English Ornamentation Suggestions?

[lildogturpy]

So far I have only been adding cuts and the occasional short roll as ornamentation to tunes on the English concertina but I haven't put too much work into ornamentation, concentrating on learning tunes and playing them properly. I would like to find out more about how to play specific ornamentation patterns though. In particular, I just submitted a tune, The End of Winter , to the tune-o-tron here and I would like suggestions as to what to do with the dotted quarter notes in the B part. With no ornamentation it sounds very flat. A short roll is just not long enough but when I try to figure out the note sequence for a long roll it never sounds very satisfying. Does anyone have suggestions, with specific note patterns, for how to ornament this tune?

 

<note>

It seems that the tune I had transcribed as The End of Winter is in fact Burnt River. There is a misprint on the CD jacket. The tune The End of Winter is a reel which I will get around to transcribing sometime.

</note>

Edited April 4, 2005 by lildogturpy

[BruceB]

Hi Robin,

 

I was just playing around with the tune, trying to do the rolls by using two fingers to hammer on the B button. Wish I could do it like Simon Thoumire. I think this technique has a lot of potential. You could do it on the D's in the A part too.

Anyway, if I get it sounding better I'll report back. I've only played with it for about ten minutes so far.

 

How are you doing your short rolls on the EC?

 

bruce boysen

[Mark Evans]

Hello Robin! I think Bruce is right about the B and the D and A with Simon's repeated note technique. It spices things up nicely. Nice city you live in by the way and very nice place you work! Me darlin' is an alumn' and will be there soon to sing a Verdi Requiem at your very nice hall.

 

Bruce I'm doing well with the right had, but the left is still a major problem. Sometimes it works very well, and then all of a sudden it's monster mash. Maybe it has to do with me being right handed, more likely it's the progressive neurological merde affecting me hands. Grrr.

[lildogturpy]

Hi Robin,

 

  I was just playing around with the tune, trying to do the rolls by using two fingers to hammer on the B button. Wish I could do it like Simon Thoumire. I think this technique has a lot of potential. You could do it on the D's in the A part too.

  Anyway, if I get it sounding better I'll report back. I've only played with it for about ten minutes so far.

 

  How are you doing your short rolls on the EC?

                 

                          bruce boysen

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

By hammer on the B button do you mean the equivalent of an 1/8 note B followed by a B triplet or there abouts? There is a hornpipe, Good for the Tongue, where I've been doing something similar in the B section so I'll give it a try.

 

After playing with a short roll I have something that sounds better now. An 1/8 note B followed by C#BC#B in quick succession. I do the equivalent roll on the F# and D in the A part, ie play GF#G and then the 1/4 note F# or EDE and then the 1/4 note D. It also sounds nice if the 1/4 note F# is played straight and then the 1/8 note E is replaced by F#EF# before the next note.

 

Bruce I'm doing well with the right had, but the left is still a major problem. Sometimes it works very well, and then all of a sudden it's monster mash. Maybe it has to do with me being right handed, more likely it's the progressive neurological merde affecting me hands. Grrr.

 

Instead of doing the hammering with my finger, I've been holding the finger in and then "wobbling" the hands in and out. That way it's the same whether the note is played left or right handed.

 

<Edited>After reading this I realized I don't really "wobble" my hands, its more a series of hard pushes to bring out the hammering effect</Edited>

 

Yes - Montreal is a lovely city, warming up now and beginning to feel more like spring The End of Winter just seems like an appropriate cheery tune to take to the session today

Edited March 27, 2005 by lildogturpy

[Sandy Winters]

If you are after 'anglo style' ornaments then you have to free yourself of the assumption that ornamental notes need to be close to the melody note (one or two notes above and/or below) and that they need to be notes found in the 'suggested' chord at that point in the melody.

 

If I were to play the dotted quarter 'b' in the second part I would use the high 'g' and 'e' , or the 'e' and c#', as the ornamental notes, played very crisply (just rhythmic 'chirps'). That is classic anglo technique applied to the english system (using the next two higher scale notes under fingers 1 and 2(or 3) on the opposite hand as the ornamental notes).

 

Good luck

[BruceB]

Check out the embellishment page in Frank Edgley's Anglo Concertina Handbook. It has both of Sandy's rolls there and lots of other embellishments too. Coming from whistle & flute I often play a roll like you would on those. For a "b" I'd use the "a" & "c" buttons on the right hand.

 

I think the best way to do this is to play around with lots of different ways to do ornamants and switch around to add variation.

 

Pretty much all anglo ornaments I've tried fall very easily on the EC. I think it's more with chords where you have to change things around.

 

bruce boysen

[lildogturpy]

Thanks Sandy and Bruce,

I'll give this a try. I've booked into Frank Edgleys Concertina Workshops at Comhaltas in Ottawa on the weekend. Apparently he's planning one on tunes and one on ornamentation. I had thought that playing an english would leave me out in the cold as far as anglo embelleshments were concerned but you've given me reason to think I'll get more out of the workshop than I was thinking

[BruceB]

Robin,

 

I think the EC is really well suited to doing Irish trad embellishments. IMO this plays right into the EC's greatest strength of splitting the work back & forth between the hands.

 

Speaking of hands. Mark, I hope your neurological problem isn't something serious.

 

BTW, as far as playing embellishments by using two fingers to quickly strike one button.....I've changed my approach a little. I had read that Simon Thoumire only used his first two fingers. Instead of following his method I decided to use my second & third fingers on the two columns of notes closest to the pinky rests. Since I hold the concertina much differently then he does I thought this would work better. After struggling unsuccessfully trying to get the finger 2 & 3 combo up to speed with 1 & 2 I gave up. Now I do all my Simon repeated note embellishments with just fingers one & two, on all four columns of buttons. It's only been several days since I gave up using finger 3 and already I can do it much better on any button. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it a bit. It's no problem at all to reach any button; which ties into my next paragraph.

 

There have been two somewhat opposing theories on C.net on how to hold the EC. One is to make your attachment to the concertina more secure.....adding a wrist strap (or is it a hand strap.....sorry Jim!) or even adding a palm rest & strap like two C.net people used to post about. The other method is to get more freedom of movement and be able to use any finger on almost any button.....to be able to really move your hands around. While I still hold my EC in the more standard manner ( I was going to call it the traditional manner but I was afraid someone would ask if I kept two fingers on the pinky rests) I feel I've really gained a lot more freedom of movement. I often automatically take a pinky off it's rest if this helps me reach a note, or sometimes to push a button. I think for a long time my hands were too fixed in position. I'm glad I move my hands around more as it made it very easy to do the repeated note trick on any button with just my first two fingers and it's more comfortable for me too.

 

bruce boysen

Edited April 1, 2005 by BruceB