Rhythm and Punch

[Kelteglow]

Listening to Sir John Kirkpatrick playing how does he get his rhythm and punch in his tunes his chords seem to have an almost ( explosive build up ) I cant  find other words to describe it .There also seems to be an underlying almost constant tone and I am not talking abut the Guitar accompaniment .I wonder if its because I am unable at the moment to play the tunes at full speed  .I am presently going through Johns  Brilliant English Choice book  I also have the  CD , I have had them for several years but only now got around to reading and playing  .PS I have been waiting over one year to attend one of Johns workshops but Covid has delayed it all . Thanks Bob

Edited February 14, 2021 by Kelteglow

[gcoover]

"His Memberness" often uses a lightning-fast grace note arpeggio up or down before certain melody notes and chords, something Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne refers to as a "zip". These are in the same bellows direction as the landing note/chord, and are played by the rest of the fingers on the same hand. And he usually punches the chord hard and quick.

 

Similar to the John Watcham book, a John Kirkpatrick Anglo book is in the works, with plans for it to be out by his October workshop. Perhaps we'll be able to meet up then and share some tunes and pints!

 

Gary

[simon ds]

I think a lot of it’s in the metronome. Once your timing is solid enough (from using a metronome for at least 75% of your practice session) then you’ll get the confidence to be able to come in exactly on time, like full on.

It may also be psychological. The audience is expecting you to come in on time and when you do there’s a sort of collective energy that the audience believes comes from your concertina. When it works you can sometimes not even play notes and in a sense the audience will play the notes for you.

 

 

 

Try this for a couple of weeks! here’s a metronome setting for 6/8 time with a slight swing to it. 

 

Good luck!

 

[edit: actually maybe I shouldn’t say ‘slight swing to it’, more like a slight flattening getting on to 4/4 time to it]

Edited February 16, 2021 by simon ds

[Clive Thorne]

Where the tune allows it I think that John is always dancing to it in his head!

[Little John]

JK often plays a staccato note on the first beat of the bar for punch and drive.

[Kelteglow]

I started playing Anglo 2004 and the first instruction I got for Harmony play was from Johns blog How to Play Anglo on his his website .Later on I attended one of his workshops at Kilve  and when I play the tunes in the English Choice book I tend to play Um pa style keeping the Um as low down on the L/H side as possible .So I hope that's right .Do any of you play it differently ? Also I try to play all the tunes in the book although some are specifically for Anglo . Bob

[Sunbeamer]

Brilliant! What a very useful metronome, thanks for posting 

[simon ds]

Here’s another for bellows practice, it’s also jig time but it’s sort of on the other side of a straight jig, more like a slip jig. The second and fifth eighth notes are missing which I find helps me to remember the distance between the first and the third and then the fourth and the sixth eighths.

Hope this makes sense!  
(I did do a Strathspey setting too, which is REALLY authentic !)

 

 

[Jim Besser]

On 2/14/2021 at 9:57 AM, Kelteglow said:

Listening to Sir John Kirkpatrick playing how does he get his rhythm and punch in his tunes his chords seem to have an almost ( explosive build up ) I cant  find other words to describe it .There also seems to be an underlying almost constant tone and I am not talking abut the Guitar accompaniment .I wonder if its because I am unable at the moment to play the tunes at full speed  .I am presently going through Johns  Brilliant English Choice book  I also have the  CD , I have had them for several years but only now got around to reading and playing  .PS I have been waiting over one year to attend one of Johns workshops but Covid has delayed it all . Thanks Bob

 

JK uses a variety of techniques to get this unique punch on Anglo; the best way to plumb the depths of his playing is to take one on one lessons (he's doing them on Zoom) or one of his workshops.

 

It's useful to note that in his recorded Anglo playing, he plays almost exclusively along the rows, not cross row; this greatly facilitates the assorted techniques (like the aforementioned 'zip") he uses.  It's much harder to get some of the punchy effects he gets playing in D, for example, on a CG.

[Kelteglow]

On 3/10/2021 at 5:02 PM, Jim Besser said:

 

JK uses a variety of techniques to get this unique punch on Anglo; the best way to plumb the depths of his playing is to take one on one lessons (he's doing them on Zoom) or one of his workshops.

 

It's useful to note that in his recorded Anglo playing, he plays almost exclusively along the rows, not cross row; this greatly facilitates the assorted techniques (like the aforementioned 'zip") he uses.  It's much harder to get some of the punchy effects he gets playing in D, for example, on a CG.

I learnt to play first Irish stile across rows .Then wanted to play Harmony .I used the online instruction on Johns site for eg showing push cords and pull chords in the Whitehaven volunteers  I play the first Full Bar pull and the second bar push for three notes then pull the D Also Where the chord symbol appears I am not sure if to play a full chord or just a single note to accompany the melody. I am booked into Johns workshop later in the year ,If any of you can add any guidance I would be grateful .PS I am trying to play with a metronome  .Thanks bob    

Edited March 11, 2021 by Kelteglow

[Mikefule]

16 hours ago, Kelteglow said:

I learnt to play first Irish stile across rows .Then wanted to play Harmony .I used the online instruction on Johns site for eg showing push cords and pull chords in the Whitehaven volunteers  I play the first Full Bar pull and the second bar push for three notes then pull the D Also Where the chord symbol appears I am not sure if to play a full chord or just a single note to accompany the melody. Thanks bob    

 

For folk music/dance music, the rule is play what sounds right.  Keep it simple and pay it well, rather than making it complex and stumbling over the rhythm.

 

Applying that to your question, you may play a block chord (3 or 4 buttons pushed together), or a single note from the chord (often but not always the 1st or 5th) or a pair of notes from the chord, or an "oom pah" of bass note followed by a pair of other notes... the possibilities are endless.

 

I play Whitehaven Volunteers quite a lot and use all or most of the above techniques in it at various times.  If you play a dance tune 3 times in a row, make the accompaniment slightly different each time.