith to buy the Thing. Which he did. He took it round and showed it off between ballads. And people would be suitably amazed, and say "Right - sing us another ballad then".
And while it was just a novelty idea for one minstrel there was no real harm done. But, of course, ideas breed. That's why they're so dangerous. You have one idea. Someone else has another idea. They both get out one night, and before you know it you're overrun by them.
Now, there was a bloke in one village he visited called Idle Hans. And he was always looking for things to do. Well he got hold of the Thing. And he came up with the idea of blocking up all the holes to stop the noise - so far, so good. Then he thought of putting on levers, so you could open up each hole, should you wish to, to let the noise out again - not so good, but not disastrous. Finally, he attached keys to the levers so that you could press them to open the holes - well, now catastrophe was just round the corner. Because then he got it into his head to play the Thing.
Well, that's where ideas get you. Obviously no-one would set out deliberately to invent the squeeze-box. But the fact is that from the very first idea that blacksmith had, it was always going to happen.
And it couldn't be stopped now. Now the ideas came thick and fast - which is a description which half covers the blacksmith. Someone had the idea of making loads of Things. And someone else had the idea of selling them. And that led to a craze, and now the countryside was no longer innocent. Now it was guilty as hell. Life became hard, and people were forced to stop enjoying themselves, and listen to the squeeze-box instead.
And that's how we got to where we are today. So if this story has given you any ideas - well, you could always join a morris team. Or, if that's too drastic for you - it just so happens I know where I can lay my hands on a bike.
– Sid Kipper,
(copyright, Chris Sugden)
You can find this and many other musical and historical gems at: http://www.spineless.idps.co.uk/
-
If you close your eyes and listen, it sounds just like an old calliope!
-
Jody Kruskal's website has an excellent collection of old photos - http://www.jodykruskal.com/concertina_gallery.html
-
While playing for a group of severely handicapped children, many of whom were strapped into special wheelchairs, a young girl who was able to walk came up to me with the wildest look in her eyes, staring right at me, veins bulging on her forehead, and screaming loudly and uncontrollably. Yikes!!!
Like an idiot I kept playing, and after what seemed like an eternity one of her parents sensed my alarm and came up and assured me that everything was fine, and that this was the only way she could show that she really enjoyed the music!
Gary
-
So, the guy in the Italian video goes to all the effort of acid baths and emery cloth polishing and is more concerned about shiny polished reed frames and screws (that are inside and never visible) than he his about the setting and performance of the reeds?!? That poor EC - may none of us ever buy it by mistake on eBay!
Gary
-
Anglo is an excellent choice, since the button arrangement is perhaps the best fit for fingers and hands, and you also often get "two for one" notes without changing buttons. The buttons can usually be played with a fairly light touch, much less pressure than having to press strings on frets. No need for callouses either!
Just be careful if you're planning on playing furiously fast Irish tunes - Niall Vallely once mentioned several years ago how his hands shook uncontrollably after some tunes. If you're playing more in the harmonic style with full chords, all your fingers can be put to good use (not just a few), and I've found playing the Anglo to be very beneficial exercise for serious arthritis. Never had any concertina problems whatsoever with wrists, elbows, arms, carpal tunnels, any of that. Now if you decide to play it standing up or swinging it over your head, that could be a different story!
Gary
-
It's also really lovely in F on the 30-button C/G!
Gary
-
Rather a bizarre conversion to what is basically four 1-row Anglos!
Harold Herrington's first Anglo concertina was in the keys of A-D-G, since he modeled it after the keys of the button accordion played by one of his bandmates in the Irish Rogues. I had the honor of breaking the news to him that those were not the standard Anglo keys! He only built the one in that style, and we got to see it and play at the Old Palestine Concertina Weekend in 2012.
That converted Maccann would be a real trick to learn to play, especially for anyone who plays more than one row at a time!
Gary
Christmas Song - Seven Joys Of Mary
in Concertina Videos & Music
Posted
Lovely version of "Seven Joys of Mary" just posted by Andy Turner as part of his ongoing "Folksong a Week" series, played in F on C/G Anglo.
http://afolksongaweek.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/week-119-the-seven-joys-of-mary/
Happy Holidays!