Maarten Posted October 6, 2021 Share Posted October 6, 2021 Hello everybody, About a year ago, I started playing the English concertina. And I still enjoy it every day. I have even composed a collection of pieces entitled 11 'A' Pieces (A way to discover the English Concertina). Let's say 'my way' to discover the instrument. Why 'A' Pieces? Because in each piece the note A is held as a sustained note. A conscious limitation of the possibilities. But interesting for me as a composing concertina explorer. I am curious what you think of it. 11 'A' Pieces - Maarten Jense (2021).pdf11 'A' Pieces - Maarten Jense (2021).pdf11 'A' Pieces - Maarten Jense (2021).pdf11 'A' Pieces - Maarten Jense (2021).pdf11 'A' Pieces - Maarten Jense (2021).pdfGoodbye, Maarten 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Wheeler Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 I don’t play English concertina but I do really understand coming up with new pieces for concertina as a way of exploring the instrument, because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing with my 20b anglo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wunks Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 I play duet but I've used that "technique" successfully for playing in different keys and finding interesting combinations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maarten Posted October 15, 2021 Author Share Posted October 15, 2021 On 10/12/2021 at 10:09 AM, Kathryn Wheeler said: I don’t play English concertina but I do really understand coming up with new pieces for concertina as a way of exploring the instrument, because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing with my 20b anglo! Hello Kathryn, Did you publish your pieces for the anglo? I'm very curious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Wheeler Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 On 10/15/2021 at 12:22 PM, Maarten said: Hello Kathryn, Did you publish your pieces for the anglo? I'm very curious. Hi Maarten! sorry for the delay in getting back to you I haven’t made them into a book yet - I hadn’t decided if that was the best way forward or whether to make sheet music available for individual tunes instead. I wasn’t sure there’s be any interest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIMON GABRIELOW Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 Hello there; this is Simon new to net site.. You sent me links to your concertina [anglo 20 key] recording video. I thought it was great; very lively, and the obvious enjoyment and feeling you put into the playing was good to see. That enjoyment came out in the sound too; as I listened I tried to listen only to the sound itself [other than looking at video image] to see if I could hear that same enthusiasm in the music; and I could! I would send you some of my own audio if I knew how but the site allows only tiny amount of data for sending so there we are! My own approach is also very individual and lyrical in tone [ I use 30 key Anglo concertina and the maker of it is the almost frightening much controversial name of Hohner!] There I've dared to say it. But its done me for over 23 years so far [so not too bad after all;?] I like to improvise, and also write music for soloist on the melodic line. I have just finished writing a huge collection of variations on a theme running to 330 in number]! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maarten Posted January 7, 2022 Author Share Posted January 7, 2022 Hello Kathryn, I am interested 😃 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Wheeler Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 Thankyou! Right! It’ll be a useful exercise to write it down. I am now wondering what might be the best and clearest concertina notation style to use. Especially because there is a lot going on in both hands at the same time and it varies a lot, so some of the left hand tab I’ve seen wouldn’t work. I need something that indicates pitch and rhythm and duration! I might start a discussion thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Schulteis Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 2 hours ago, Kathryn Wheeler said: Thankyou! Right! It’ll be a useful exercise to write it down. I am now wondering what might be the best and clearest concertina notation style to use. Especially because there is a lot going on in both hands at the same time and it varies a lot, so some of the left hand tab I’ve seen wouldn’t work. I need something that indicates pitch and rhythm and duration! I might start a discussion thread My experience has been that while there are many notation systems, there are two that currently see widespread use: standard musical notation and Gary Coover's tablature. If your goal is to reach a wide audience, I would stick to these. My personal practice these days is to use treble clef for melody and octavate treble clef for harmony, without regard for which hand is playing the note, and then add Coover tabs around the melody staff. I've found this to work relatively well, but I play a G/D, and bass clef for harmony might make more a little sense for the range of a C/G. Gary asked a while back about how comfortable folks are with the bass clef and with octave shifted notation. If you want to get really experimental, you could use my proposed minimalist tablature from this thread. Even I haven't published anything with it though, so you might not find much of an audience. 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Schulteis Posted January 7, 2022 Share Posted January 7, 2022 Kathryn, looking back at your own contributions to the tablature thread, I'd say what you've been doing seems like a good system already. If it gets too busy on one staff, then break out the harmony. The only catch is that in that scenario, I find that trying to indicate which hand is playing the note in standard notation tends to lead to some strange results if the melody ever crosses over to the left hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathryn Wheeler Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 (edited) On 1/7/2022 at 4:04 PM, Steve Schulteis said: Kathryn, looking back at your own contributions to the tablature thread, I'd say what you've been doing seems like a good system already. If it gets too busy on one staff, then break out the harmony. The only catch is that in that scenario, I find that trying to indicate which hand is playing the note in standard notation tends to lead to some strange results if the melody ever crosses over to the left hand. Thanks for that! Yes, sometimes things can look quite busy when it’s all going on in both hands and more and more over time (especially when things are in G major) a melody will cross between hands whilst the accompaniment moves around it. I’ll have a play around and get more tunes written up from their pencil scribblings The only problem is that it’s even more enticing to play around on a concertina (ooh I am sorry, I realise that we are commenting on Maarten’s thread about his own tunes on English concertina and have veered away from that!) Edited January 10, 2022 by Kathryn Wheeler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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