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DaveM

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Posts posted by DaveM

  1. I think it is a bit more than just mechanical, especially for someone completely new to music. Playing scales and arpeggios allows you to associate the muscle movements with the sounds in the context of a key. Yes, tunes do this too, but then you to divide your focus between multiple aspects of the music. Presumably, for some people this focused aspect is helpful, for others it may be unnecessary.

  2. My guess that you might be missing phrasing and articulation:

     

    - legato vs. detached vs. staccato notes, which in turn becomes (an aspect) of phrasing across multiple notes.

    - controlling the volume of the instrument, both between different notes, and as a note sustains, so that you can put accents on different beats or provide articulation on the notes.

    - the slight variations in rhythms (e.g. long-short-short for a waltz) for different types of tunes

     

    Peter Laban posted a link to this article on playing the pipes in another thread years ago, some of which applies

    directly to concertina, some of which only partly so, but I found it to be a good discussion that got me thinking about these aspects

    more.

     

    I usually consider it good practice to initially work on this while playing scales: play a scale fully legato,

    play a scale in legato pairs c-d e-f g-a ...etc. Play soft, play loud, play alternating nodes loud-soft etc.

    You can do the same kind of treatment to tune snippets, but then you have to think about two things at once.

  3. Since I usually don't have any dancers around to constrain me, I guess that I can swing them as much or a little as I like.

     

    I used the Finnish spelling in case it was a regional style thing -- maybe Finns are just more straight-laced than the French?

  4. I started looking at the Finnish tunes Jack Campin was nice enough to post here I'm looking at it from from back to front.

    I got to Violan Marsurkka (3rd from last in the pdf) which is notated with dotted-eighth/sixteenths.

    The examples I've found on Youtube, like this accordion one or this ensemble one seem

    like they they are more like straight eighths.

     

    Should this tune, or Masurkkas in general, be swung?

  5. I've heard the AAB type of description of the high-level (e.g. verse/chorus/bridge) structure of a song in many contexts.

    In pop music, a song that goes verse-chorus-verse-bridge-verse-chorus might be described as: ABACAB,

    I've also seen it a classical context in describing the sonata form. It's not something you'd usually see in a proper score, but is a commonly

    used shorthand in more informal descriptions like lead sheets, song notes, verbal dialog etc.

    I figure that the people behind ABC notation had these kinds of ideas in mind.

  6. Ken wisely called off the discussion of the type of concertina a new player should get. I'm not trying evade that judgment, but I had what might pass for an insight that I'd like to share. If it's deemed inappropriate, I of course bow to that judgment.

     

    Here is a set of propositions:

     

    1. Some people more easily "take" to one system or another of concertina.

     

    2. At various times and places, one type of concertina has been or is more predominant than another. Victorian parlors were the domain of the English, street musicians played "German" concertinas. The more affordable Anglo became entrenched in Irish, Boer, and many other cultures without a lot of ready cash, but we also know that many working-class players played the English system. There were a lot of cheap ECs out there, but some working-class players got the money together for good instruments!

     

    3. Concertina players, no less than other folks, are subject to the birds of a feather phenomenon. If one type of instrument predominates in a genre of music or culture group, new concertina players will likely adopt that type of instrument. We're like bikers in that regard: at some events, you'd better show up in black leathers and on a Harley, at other events, on your BMW with Euro-style outfits.

     

    4. Good players, of whatever system, can play music of a genre not usually played on their type of instrument. For example, Jody Kruskal did a wonderful job playing the mainly Playford (and Playford-style) dances for an English country dance ball in the Washington area a few years ago. It might be that those of us who are less talented might to better on an instrument associated with a particular genre of music, but that's a matter of skill.

     

    This suggests to me that we should preface many of our statements with "For me . . ." or "Usually, in this community of musicians . . . ."

     

    It also strikes me that our disagreements are disagreements among cousins. As concertina players, we have more in common with each other than we do with folks who play other instruments. I play an EC, bur I'm fascinated with many of the discussions here of Anglo issues. I'll never play one, but damn, this family business is interesting! Cousins can be wrong, of course, but were still family in the long term.

     

    Mike

     

    Let me butcher a saying:

     

    "When it's Anglo vs. English vs. Duet we fight like the dickens, when it's concertina vs. accordion we're all concertinists. And when you bring in banjo [or whatever your favorite target is] we're all free reed players..."

  7. For your case, it's slightly better to use A=440Hz.

     

    Taking A as the reference, you'd get a chain of fifths like this (I've included the 14 notes of an EC):

     

    ( -7 -6 ) -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 [number of fifths away from reference]

    ( Ab Eb ) Bb F C G D A E B F# C# G# D#

     

    In ET, each step along the circle of fifths is +/-700 cents,

    in 1/5MT each step along the circle is +/-697.7,

    so you're picking up ~2.3 cents of discrepancy per step as you move away from the central reference pitch.

     

     

    With D as a reference it goes (-6, -5) -4, -3 ...+6,+7, so your D# would

    be even more off from ET than if you centered at A (16.4cents instead of 14.1 cents)

     

    I dropped the first two of the 14 EC notes since you indicated that you'd use B major

    (and thus D#) and not C minor. Someone else who wanted flat keys in tune might

    put the reference note further to the left and drop the D# and G#.

     

    Though in principle, you could select any pitch as the reference pitch, I can't see a reason why you wouldn't want to put the pitch-reference

    near the center of your chain of fifths.

  8. Thanks for asking Bruce.

     

    I haven't had the more severe tingling/pain in a month or more, but sometimes it still feels off. Lately, I've had some muscle pain in my neck. Related to the nerve entrapment? I don't know, but probably indicates that I'm still doing some things un-ergonomically.

     

    I've been limiting how much I've been practicing, mainly trying not to go too long in one go. Compared to the guitar I notice my pinky more immediately on the concertina, but its hard to tell if that means it's the cause, or just the conditions under which I notice things. The other time I tend to notice it in the morning; maybe I'm just "sleeping wrong" too.

     

    I do keep the left end on my left leg. I've made a few trials of switching around (left end on right leg, right end on right leg) but haven't stuck to any of them long enough for them to start to feel comfortable. One thing that has been coming more naturally is to occasionally completely lift concertina up for a note or phrase; I figure this is a good way to avoid locking in tension like Dana mentioned. I don't have the hang of just completely holding it in the air, and I don't want to try to make that transition fully now since it seems to put more pressure on the pinkies.

     

    The other change was to get a proper music stand so that I can keep my head up while playing.

     

    One other thing, is I play on a stool without a back. I've been trying monitor my back posture. What are you guys thoughts on using a chair with a back?

  9. Another though is to think about more than just your hands while you're focusing on your technique.

    As you focus on your wrist position, make sure you're not causing tension/strain in other parts of your body.

    Plus, maybe adjusting your arms and shoulders will make keeping your wrists neutral feel more natural.

     

    Taking some time to just focus on how your whole body is arranged and moving, and making sure everything is comfortable,

    and not worrying about trying to play actual music, can be a useful process.

     

    I'm dealing with tingling sensations in my pinky (posted in another thread), but now think that the underlying

    problem is tension/strain further up my arm and shoulder, so I'm working on this myself.

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