cboody
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Posts posted by cboody
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As a well trained music theory person (you don't want to know... :-) ) I was delighted to see these very different approaches, all of which provide accurate information in different ways. There is so much specious information floating around on this topic. This is not. Thanks to all of you!
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What! A mere flat is more important than music? Good luck with it.
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Roger, your question really asks how to specify fonts for abcm2ps which is the internal program EasyABC uses to display and create PDFs files. Go to Guido Gonzato's web site, called Abcplus as I recall, and download his manual. Somewhat dated, but there is a wealth of information there.
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What a lovely gift to all of us. Thank you.
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There is a "President's March" associated with Washington that was so popular people would interrupt concerts and clamor for it. John Chambers lists "George Washington's Favorite which looks like a slightly different version from what I recall I have around here somewhere.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.
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Nice comparison. Thanks. The high pitch is interesting. Sounds great, but makes me squeeze up a bit..
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Think I may have put these here before. "Bella Notte" and Somewhere My Love"
Not solo, and from a live concert... They seem to fit love themes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hk9ajzv0jlfan4d/04%20Somewhere%20My%20Love_Bella%20Notte.mp3?dl=0
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Thanks....
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Closed our Civil War era concert with this. Here's our version. The piano part is the original published one. Audience in on chorus. No concertina. I hope it is ok to post...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nt6j4h7vk49uueh/16%20Hard%20Times.mp3?dl=0
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Umm Yeah I guess.
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The thumb issue is common for new players. It could be that the Jack has stiff bellows and that is putting pressure on your thumbs. Or, it could be that you are just not used to things. I know I had this issue with my first instrument, and it took quite a long time before I was able to play for more than a short time. Assuming you have some leeway in returning or exchanging I'd suggest you do two things: 1) continue to play for short periods and see if the issue alleviates. (The same advice I'd give if your little fingers were getting sore). 2) See if you can try an EC someone else has and note whether the problem is still there.
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Mike,
Have you talked to Greg Jowaisas? Not only does he have the instruments you've already seen on his "Panoply" etc, but he may have others worth your consideration plus he's in the USA just outside of Cincinnati.
Ross Schlabach
Second this suggestion. Given your playing level I suspect Greg might even be willing to ship you something on approval...though of course that is Greg's call.
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I find it slightly surreal when someone resurrects a thread that's nine years old. Orm, has it really taken you four years of reading old threads to find this?
You need to get a life mate, I mean seriously!
I have only recently become a member of this discussion forum and until now, very pleased to say that I have had extremely positive, informative and encouraging replies to post I have made. Peter, how do you suppose that I have been reading old threads for 4 years and more to the point what is so wrong with that? There is much of interest in posts both old and new. If you have nothing better to do on New Years Eve at 11 mins to midnight, than to criticise other members posts, then I seriously suggest that you are the one who needs to 'get a life'.... Big time!
Err...easy here. I'm sure Pete is just gently joshing you. Look at the smiley. No need to get upset.
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Very nice and I'm right down the road. We should get in contact.
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OK Greg: Panoply or plethora? Hmmm....
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Lovely playing with a nice lilt and good choice of chord notes. I "hear" the tune much slower and have found at the tempo I hear it doesn't seem to be very suited to concertina. But you make a strong case for both the tempo and the fit with the instrument. Thanks for stretching me.
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Yep. Many thanks to Jim... and to Paul.
Now where do we go from here? Let's not debate it; let's just do it.
We can still post tunes, listen to and learn from what's posted, even make requests. We can critique and otherwise discuss tunes, arrangements, and playing styles. Or not, as we choose. And lets not forget the "tadpoles" and ABC, e.g., "Something for the Weekend".
I'm looking forward to what the new year brings, and maybe even some "Christmas presents".
OK Here's a little set of Chanukah tunes. Probably too well known, but I'm hoping the arrangements might grab someone.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6gwct9pywbzxsu/Chanukah%20Tunes.mp3?dl=0
Maybe some others will happen closer to Christmas....
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Thanks Jim,
I was only an infrequent contributor, but appreciated your efforts
Were I to complain it would be to the general membership who did not comment or respond at all. It was frustrating to me, and I'm sure others, to submit something and hear nothing. There is much to learn from commentary. Would that there hand been more.
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So here are the figures for 1/5th Comma Meantone (also available in the March 2015 issue of Concertina World) :
C+6, C#-8, D+2, D#-12 , Eb+12 ,E-2, F+8, F#-6, G+4, G#-10, Ab+14, A'0', Bb+10, B-4.
This is also called Homogenous Meantone.
PS: by making 'A' the Zero note the spread of pitches is about evenly spaced either side of Equal Temperament... my reasoning being to have a Meantone tuned instrument that plays reasonably well with other instruments in ET.
Making 'A' the zero note: I am guessing that some keys work better than others?
If so, what would they be and which ones are problematic?
Take a close look. The notes with the least deviations from 0 are the keys that will sound best with ET instruments. So, D (+2) G(+4) E(-2) B(-4) etc. That is to say, the fundamental of the key in those keys is closest to ET tuning. Any key should be essentially in tune with itself. I have a 1/5 meantone instrument I got from Geoff, and it is true that usually there is no issue playing with ET instruments. I have sometimes heard a bit of problem playing in unison with a well tuned Hammered Dulcimer, but that seems to be mostly a matter of the acoustical environment.
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I am sometimes curious to know whether a tune was created to match a lyric or a lyric was created to match a tune. Which came first, the chicken or the egg. The tune is what matters to me. I can always turn a deaf ear to a lyric but of course a 'song' has to be a combination of both.
In the immortal words of Paul McCartney, "There's no rules": sometimes the lyrics are all in place before the tune is dreamed of; sometimes it's t'other way round; often the "hook" of a particular melodized phrase is the first step, and the rest follows.
But I agree with you (having done this quite a lot, for whatever that's worth) about the primacy of the music. If you're writing songs but shortchanging the tunes in favor of clever lyrics, you've probably chosen the wrong medium.
Bob Michel
Near Philly
Unless you're writing rap... :-)
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This link will let you hear three temperaments played on mountain dulcimers. I think this set of examples is the easiest to hear differences in. Worth a listen, and a good argument for mean tone tuning, though 1/5 comma I think works better across many keys.
http://everythingdulcimer.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31538&hilit=just+tuning
There are other examples on down the page.
For those who are compulsive check out.
http://leware.net/temper/stimm.htm
To figure out what tuning, if any, the old instrument has try this: Figure out what Hz makes the "white notes" (inner two rows) the least sharp and make a chart. Find the "white note" that has the lowest cents "inaccuracy," and set that note to "zero" by subtracting the inaccuracy (so if the closest note is +5 cents subtract 5). Subtract that same amount from the cents inaccuracy for all the other notes. Now find a chart of tunings that show the difference from equal temperament (100 cents) and compare to see which tuning comes closest.
Yes an octave is 1200 cents. 1 cent is 1/100th of an equal tempered semitone.
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A late entry here. My buddy had some illness so we couldn't get together. Here are two "American" Scandinavian tunes that are very common in the old time Scandinavian bands ("German" Bands) around Minnesota: "Svensk Anna's Waltz (also known as "Peek-a-boo Waltz), and Halsa den Darhemma (Greet the Folks at Home-Please put up with the probable misspellings in that title). That second tune can still bring tears to older folks in the Norwegian and Swedish communities. It is a singer on a ship at sea singing to a seabird about how he, the singer, can't go home but the bird can fly home so would the bird please "greet the folks at home." That had real meaning for the immigrants to Minnesota and surrounding states who definitely couldn't go home.
A quick recording with blemishes using a Zoom recorder like the Hn2 and normalized and a bit a reverb added with Audacity. Wheatstone concertina tuned 1/5 comma mean and hammered dulcimer.
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Oh! I recommend the update but YMMV.
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I do support and beta testing, along with feature suggesting, for the current developers of EasyABC. If you contact me, particularly of line, I'll be happy to help out and pass on suggestions. I use a Mac, and can't help with PC issues, But if they are clearly described I'll pass them on. Some comments on things above:
1. You can certainly continue to use older versions of EasyABC, but it is a very good idea to update the program's the EasyABC wraps around from time to time...particularly abcm2ps for display and printing and abc2midi for playback. You can get the updated versions, put them wherever you want and point to them in the Settings area. ABC Explorer uses the same "driver" programs, but I do not know how you update.
2. Playback sounds are a function of whatever is "standard" on your system. On the Mac they are terrible and even incapable of responding to some common commands. The current version of EasyABC allows you to connect to different midi players. On the Mac I can use Timidity and pick good sound fonts for playback. That removes the necessity of using a separate player. Timidity is cross platform, so should work on PCs also.
3. To speed up entry in EasyABC you can go to the shortcuts menu and turn on auto calculation of upper and lower case note names and bar calculation. This will make the program select upper and lower case based on the distance from the previous note and will calculate whether a measure is full and enter a bar line automatically if it is. This really speeds up entry. You can also get the program to do other things automatically. The features have been available for a long time.
4. The current version will remember previously set up files, format files for example. This makes changing your setup much quicker and is really helpful if you use different formats as I do.
5. The current version has a whole new window that can simplify all sorts of editing.
6. Clicking on a note in the notation display automatically selects that note in the ABC display, making corrections easier.
There are more things, but that's probably enough. I agree the documentation is clunky. But have you looked at the help things? They do help in many ways and also allow you to enter abcm2ps formatting commands and I believe also abc2midi commands. These areas are not quite up to date, but are close.
Drop me a note if I can be helpful. If there is a bug or something I can't answer I can reach the coders.
Enough!
Modes And Keys
in Teaching and Learning
Posted · Edited by cboody
Hi Jack, 1,2, and 3 make the most sense to me. Perhaps a section on how to identify modes as part of number one? 5 is good too and connects with my suggestion. I wish I could help with java script, but I don't have that either. Happy to read and react as you change things though... Chuck Boody.