Not following your thing, learning marginal stuff, or Argh.

[Notemaker]

My interest in Morris and Celtic has, more or less, per-occupied practice time since I re-started on Tina. Ok, it is my own fault and nobody else is to blame.

 

But, I do want to caution newbies, if you got into it because you love one kind  of material, yet have to get through others - tutors etc., - please make sure you keep to the central focus on your first choice.

 

Because I now realize what brought me to the Tina is not either I  practice on, and there is a reason why this happened. I first chose the Tina because I heard it used as backing for a folk singer, 'chording' and bits of melody etc. Reason why I did not get on  that,  there is not as much on the net about it, nor can I find any instruction like I can Morris;  Peter Trimming on YouTube is a great example.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-EC21xijG_PdX3mUSiQ8UQ

 

I reckon most of the songsters I have came across sing 'Shanty' type stuff, but I do not think there is any reason why other genres would not work.

 

Fairly certain that on CN there's quite a few songsters who could usefully redirect me?

 

Thank you.

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by Notemaker
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[wunks]

What are the types of songs you would like to sing if you weren't thinking in the context of the concertina?  Old jazz and cabaret standards, mountain ballads, folk revival, show tunes, British broadsides, ethnic World music?  I'll ask, although I'll get in trouble, if you've tried EC or Duet?

[Notemaker]

7 hours ago, wunks said:

What are the types of songs you would like to sing if you weren't thinking in the context of the concertina?  Old jazz and cabaret standards, mountain ballads, folk revival, show tunes, British broadsides, ethnic World music?  I'll ask, although I'll get in trouble, if you've tried EC or Duet?

Thank you for the suggestion.

Yeah that's it, today we do not have a ready made popular set of songs for Anglo! And, agreed perhaps it might work better on EC or Duet. But any easier folk song would be a start even on the Anglo.

[Jody Kruskal]

Hi Notemaker,

 

If it's songs you are looking for, my Anglo students on Skype request many great folk songs and I do my best to satisfy them. Here is a short list of a few titles I've arranged for my students... all good ones:

 

Shennandoah

Go Tell Aunt Rhody

Dance To Your Daddy

Danny Boy

Flash Jack From Gundagai

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

Greasy Coat

Oh Suzanna

Parting Glass

Pretty Little Horses

Rivers of Texas

South Australia

Strike The Bell

The Swimming Song

The Rattlin' Bog

The Water is Wide

You Are My Sunshine

Blue Christmas

 

A few songs just don't work very well on the C/G Anglo but most work a treat. If it's only accompaniment you want, then really, most anything is possible, assuming you are flexible about what key it's in.

 

Of course the Morris and English session tunes really let the Anglo shine, but traditional Old Time, Contra, Shetland, Swedish, Scottish, Quebecois, Irish, Basque, French and other great genres are all handy on the Anglo.

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by Jody Kruskal

[wunks]

I agree with Jody that old time music is a great and broad based place to find tunes.  I like to click on a band or performer on u-tube and then explore the side bar offerings.  There's a whole world of great music out there!  Start with Caleb Clauder and Reeb Williams Foghorn String Band for example and see where it takes you.  You should also consider composing your own stuff..........!?

[Anglo-Irishman]

15 hours ago, Jody Kruskal said:

A few songs just don't work very well on the C/G Anglo but most work a treat. If it's only accompaniment you want, then really, most anything is possible, assuming you are flexible about what key it's in.

I totally agree with Jody here! Don't think about whether songs were written for the Anglo, or for the guitar, or for the piano - they weren't. They were written for the listener to enjoy, and for any musician - whatever his instrument - to perform.

One point Jody does make is, assuming you are flexible about what key it's in. The Anglo is one of those instruments that we in Europe call "diatonics", i.e they're limited in the number of keys they can play complex music in.

Now, I have a confession to make: for decades I played Anglo, and got pretty good at playng complex arrangements, either accompaniments or solo pieces, in the keys of C or G. At one point, I decided to get out of this C/G corset, and bought a Crane Duet. With this fully chromatic instrument in the duet layout that is often rated as the easiest for an amateur musician to learn, I was soon able to make my own arrangements. And guess what - most of them were in C or G, simply because these are my best singing keys! 

 

So my advice is to just play what you like on an Anglo in its home keys. If the keys of C and G are not good for your singing voice, there are Anglos in other keys than C/G. You can play a nice instrumental solo using the same fingering on any Anglo, and no-one will notice whether it's a C/G, G/D or Ab/Eb instrument.

 

Tunes you know well are always the best learning exercises!

 

Cheers,

John

[gcoover]

I think the OP is looking for song accompaniment instruction, and he's right that it's not covered in any books other than just showing chord charts.

 

For the upcoming Jeffries Duet book I'm including a couple of Nick Robertshaw's songs with his accompaniment notated, but haven't thought about doing this for AC or EC since I don't sing along with them. Do you all think there would be interest in a book of song accompaniments, for either instrument?

 

In the meanwhile, best suggestion would be to listen carefully and try to mimic EC singers like Louis Killen, Tony Rose, etc., and Anglo singers like John Kirkpatrick, Andy Turner, Jody Kruskal, etc. 

 

Gary

[hjcjones]

Tutors are to tell you how to play.  For song accompaniment, you need to understand what to play.

 

First of all, you need to find a key which you can sing in and which fits comfortably on the concertina.  Then start with chords.  The basis for a simple accompaniment is the "three chord trick" based around chords I, IV and V.  Look this up if you don't know what it means - there are plenty of websites explaining it, and although they're usually aimed at guitarists the principles apply to any instrument.

 

In the key of C the chords are C, F and G (or G7).  Mess around with these to get used to their sound, and use your ears to tell you when to change chords.  You can get hold of "fakebooks" which will show you the chords for a tune, but you might have to transpose the tune into a concertina-friendly key (there's lots of free and cheap music software to help with this).  Don't forget you can play chords with the right hand as well as the left, and don't feel you have to play every note.

 

It's usually better to avoid playing the melody line at first and just stick to chords.  As you get more confident, you can try making it more complex - add some more chords, play arpeggios instead of full chords, add passing notes or bass runs to move from one chord to another, add a counter-melody.

 

Listen to accompanists you admire and try to figure out what they're doing.

 

The most important thing to remember is that the song is the most important element, the accompaniment is only there to support it.  Trying to play something too fancy will probably mean you are not able to give enough attention to how you sing, and will only distract the audience from the song itself.  Save the flashy bits for between verses. A simple accompaniment played and sung well is better than a complex one performed poorly.

 

Just have a go!

 

 

 

 

[CaryK]

On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2020 at 10:02 PM, gcoover said:

I think the OP is looking for song accompaniment instruction, and he's right that it's not covered in any books other than just showing chord charts.

 

For the upcoming Jeffries Duet book I'm including a couple of Nick Robertshaw's songs with his accompaniment notated, but haven't thought about doing this for AC or EC since I don't sing along with them. Do you all think there would be interest in a book of song accompaniments, for either instrument?

 

In the meanwhile, best suggestion would be to listen carefully and try to mimic EC singers like Louis Killen, Tony Rose, etc., and Anglo singers like John Kirkpatrick, Andy Turner, Jody Kruskal, etc. 

 

Gary

Gary, would readily purchase a book regarding song accompaniment for the Anglo.  I've done it a bit, but find it difficult to keep up a rhythm as the chords change.

 

[Richard Mellish]

 

 

On 1/30/2020 at 10:57 AM, hjcjones said:

The most important thing to remember is that the song is the most important element, the accompaniment is only there to support it.  Trying to play something too fancy will probably mean you are not able to give enough attention to how you sing, and will only distract the audience from the song itself.  Save the flashy bits for between verses. A simple accompaniment played and sung well is better than a complex one performed poorly.

 

 

Hear hear!

 

On 1/31/2020 at 8:34 PM, CaryK said:

Gary, would readily purchase a book regarding song accompaniment for the Anglo.  I've done it a bit, but find it difficult to keep up a rhythm as the chords change.

 

Make sure that the rhythm is defined by the words, not by the accompaniment. Too many otherwise competent musician/singers keep a steady rhythm on their instrument (usually guitar, but could be anything) and are thereby forced to gabble some of the words to fit them in.

[Kelteglow]

 I agree with that Richard .I play to accompany my song and often break rhythm to emphasis certain parts of the song .You can do this if you play on your own of have practised it with others before hand .Its difficult if you do it in a session but then if I start the song others just have to follow !Bob

[wunks]

Varying rhythms and lengths of measures gives life to singing.  I love playing my duet along with songs usually done acapella.  Let the concertina wander and ramble over, under and around the words and melody.  Abandon a hard focus on a strict pattern approach and your  'Tina will begin to play itself.....?