Digby's Farewell

[adrian brown]

The title of this tune is not a reference to “our" Roger D, but to Captain Francis Digby, an English sea captain who died fighting the Dutch in the Battle of Solebay (1672). For once this tune has an original bass line which I have tried to adhere to in my arrangement and I think it goes quite nicely on the Anglo.

 

 

This is the tenth video I’ve uploaded of the series of 44 recorded for A Garden of Dainty Delights, a new book of tunes arranged and transcribed for the Anglo by Gary and me - the others can be found here....

 

Adrian
 

Edited September 17, 2018 by adrian brown

[Marcus]

Wonderful Adrian - really looking forward to this book.

[adrian brown]

Thanks Marcus, with a bit of luck, it shouldn't be too long now - just awaiting the latest proofs...

 

I'm putting the videos up one-per-day for the moment and will make a playlist on youtube, once all 44 are there.

 

Cheers,

 

Adrian

[soloduet]

Very beautiful! You don't think about a transcription for Hayden/Wicki system?

Didie

[Don Taylor]

3 hours ago, soloduetconcertina said:

Very beautiful! You don't think about a transcription for Hayden/Wicki system?

Didie

If it is anything like Gary Coover's books then the RHS will be written in standard music notation as well as Gary's Anglo tab notation, the LHS will be in tab notation only but it is possible work out the standard notation from the tab notation.  I have done this for one or two tunes but, for me, it is slow work.  Chord notation is also provided so another alternative might be to work out a new accompaniment.

 

I agree that it would be nice to have the LHS in standard notation (tenor clef works for me), but I plan to buy this book anyway.

 

Don.

[adrian brown]

7 hours ago, Don Taylor said:

If it is anything like Gary Coover's books then the RHS will be written in standard music notation as well as Gary's Anglo tab notation, the LHS will be in tab notation only but it is possible work out the standard notation from the tab notation.  I have done this for one or two tunes but, for me, it is slow work.  Chord notation is also provided so another alternative might be to work out a new accompaniment.

 

I agree that it would be nice to have the LHS in standard notation (tenor clef works for me), but I plan to buy this book anyway.

 

Don.

 

Yes, that's exactly how we've done it, and it's interesting that you've transcribed some of Gary's LH tableture for conventional notation. I'm interested in how duet players read: treble-bass clef, or treble-tenor? I guess if it's the former, it's best to have the tune down an octave on the page, to avoid both clefs going unnecessarily into ledger lines? Another problem with doing a duet version is that there are quite a lot of Fmajor/Dminor tunes that work beautifully on the C/G anglo, but which are a bit problematic unless you have a really huge Hayden? Or have I got that completely wrong?

 

In any case, I fear the potential market for a duet version is not going to tempt Gary into burning the midnight oil, sweating over his computer to do the necessary transcriptions.

 

Adrian

[John Wild]

Many experienced duet players have the left hand part written in bass clef. That involves simultaneous reading of bass clef for LH and treble clef for RH. I would find that a problem and would prefer both parts written in treble clef, and recognising that the LH part would sound an octave lower than written.

 

 - John Wild.

[Don Taylor]

14 hours ago, John Wild said:

Many experienced duet players have the left hand part written in bass clef. That involves simultaneous reading of bass clef for LH and treble clef for RH. I would find that a problem and would prefer both parts written in treble clef, and recognising that the LH part would sound an octave lower than written.

 

 - John Wild.

John

 

That is what I mean by tenor clef, the clef symbol is the same as the treble clef but with a little 8 underneath the clef mark.  ABC notation supports this and plays it correctly, as does Musescore.  It is not really that unusual a notation.  Tenor clef may not be the correct nomenclature, but that is what I call it as I think of most duets as being tenor instruments.  Brian Hayden's 'All Systems Duet Tutorial' uses this basic notation although I think he calls it a baritone clef.

[Don Taylor]

18 hours ago, adrian brown said:

Another problem with doing a duet version is that there are quite a lot of Fmajor/Dminor tunes that work beautifully on the C/G anglo, but which are a bit problematic unless you have a really huge Hayden? Or have I got that completely wrong?

Fmajor/Dminor works fine on any Hayden, including the Elise, assuming you mean the F above middle C and not F5 an octave higher.  Fmaj/Dmin is one of the 'Easy-Peasy' keys.

 

I don't like using bass clef because my lowest note is C3 which is half way up the stave and, as you point out,, leads to using too many ledger lines above the stave for the higher notes on the LHS.  Not having a proper grand staff with middle C in the middle is unfortunate, but does not bother me much as I never took took piano lessons.

 

No, I don"t expect Gary to add standard notation for the LHS, but it would be nice. 

[gcoover]

Hi Don,

 

Sounds like what you're describing is the "tenor vocal clef" which would work for "octave-displaced" instruments: 

 

http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/clefs-for-music-notation/

 

I like the idea of the little "8", but being "octave-displaced" sounds like a serious medical or concertinistic condition!

 

For the time being, I've chosen to show the melody lines in my books at normal treble clef and then do a total cop-out by not showing any type of bass or octave or double-treble clef for the left hand and just show button numbers instead. It's a lot cleaner visually that way, and all those extra clefs would probably just drive me more crazy and make it even harder for beginners to learn an already fairly difficult instrument (the Anglo).

 

Gary 

[David Barnert]

19 hours ago, adrian brown said:

I'm interested in how duet players read: treble-bass clef, or treble-tenor? I guess if it's the former, it's best to have the tune down an octave on the page, to avoid both clefs going unnecessarily into ledger lines?

 

The answer is that there’s no standard answer. So little music is published for duet concertina that we usually have to rely on music arranged for other instruments for our repertoire. It helps to be able to read Treble/Bass for piano music and combined single-staff treble for guitar music.

 

19 hours ago, adrian brown said:

Another problem with doing a duet version is that there are quite a lot of Fmajor/Dminor tunes that work beautifully on the C/G anglo, but which are a bit problematic unless you have a really huge Hayden? Or have I got that completely wrong?

 

On my 46-key Hayden, tunes with less than 2 flats or 5 sharps (F, C, G, D, A, E and their relative minors) are “easy-peasy.” If you need an Eb you have to use the D# at the wrong end. Similarly A# and Bb.

 

15 hours ago, John Wild said:

That involves simultaneous reading of bass clef for LH and treble clef for RH. I would find that a problem

 

Pianists do that all the time. It’s just a matter of familiarity.

 

1 hour ago, Don Taylor said:

That is what I mean by tenor clef, the clef symbol is the same as the treble clef but with a little 8 underneath the clef mark.

 

Tenor is the wrong word. The tenor clef is one of the “moveable C” clefs with Middle C on the 2nd line from the top. It’s a 5th above the bass clef, and since cellos are tuned in 5ths, it’s a convenient way for cello music to avoid ledger lines (just play everything one string over). The abc standard uses this correctly. There is special syntax for the “little 8 treble clef” that doesn’t use the word “tenor.”

Edited September 21, 2018 by David Barnert
Corrected typo

[John Wild]

7 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Pianists do that all the time. It’s just a matter of familiarity.

I respect those who can. It is my problem. Maybe I am too lazy to deal with it.

[Don Taylor]

12 hours ago, gcoover said:

Sounds like what you're describing is the "tenor vocal clef" which would work for "octave-displaced" instruments: 

 

http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/clefs-for-music-notation/

Yep, that is the one.  Thanks for finding the proper name.

 

Don.

[Marcus]

I’ve been watching the new videos every day and ther hasn’t been one tune that I don’t want to learn. Really looking forward to it!

[RAc]

On 9/20/2018 at 9:25 AM, adrian brown said:

 

Yes, that's exactly how we've done it, and it's interesting that you've transcribed some of Gary's LH tableture for conventional notation. I'm interested in how duet players read: treble-bass clef, or treble-tenor?

 

I can only respond for myself, but my experiences (see below) appear to apply to all Duet players I know (very likely I hang around in the wrong circles...)

 

On 9/20/2018 at 1:31 PM, John Wild said:

Many experienced duet players have the left hand part written in bass clef. That involves simultaneous reading of bass clef for LH and treble clef for RH.

 

 - John Wild.

 

That's interesting. I don't know a single Duet player who learnt the instrument the way piano players generally learn their instrument.

 

I come from the guitar.  I can read music due to a semi classical background, so never bothered to read the bass clef (don't need it for the guitar).

 

To me the duet is somewhat like the guitar; the right side of my Crane is designated for melody playing, while the left hand side fills in the accompaniment. Thus, the only relevant musical notation to me is the melody notation (usually treble ~ violin clef). For the left hand, all I need is chord symbols. Everything else that consitutes as left hand side embellishment (bass runs, chord inversions etc) sort of fits in on the fly and is at times ad libbed or varied (if I interpret this correctly, this is a lot of what Adrian's and Gary's "Harmonic Playing" is all about; at least I found a lot of similar elements in Adrian's very recommendable classes I had the good fortune to attend). Thus,a "fake sheet" (written out single line melody with Chord symbols on top of or below the staff) is the best notation I can ask for. A full score w/ both hands written out separately to me is more of a hinderance than a help (using only the chords, I can even bs my way through a piece I don't know at a session; I simply Oohm-pa the chords in that case either on one side or distributed over the two sides . Works like a charm as long as there are enough instruments to carry the melody).

 

But David is spot on, of course; it's very simply a matter of how you practice. My father was a classically trained piano player, and even though he preferred complex classical music, he didn't have any problems sight reading a ragtime from a written two voiced score. I become more and more fluent in sight reading single line melody scores but never needed to bother with two different clefs.

 

Of course, this won't work with more elaborate pieces of music. In the rare cases where I indeed tackle arranged music in which both voices need to be written out, I normally use the treble clef for both sides and do the transposition in my head as I practice (preparing myself for a flame storm at this point. I'm not implying that this is good practice, it's just a work flow I have come to live with that spares me the additional work of learning a new clef).

 

BTW Adrian, very nice recordings. As Siegfried Farnon would put it: "They live up to your usual standards." ? 

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by RAc
spelling error corrected

[adrian brown]

Thanks for your kind comments Rüdiger - glad you like the videos.

 

I think the thing about reading from a piano score is that it does open your eyes to the different ways of harmonising melodies, which you can then incorporate or not into your own arrangements. On an anglo, it's very difficult to sight read because you pretty much have to go once through simply to decide which direction you're going to play the phrases in. But being able to decipher a score written an octave lower than sounding in treble and bass clefs gives you a huge quantity of music to explore, albeit in my case rather slowly :-)

Already looking forward to Zeilitzheim again next year :-)

 

Adrian

[adrian brown]

Here's another tune form the same Playford collection as "Digby's Farewell" and again I've made use of the original bass line in my arrangement. It was fortunate for me that the bass line exists since this tune goes all over the place harmonically and I don't think I'd have been able to work it out solely from the melody...

 

 

Adrian