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Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”


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Just read a review of the program, “Only Murders in the Building” now streaming on Hulu and starring Steve Martin and Martin Short. The review, by Doreen St. Felix, appears in the current (September 27) issue of The New Yorker on page 89, and contains this excerpt:

 

Quote

A romance ensues between Martin's character and a bassoonist (Amy Ryan), presumably to give Martin, who plays the concertina, a chance to duet with his crush from the window. But he's a damn good musician.

 

We all knew SM played the banjo (and very well, too). Anybody knew he played the concertina? I haven’t seen any of the episodes yet. I tried googling “Steve Martin concertina” and dozens of video links came up, but it seems it's another Steve Martin.

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In a Facebook forum, Lexie Boatright posted that her student Catriona Fee coached Martin how to mime playing and performed the music that is heard.
 

I’ve only seen a short clip of him playing in an advertisement—it wasn’t very convincing (his fingers didn’t move).

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On 10/5/2021 at 9:11 PM, Ethan Ham said:

In a Facebook forum, Lexie Boatright posted that her student Catriona Fee coached Martin how to mime playing and performed the music that is heard.
 

I’ve only seen a short clip of him playing in an advertisement—it wasn’t very convincing (his fingers didn’t move).

I was excited to see him with it, but I agree it didn't look like he was playing it more like ......Lip Sync......or maybe better Finger Sync...lol. Still I was excited to see him playing none the less.

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On 10/5/2021 at 9:11 PM, Ethan Ham said:

In a Facebook forum, Lexie Boatright posted that her student Catriona Fee coached Martin how to mime playing and performed the music that is heard.
 

I’ve only seen a short clip of him playing in an advertisement—it wasn’t very convincing (his fingers didn’t move).

I finally saw the episode today. I agree: If somebody is taking credit for teaching SM how to look like he’s playing a concertina, they didn’t do a very good job.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/30/2021 at 5:03 AM, jh241d said:

in episode 3 of only murders Steve Martin plays the podcast intro (right after opening credits).

can anyone send the chords/tabs for that short rif?

 

I believe it's just alternating between a G minor and D major chord in first inversion, with a few lyrical notes added.

|:G   Bb+D  Bb+D:|  then |:F#   A+D   A+D:|  then back to |:G   Bb+D   Bb+D:|  followed by |D  Eb  D  C  Bb|  to  |:F#   A+D   A+D:|  again. 

Timestamp is 4:49 into episode 3 if you want to play along. Apologies for the terrible notation format. 

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On 12/30/2021 at 5:03 AM, jh241d said:

in episode 3 of only murders Steve Martin plays the podcast intro (right after opening credits).

can anyone send the chords/tabs for that short rif?

(G, D, D)x4 (F#, D, D)x4 (G, D, D)x3 G, D, G, D, (F#, D, D)x3, F#, D, F#, D

 

or

 

G, D, D, G, D, D, G, D, D, G, D, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, D, G, D, D, G, D, D, G, D, D, G, D, G, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, D, F#, D, F#, D

 

I haven’t figured out chords yet so I play another octave for D and G (ex: hold down buttons 2 and 5 on left hand middle row for G)

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7 hours ago, Rick Bruner said:

Turns out he apparently does play the concertina! 

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/laurengarafano/facts-and-details-about-only-murders

 

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. If Steve Martin has any facility playing the concertina, he certainly didn’t show it onscreen.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHgnND3P-ow

 

Looks like he only remembers at the end of this clip that he's supposed to be moving his fingers! And I'm not sure the bassoon miming is all that much better.

 

Steve Martin is a pretty great banjo player, so I'm kind of surprised he wasn't more concerned about looking a bit more credible.

 

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