help in advancing

[ido]

i wan't to learn how to play with chords or some kind of ocompinament (in other words playing with more than one note pressed) but i don't know how what to do?

I play the EC Jackie so there about 2 1/2 occtaves which is difenetaly not enough for chords.

what to do?

[Geoff Wooff]

If you read standard music notation you could try downloading, from the Internet, the score (partition) for Piano or Guitar for a piece that you know well. You can then identify what notes you need for a chord and see where you can fit some of them in on your 2 1/2 octave range.

 

By Ear you might start by trying to add some notes from the three basic chords for a major scale for a melody that you can already play.You can easily find the notes for these basic chords from a Guitar tutor for any keys that you wish to play in.Simply put, any of these chords will have the melody note included in them and you can "invert"( turn upside down) any chord to suit your instrument's range and leave out any note that gets in the way of your melody playing.

You might wish to start by just adding one extra note from the appropriate chord.

 

You could try the Tutor book by Dick Miles which is especially for the English. I have not seen it but maybe others here could comment on its usefullness for you. This can be bought from www.dickmiles.com

 

The last point is to start searching for an EC with a larger range, a 56key Tennor Treble has a nice size and a larger bellows for the extra air that chords will use.

 

Good luck with your chordal journey,

Geoff.

Edited March 22, 2011 by Geoff Wooff

[ido]

wow that seems pretty complicated thank you anyway. I would be glad if anyone could send me a link with a score that has chords or ocompanyment in them.

the thing is I know how to play chords on the EC it's just there's no room and I'm not going to buy any new one soon. I've learned about 10 tunes from paul hardey's basic tune book and I'd like to advance so if someone could post a video explaining or a score that would be great.

id like to be able to play like this bear dance.

[JimLucas]

id like to be able to play like this bear dance.

You won't be able to play all that on your Jackie.

If you watch Chris' fingers, you'll see that he's playing only the melody. The bass-and-chord accompaniment heard with it is coming from a separate source (accordion? synthesizer?), which is not visible.

Edited March 22, 2011 by JimLucas

[ido]

is it even posible to play something like that on any kind of english concertina? is it only a jackie that's incapable?

[Geoff Wooff]

is it even posible to play something like that on any kind of english concertina? is it only a jackie that's incapable?

 

 

Ido,

this is a very simple tune to add some chords to and I have just done so on my 48key treble although I would have more space in this key with a larger instrument. As I am not sure of the range of your Jackie, where its 2 1/2 octaves are, might I suggest moving this tune up a key or two so that you have enough room underneath the melody for at least some one and two note chords.

 

It is possible on an English concertina to play in a chordal way almost as complexly as on a Duet. Possible but not easy.

If you go to www.accordetmusique.fr which is a music store that sells the Jackie and Jack here in France, you will be able to hear several sound clips of these instruments, with at least two clips of chordal playing. I see that these clips are also on the Concertina Connection web site.

I note also that there is a description of the range of these instruments, the Jackie has all the lower end of a normal 48key treble English and therefore there should be plenty of room for harmonising chords.

Edited March 22, 2011 by Geoff Wooff

[ido]

just a few quistions

is there some way to know what chords to use?

when i play the chords to press three, two, or one notes?(what if it's a D7 or something?)

[Dirge]

just a few quistions

is there some way to know what chords to use?

when i play the chords to press three, two, or one notes?(what if it's a D7 or something?)

 

Well you can sit down and work it out formally and write it out beforehand; but I think most of us do it with a combination of experience (which you have to gain yet) and trial and error (which you can use right away). See what works. You can use as many notes as you think sounds nice. You don't have to slavishly get all the notes of the chord in. Start with a sparse backing and you can get fancier with confidence and experience.

 

Someone posted a set of handwritten arrangements by Mateusovich a couple of years back. They were all chordal, there was lots of choice of pieces. They might be a very good learning tool for you as examples of 'How it is done' and they'd give you some nice party pieces too. The trouble is I can't remember how to spell Mateusovich (I'm mildly ashamed to admit this) to get the search to work so I can't post the link. I remember looking at them and thinking what a good selection of tunes they were though. Hopefully someone will help with this one? Please?

[ido]

when you say trial and error what do you mean I don't realy know if it sounds right or not.

and you're saying there isn't some kind of mathmatical rule of what chords to use?

[Ransom]

The trouble is I can't remember how to spell Mateusovich (I'm mildly ashamed to admit this)

 

My first guess is "Matusevich", but I love your analysis! I wonder if there is a Matthew somewhere in there...

 

when you say trial and error what do you mean I don't realy know if it sounds right or not.

and you're saying there isn't some kind of mathmatical rule of what chords to use?

 

It's more of an art than a science. There's plenty of math deep down in there, but if you like the noise you're making... de gustibus non disputandum est! It's right!

 

There was an Anglo Chords thread a while back where I gave some advice that transfers well to the English (which is what I play anyhow). A look through that might be enlightening, or at least tantalizing.

 

And somewhere I read a PDF tutorial on how to construct chords on an English. It was labelling all the buttons with M's and J's and R's and N's, as a mnemonic to help you remember how to construct major and minor chords. That might be helpful, too... somebody remind me to look it up when I get home. =)

[Mary B]

The PDF tutorial using the letters M, J, R, and N to show how to play chords is on the site www.concertina.com. It is written by Brian Hayden. It is titled "Playing chords (English, Anglo and Duet)" I'm sorry but I do not know how to make a link to a site.

[Rod]

when you say trial and error what do you mean I don't realy know if it sounds right or not.

and you're saying there isn't some kind of mathmatical rule of what chords to use?

 

It is fundamental to all music-making that you must have an ear that can instinctively recognise a correct chord from an incorrect one. The late British comedian and pianist Les Dawson did however make a satisfactory living out of exploiting this amusing loophole ! The prospect of playing by 'mathematical rules' alone is as unsatisfactory an artistic concept as 'painting by numbers'.

[Steve Mansfield]

Brian Hayden's article about chords can be found here: I need to sit down and study it with EC in hand before commenting on it.

 

Whilst I'd certainly agree with the points Rod makes that

 

It is fundamental to all music-making that you must have an ear that can instinctively recognise a correct chord from an incorrect one.

and

The prospect of playing by 'mathematical rules' alone is as unsatisfactory an artistic concept as 'painting by numbers'.

It's worth emphasising that these are skills that can be acquired and learnt. They're something that can be worked on through study, practice, experimentation, work both on your own and with others, and maybe through even some form of formal musical education or study if that route works for you.

Small steps is the answer - you won't be able to go straight from single-line melodies to full harmonies in a day or a week, because there's no one magic bullet, but it's an accumulative process and the more you work on it the more sense it will make.

Personally my understanding of harmony and chords is far stronger than my technical ability on the EC to make those harmonies happen - but I'm slightly closer now than I was a year ago, and hopefully next year I'll be a bit closer still.

[Edited to fix formatting]

Edited March 23, 2011 by Steve Mansfield

[Johanna]

On the issue of range: I'm learning on an 18-button Stagi mini (whose range is even smaller than the Jackie's), and I've worked out how to play chords to a couple of simple melodies. So I'm sure that there's plenty you can do on the Jackie.

[Alan Day]

Chords are not always necessary, one or two note accompaniment can enhance a tune or song. With runs, or filling in the gaps can be an interesting alternative. A layout written out on two sheets of paper left and right hands, with a chord book which list the notes that form a chord could be your next step.

Al

[Rod]

Chords are not always necessary, one or two note accompaniment can enhance a tune or song. With runs, or filling in the gaps can be an interesting alternative. A layout written out on two sheets of paper left and right hands, with a chord book which list the notes that form a chord could be your next step.

Al

 

Frequently a left hand chord on the Anglo can be employed to act as a complete substitute for a right hand melody note thereby adding additional character, emphasis, colour and variety to a melody. Difficult to explain but a very satisfying, effective and simple enough technique when used appropriately.

[ido]

I've tried to play chords(two first notes not three) with Bear Dance on C Major (or A Minor i'm not sure but never mind) on a higher octave

but it's very hard even though the melody is prety easy for two reasons:

1) because I'm using two extra fingers on each hand I nead to plan each time exactly what fingers to use.

2) Bear Dance is a polka which is hard to change the notes in the chord all the time because I have to play in two diferent speeds on each hand which is vertualy imposible unless you have insanly good cordination.

this is frusterating I'll try reading the guide Steve Mansfield gave.

[Mary B]

I looked at the Matusewitch arrangements on www.english-concertina.co.uk. They seemed difficult to me (I have been playing a Jackie for 4 months.) When I try to play chords, I use the melody and alto notes of a piano score for a favorite song. It takes a lot of practice to move two fingers at the same time. I have only tried it for songs; they do not need to be played as fast as a polka. Good luck with the Bear Dance!