Thinking Outside The Box - Chicago Workshop

[BertramLevy]

On Saturday Feb 9th I will give a anglo concertina workshop entitled "Thinking Outside the Box" at the University of Chicago Annual Folk Festival. It will be in the Ida Noyes Library from 12:30 to 1:30.

 

Everyone is welcome. We will explore a unique method for learning tunes. The workshop should be applicable to all styles. Related to that I have included a letter (below) that I recieved a few days ago.

Bertram

 

Hi, Bertram:

Your PT gig at the Upstage was, in a word, terrific. You and Kirk have a great sound
together, especially what must be your unique use of concertina and fiddle in
old-time music.

I admit I have been slow to get into your new book, but the day after I heard you I
skipped ahead to Lesson 8 (Introduction to the Key of A). While I've been
playing A-modal (mix) Irish tunes for a while, I've been struggling with Amajor
tunes. Fortunately, there aren't many of them in the Irish genre, but there are
a few great ones that need to be played, and not by cheating in Gmajor. So I
went through the "Granny" exercises, and realized one of my big
difficulties with A was simply that I was ignoring the A-note on Row I, button
R5 (I have Jeffries layout). I'd been struggling with the draw A in Row II and
the draw in Row III. What a difference that simple fingering makes ! It
not only cleared up problems with some of my Amajor tunes, but even with some
of my Amix tunes. Perhaps not the greatest of epiphanies, but it seemed like it
to me.

Obviously, this isn't the way you meant your book to be used, and I will surely get back

to the earlier lessons and proceed through the book in a more orderly
fashion !

Best of luck on the rest of your tour. Give Kirk my compliments, he's a fantastic fiddler

and banjo player.

 

Best, Alex

Hi Alex, thanks for the kind note - Your use of the book to help with an Irish tune is EXACTLY

what the book is intended for and I am thrilled that you have found this
move useful. I sometime think I misnamed the book - I should have put the
subtitle first. It is true that you can learn to play old timey music
when you finish but the tunes are really a vehicle for mastering the keyboard
and all it’s geometric ramifications. Each tune exercise is in fact
another door to pass through that will allow you to play in time better and to
play variations and harmony on any tune. Let me know if I can be of any
assistance.

 

Bertram

 

 

 

 

 

[JimLucas]

Now that Upcoming Calendar Events are being displayed on the main Forum page*, you might want to list this event in the Calendar, too. (Maybe with a link to this thread?) Might get a few additional people to notice it. (Alas, I'll be about 4000 miles away across "The Pond". )

 

* At least for me. With all the different "problems" reported by others regarding this and that display, I can never be sure that anyone else sees what I see, even though I haven't changed any settings.

[david_boveri]

if the weather holds up i'll be there!

[shelly0312]

Waiting to hear a report of the Chicago gathering. Being just a country gal up here in Wisconsin--I still toyed with the idea of figuring out the Metra system, doing the transfers and coming down with my EC. I never get to meet other concertinas--even from the "other" religion. I figure there is always something to pick up even from other systems. But the thought of Chicago by myself ended up being too daunting--and I just played my concertina at home for a couple of hours instead. Surely enjoyed the vidoes of Levy from Oregon--made me all the more sad that I didn't tackle the transportation system.

[BertramLevy]

Hey David Boveri It was good to see you at the concertina workshop in CHicago The general attendance was quite surprising. I will be returning to chicago to begin a tour from there through michigan in March . As we discussed I would be interested in offering a workshop for the concertinist on Sunday the 10th in the late morning. Appreciate your thoughts as to the potential interest. I realize that most of the players are oriented toward Irish music so I could direct my talk towards subjects that would be relative to thier interest.

I would want at least 6 participants.

thanks

 

Bertram

[david_boveri]

shelly: it was a great workshop! definitely a lot of fun. because of the size of the audience, it ended up more of a master class (to borrow a classical term) with a little tune workshop afterwards in the hall for the rest of us.

 

i'd definitely be interested in a workshop. i'll ask around and see what sort of interest i can find.