Search the Community

Chapter eleven of Judy's harum scarum Hayden tutorial ---------------- Section One ---------------- Here's a favorite tune, a round my mother used to sing me and my sister to sleep with: O wie wolh ist mir am abend / Oh how lovely is the evening. If you're thinking you want to sing and accompany yourself on concertina, this is a good starting point: simple tune, simple words, lots of interesting challenges to expand into once you get the basic pattern down. Or, if singing isn't your thing, but harmony is -- rounds are a delightful way of exploring two, three, four part harmony; and of getting your left hand and right hand working independently, too. If you've never met rounds before, they're little tiny gems of music which people sing in small groups, one person starting the first phrase, then when the first person gets to the the second phrase, the next person starts with the first phrase, and so on. The tunes are made to harmonize with themselves. Here's a link: http://roundz.tripod.com/#links ----------------------------------------- First, the abc, with words, formatted to print nicely... X:1 T:Oh, how lovely is the evening M:3/4 L:1/4 K:G |"Oh," G2 "how"A | "love -" B2 "ly" G |"is" c2 "the" B \ | "eve -" (BA) "ning," G |"is" c2 "the" B | "eve -" (BA) "ning," G | |"when" B2 "the" c | "bells" d2 "are" B | "sweet -" e2 "ly" d \ | "ring -" (dc) "ing," B | "sweet -" e2 "ly" d | "ring -" (dc) "ing" B | |"Bim" G3 | "bom" G3 | "bim" G3 | "Bim" G3 | "bom" G3 | "bim" G3 | and the abc, minus the words, but with numbers showing the phrases, or parts, of the round: 1, 2, 3: X:2 T:Oh, how lovely is the evening M:3/4 L:1/4 K:G | "1"G2 A | B2 G | c2 B | (BA) G | c2 B | (BA) G | | "2"B2 c | d2 B | e2 d| (dc) B | e2 d | (dc) B | | "3"G3 | G3 | G3 | G3 | G3 | G3 | The first challenge is which fingers to use where. Here's the first phrase, in two different fingerings, broken into tiny tunelets: 1 2 3 1 1 3 3 2 1 1 3 3 2 1 G2 A | B2 G | c2 B |(B A) G c2 B |(B A) G OR: 2 3 4 2 1 4 4 3 2 1 4 4 3 2 G2 A | B2 G | c2 B |(B A) G c2 B |(B A) G Try them both. In the first one, you might want to imitate a guitar -- fingerpicking style -- make all the notes short and light, allowing a little silence between each note; so at the "hop" from 1 to 1 (G to c), it sounds just like all the other notes. When you get good at it, it can have the feel of a classical guitar. In the second fingering, go for smooth, long notes. Once you get good at it, you'll be able to make the notes flow into one another, like a legato piano, a flowing violin, a swooping harp. If you have arthritis in your pinkies like me, or your pinkies are short and not very strong, you'll like the first approach better; if, like me, you like being able to connect the notes into a smoothly flowing line, you'll like the second approach. So here I am in a dilemma, which do I pick? When my pinkies are killing me and I'm deciding which instruments to focus on for today's practice time, I generally lean towards the instruments that don't hurt my pinkies -- recorder, fiddle/viola, fingerpicking Hayden. (English concertina is really hard on your pinkies: the weight of the instrument is carried on them.) I have this choice on the Hayden -- I can pick the style that doesn't hurt my pinkies. It's a lighter style -- in order for the "hops" (where I use the finger I just used on the previous button) not to stand out, I can play the other notes as hops, too, rather than smooth transitions -- and it's just a stylistic choice. And you get to learn both ways, and have two very different styles to choose from, if that's what you want -- or you can pick one, and focus on it, get really good at the style you like best. ----------------------------------------- But I've digressed into stylistic matters... Back to the tune. It's a round: once you've learned it -- and I've given you, above, a good start on fingering choices -- picking the fingers for the rest of the tune will flow from the choices made at the beginning -- I can tell you one thing for sure: if you are planning on learning a lot of tunes by ear, from cds or online or especially at live music sessions -- at higher speeds with no help from dots-on-a-page or Amazing Slow-Downer software or patient fellow musicians -- the three finger approach is a winner. You don't have to remember which finger to start the tune on. You don't have to remember, really, which finger to put where -- you just have to develop a map of the notes/buttons in your head (basically, the button chart transferred into your memory with that nifty little usb cable that came with your camera... a.k.a a bunch of practice in the privacy of your room), and put whichever finger is handy on the button that comes next -- lightly dancing over them, making it sound exactly like you meant to that. (and if you're already playing lightly and "hoppingly" -- when you hit a wrong note, you'll hear it first, before anyone else and you'll get real good at backing off and turning that "wrong" note (or at least, a note not-in-the-tune or not-in-the-key) into the briefest of passing-grace-notes -- a little bit of cayenne pepper in the chocolate cake. Kind of yummy, really!) -------------------------- I digressed again. Back to the tune: It's a round: once you've learned it in one hand, learn to play it in both at once. Sing along with it, and don't worry about it if you can't sing, sing anyways. Croak, if that's your level of singing ability -- it'll help you learn the tune, get it into your head, and most importantly, into your ear, and you'll get more tuneful at croaking, with some nice private practice. ----------------------- Now that you've got it DOWN, both hands and singing, try playing the first line in the right hand against the second line in the left hand, and singing the last line (I picked an easy one for that!!) You may have to slow way down; you can do it as tunelets, and stop in between to regroup. If that gets you all tangled up and frustrated, stop and just play the right hand, and then just the left hand, and then go back to trying to get them to operate the different parts of the tune at the same time. Keep in mind what I said a few chapters back: when in trouble, SUBTRACT. Do fewer things, do them slower, then when you're comfortable do more, or do them faster. Oscillate between doing less, and attempting more, and gradually you'll become more able to do more different things at the same time, faster. It's the old patting your head and rubbing your stomach (and then switching, and messing your hair all up...) ------------------------- When you can play the first line in the right hand, and the second in the left, swap lines. Keep working at it until you can play both hands against each other, moving smoothly through the parts. At whatever point you get really comfortable, try doing the round in three parts -- right hand, left hand, singing. Or start singing, and come in with the concertina on the second and third parts. There are a huge number of rounds out there in the world, if you like rounds you're in clover: a great starting point is Sol Weber's collections --- http://roundz.tripod.com/#links give you a lifetime's worth. ----------------------- Section Two -------------------------- My guess is that many people with more musical experience will still find the above an interesting and valuable challenge. The really cool thing about it is it's a great introduction to playing countermelodies, and learning to play harmony by playing it from one of the most accessible bodies of music -- simple, gorgeous tunes that people have crafted to harmonize with themselves, complete with engaging words to help dig the music firmly into memory. If you aren't very comfortable reading music, try sightreading through a bunch of these: that will give you more facility reading music. Do it slowly, patiently; write the note-names near the dots on the paper, if you need to! Do it on just one hand, then add the other hand in unison; then try doing the parts, if you're feeling really bold. The more you do, the easier it will become. Or: if you're great at sight reading, but have trouble memorizing, pick a few rounds that you find especially delightful and memorize them: here's how: play through a tune three times, reading it from the page, then shut your eyes and try to play it, slowly, visualizing as much as you can remember of what you saw on the page. When you start falling apart, open your eyes and play it three times again, reading, then close your eyes again; keep alternating until you're comfortable playing the whole thing eyes shut. Then go do another tune. Once you've learned the words of the rounds, singing them will help a lot, too, with memorizing; or you can sing the note names. We've all memorized our native language, with some thoughtful practice music is memorizable too.