Hayden Tutorial, Chapter Four

[judyhawkins]

Chapter Four of Judy's harum scarum Hayden tutorial

-------------- a brief digression -------------

This is my extremely opinionated attitude towards what music is
appropriate for playing on the concertina:

I think anything you want to play on the concertina is exactly the
right kind of music to play on the concertina.

It's about joy, not about ought.



---------------- Section One -----------------

[For those of you with minimal musical background.]

Expanding the left hand into something more interesting....

(hard to remember which hand is which? stick a note on top of the left
side, "LEFT" to remind yourself! -- anything to help yourself along!)

In C major, start by just playing the left hand alone:

C - - E - - C - - E - - C - - E - - C - - E - -

pretty boring! just finger 3, finger 1, finger 3 endlessly.

Now play it with finger 2, 1, 2, 1 until that feels a little more
comfortable.

NOW, let's add a new note: On your button chart, find the "F" that's
in the row above the "C", and a little to the left of the "C".

The button pattern looks kind of like this:


F G A B
C D E F# <-- ignore this note -- I'll get into the
# modified notes later.

So, using finger 3 on the "F", try this:

2 1 3
C - - E - - F - -


Now for the fun part: play the new left hand with the tune, like this:


C D E E D C D C D E D C C D E E D C D E D C - -
C - - E - - F - - C - - E - - F - - C - - E - -
2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1

You may find that it is REALLY hard to coordinate your two hands:
keep at it! Slow down, think about what finger goes where, slowly.

This is the single most important rule of learning to play music: when
in trouble, slow down! (the second most important is keeping at it...)

If you just can't make your two hands work together with all these
fingers doing different things, try playing just the right hand a few
times, then play the left hand a few times.

Then go back to the very first version of the tune,

C D E E D C D C D E D C C D E E D C D E D C - -
C - - E - - C - - E - - C - - E - - C - - E - -

and play that, to remind yourself that you can, in fact, get both
hands to work together; when you feel like maybe you can add that new
note, the "F", play the left hand just by itself, and then try

VERRRRY s l o w l y

playing the tune and the new left hand.

One way of really helping yourself get comfortable is to play for just
5 or ten minutes, first thing in the morning; and then play for 5
or ten minutes later in the morning; and then again later in the day,
just 5 or ten minutes; and then right before you go to bed, for 5 or
ten minutes.

That's about 20 to 40 minutes of your day, which you could do all at
once in one sitting, but splitting it up like that gives your brain
time to absorb all this new information, and refreshes what you're
learning more often, which moves you along that much faster.

---------

In the left hand, is the fingering still feeling awkward? the 2 - 1
stretch between the C and the E -- does that feel too long for your
hand? if it does ---

Just use finger number 3 on both the C and F:

3 1 3
C - - E - - F - -

so you're using the same finger on two different buttons.

That's what works for my hand, actually, but it was easier to write clear
instructions using the 2 1 3 pattern.

You may even find that you drifted into the 3 1 3 pattern -- that's
EXACTLY RIGHT. I'm a huge advocate for doing what works for you.
I'll jump up and down about that a whole lot, as time goes on.

You get to figure out what fingers work for YOU, for your hand and
physiology and comfort, and use those fingers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of exclamation points !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You get to figure out what fingers work for YOU, for your hand and
physiology and comfort, and use those fingers.

!!!!!!!!!!!!! lots of exclamation points !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and play the music you really want to play, too.


------- A couple more ideas to try out,
if you're feeling adventurous -----

Once you get comfortable, try it in G major. Or in D major.
Basically: find the D on your chart, and play the pattern exactly like
you played it starting on the C.

Try the left hand with some other three note tune.

In the left hand, add the "G" note and see if you can figure out a
pattern that sounds nice with this tune, or any other tune.




---------------- Section Two -----------------

[For those of you with more musical background.]


Turning difficult lines of music into exercises....

Let's imagine that some piece of music you want to play has this
passage:

X:1
T:Ostinato for the Right Pinky
R:reel
S:me
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
|: CDAe CDAe | CDAe CDAe :|


and that final, highest note just keeps getting away from you -- your
pinky just can't find it, or falls off the button; when what you
really want is to play a nice smooth repeating pattern, getting it the
same every time and making it sound easy.

One very effective way of getting from perpetual stumbling to smooth,
is to make that series of notes into an exercise of pairs of notes,
two quick, then pause, the next quick, then pause

|: C<D A<e C<D A<e | C<D A<e C<D A<e :|

or even more exaggerated

|: C//D// z A///e// z C//D// z A//e// | C//D// z A//e// z C//D// z A//e// :|


Play that dozen times (and if it's too hard, slow down!!!!).

Then switch it up so the notes are paired exactly opposite:


|: C>D A>e C>D A>e | C>D A>e C>D A>e :|


|: C// z D//A// z e//C// z D//A// z e// | C// z D//A//z e//C// z D//A// z e//:|


Play that a dozen times (AND IF IT'S TOO HARD, SLOW DOWN!!!).

When you're comfortable with each pattern, try alternating them: which
may mean that you have to slow down again.

When you can play the two exercises back to back and get all the
notes, try playing the original -- it'll be smoother. If you really
worked at the patterns, the original will be suprisingly easy to play.

You can apply this approach to ANY difficult pattern of notes or
chords on any instrument, and it will make that difficult pattern a
lot easier to play.

Here's a version for the left pinky, all in one abc file:

X:1
T:Ostinato for the Left Pinky
R:reel
S:me
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:C
|: EDGe EDGe | EDGe EDGe :|
|: E<D G<e E<D G<e | E<D G<e E<D G<e :|
|: E>D G>e E>D G>e | E>D G>e E>D G>e :|



Here's a tune I used that technique on, trying to go from hopeless
stumbles to smooth, back a few years ago, on the recorder. I spent
about a week working it over, and it has been totally solid ever
since. It's a real "fiddly" tune, much more comfortable for the
fiddle players than the recorder; this is how I got to where I can hit
all the notes, at dance tempo, no stumbles.

X:1
T:Swinging on a Gate
S:New England Fiddler's Repertoire
R:reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
|: gedB G2 AB | cABG AGEG | DGBd g2 g2 | fgag fdef |
gedB G2 AB | cABG AGEG | cABG AGEG | DGGFG2 D2 :|
|: gfga bagf | gfed B2 AG | EAAB cBAG | EAAB cdef |
"m13" gfga bagf | gfed edBd | cABG AGEG | DGGF G4 :|

The B-part has the real challenges, especially the lovely twisting
falling thing in measures 13 - 15.

X:1
T:The hard bit in the B part
R:reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:G
|: gfga bagf | gfed edBd | cABG AGEG :|
|: g>f g>a b>a g>f | g>f e>d e>d B>d | c>A B>G A>G E>G :|
|: g<f g<a b<a g<f | g<f e<d e<d B<d | c<A B<G A<G E<G :|

It is just plain enormous fun to rip that tune off without a hitch.

That dotting and reverse dotting technique is something I learned from
my classical piano teacher.