Could Someone Help With 'drowsy Maggie'?

[Sailor]

Could someone out there give me advice how to play the first bars of "Drawsy Maggie"? (30 key anglo) I love this reel but I'm not shure how to do it this sequence of E-B-E-D-E-B-E of the first and third bar to make it sound good. Would you recomend to play it on the push without changing bellows direction (left hand)? Does it sound better to change direction and play the E's on the push and the B's and D's on the pull?

 

Similar bars can be found in quite a lot of reels, e.g. "The musical priest". In the second part of the reel - bar two - the melody is skipping C#-A-E-A-F#-A. There is the same question. C#-A-E-A on the push without changing bellows direction?

 

I'm playin mostly english style and started now with irish style and some jigs. I find it difficult to make my reels sound 'irish' and would like do avoid basic mistakes. It would be great if you could help.

 

Thanks

[Dave Lawton]

Could someone out there give me advice how to play the first bars of "Drawsy Maggie"? (30 key anglo) I love this reel but I'm not shure how to do it this sequence of E-B-E-D-E-B-E of the first and third bar to make it sound good. Would you recomend to play it on the push without changing bellows direction (left hand)? Does it sound better to change direction and play the E's on the push and the B's and D's on the pull?

 

Similar bars can be found in quite a lot of reels, e.g. "The musical priest". In the second part of the reel - bar two - the melody is skipping C#-A-E-A-F#-A. There is the same question. C#-A-E-A on the push without changing bellows direction?

 

I'm playin mostly english style and started now with irish style and some jigs. I find it difficult to make my reels sound 'irish' and would like do avoid basic mistakes. It would be great if you could help.

 

Thanks

 

Is your Concertina a C/G or a D/G or something else?

 

Dave

[David Levine]

It's obviously a C/G. I assume you mean "Drowsy Maggie."

This seems to me to be the right way: ...change direction and play the E's on the push and the B's and D's on the pull.

If you play it on the push without changing bellows direction (left hand) you'd be chopping -- and in any case you'd lose the bounce that gives the Anglo its character.

That's my take on it, anyway.

[Sailor]

It's obviously a C/G. I assume you mean "Drowsy Maggie."

This seems to me to be the right way: ...change direction and play the E's on the push and the B's and D's on the pull.

If you play it on the push without changing bellows direction (left hand) you'd be chopping -- and in any case you'd lose the bounce that gives the Anglo its character.

That's my take on it, anyway.

 

Thank you and yes it is a C/G. I'll practice this way. I only had concerns that changing direction might limit the speed. In the playing of Noell Hill (Irish Concertina II) I could not identify how he did it.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[JimLucas]

It's obviously a C/G. I assume you mean "Drowsy Maggie."

This seems to me to be the right way: ...change direction and play the E's on the push and the B's and D's on the pull.

If you play it on the push without changing bellows direction (left hand) you'd be chopping -- and in any case you'd lose the bounce that gives the Anglo its character.

That's my take on it, anyway.

And here's my take, such as it is.

By way of introduction: I'm no great shakes on the anglo, and I know virtually nothing about what fingerings different traditional players use. Until I get much better, I won't much care, either. My philosophy is, "the notes are where you find them". I don't believe that individual fingers should be restricted to particular buttons. And I can have difficulty coordinating fingering sequences with frequent fast bellows reversals.

 

So I've just now tried to work out Drowsy Maggie. It's a tune I already play on both whistle and English concertina, so I didn't listen to Noel Hill or anyone else to try to copy a particular style. What I came up with: Instead of the reversals David recommends -- something that sounds clumsy and "choppy" when I try it, -- I'm playing those initial E's, B's, d's and G's (everything before the A) all on the push, with the following fingers (LH, of course): E - middle finger; B - ring finger; d - index finger; G - index finger. No jumps, and I don't think it sounds choppy. In fact, since I'm right-handed, I need to concentrate to keep it crisp... but I can already tell that with practice that will become automatic.

 

Try it, you might like it ... or you might not.

I don't think my way will work if the hand strap is too tight, though.

Might also depend on the lengths of your fingers.