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Bass note playing on anglo question


Alan Caffrey

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Hello!

                I'm trying to play two hornpipes on C/G anglo - Home Ruler and Kitty's Wedding, both have a bass note motif of B,D,A,D that I have not played before, in fact, apart from adding bass notes to make two note chords (or whatever you call them) the low D is as low as I go. I find the B and D as push notes on the left hand G row outside buttons and the low A on the incidental row as a push on the next to last outside button. All the fingerings I have attempted feel very clumsy and I have difficulty getting back to regular hand position to  play on through the rest of the tune. Practice will improve matters I'm sure but I would appreciate suggestions as to which fingering of the notes would be best in the long run.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Many thanks, Alan.

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Hi Alan,

 

You should also have a low A on the inside row (G row) at the very bottom on the draw (some concertinas have this note as another D). When playing these tunes that is the A I use and I also use the low B on the middle (C row) just below D on the draw also. I don't use the D A or B on the push in these tunes.

I hope that helps somewhat.

 

All the best,

Alan

Edited by AlanEgan
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The dots for Home Ruler from the Comhaltas tune book show the bass notes as BDAB, do you play the A's and B"s all with your little finger? or swivel your hand down to play the B's with your ring finger. I recall a class with Gearoid O hAllmhurain (sorry if I haven't spelt that right) where he taught us to play the Mountain Road reel with the low notes on the G row, with the little finger playing both notes - the finger jumps from low D push to low B push and back to low D push - it has taken me years!  I played it for the first time in a session just recently.

 

Thanks in advance,  Alan.

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Hi Alan,

 

As a general rule, you'd never use the same finger for two consecutive notes if the are on different buttons.

In that case I would move your hand down and do the A, on the draw with your little finger and the B, on the draw with your ring finger and the D on the draw with your middle finger.

 

Of course, this would depend on the notes before and after the sequence but you can always make some slight melodic changes to make tunes more "concertina friendly".

 

If you're interested, I do online skype lessons which you might find helpful.

You can see the details on the forum under the teaching and learning section.

Good luck with it!

 

Alan

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