Song Accompaniment

[Paulino Forte]

Does anyone have any suggestions for listening or reading to learn song accompaniment? Artists that are particularly effective?

 

I can't think of much more than "oom-pah" or "oom-pah-pah".

 

Any and all suggestions welcome!

[Jeff Stallard]

I try to think like a rhythm guitarist in cases where a steady oom-pah oom-pah doesn't sound good. Figure out the focal points in each section, and time your "pah" with those points. Old Solas stuff would be a good group to listen to. Get a feel for how the guitarist is playing, and try to emulate that on the concertina.

[Daniel Bradbury]

John Kirkpatrick is remarkable in provinding accompaniment to his singing.

 

I would suggest you get the soon to be released Anglo International for some wonderful examples of this, plus a number of other truly amazing performances!

[sympathy]

Does anyone have any suggestions for listening or reading to learn song accompaniment? Artists that are particularly effective?

 

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Danny Spooner instantly comes to mind. He's an Australian National Living Treasure and a real nice bloke.

His accompaniments on concertina are gentle flowing melodic lines, what he calls "passing stuff", and are very effective and unobtrusive.

Have a look at the man here: http://www.dannyspooner.com/

 

If you get the chance to see him live don't miss it!!

 

I saw him once at the Port Fairy Folk Festival sing Shanties on the dock with his back to a raging sea during a thunderstorm!!! I'll never forget it.

[David Barnert]

Your profile says you play Anglo. Have a listen to John Roberts (of John Roberts & Tony Barrand, also "Nowell Sing We Clear").

[Paulino Forte]

This is great info.

 

I've been playing Anglo for about a year, mostly on-and-off until I recently started Levy's "Anglo Concertina Demystified" book. It has made a big difference in my playing, however I've been playing instrumental music almost exclusively.

 

Have most of you picked up tunes from recordings? I've done that for years - twenty- with the guitar but have yet to attempt it with my box. Would you recommend learning that way?

[Jeff Stallard]

Have most of you picked up tunes from recordings? I've done that for years - twenty- with the guitar but have yet to attempt it with my box. Would you recommend learning that way?

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Most songs I pick up by ear are from midi files. The way I recommend learning tunes (I'm sure everyone has their own method) is to sight read it (sheet music) about 10 times or so to get a sense of the phrase patterns, then put the music away and force yourself to do it by ear only.

[sympathy]

Have most of you picked up tunes from recordings? I've done that for years - twenty- with the guitar but have yet to attempt it with my box. Would you recommend learning that way?

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Recordings or sessions/jams with other players, but as Jeff has said, hearing and sight reading the tune and then playing it without the dots can be a very effective way of learning.

Sometimes I'll just have a tune looped on the computer or CD player or whatever while I perform some boring task like the washing, and eventually the tune just "soaks" in. Instrument Maker Craig Fischer calls it "the Osmosis Method"!

If the tune is tricky to play I'll learn it bar by bar. Play bar one over and over until I have it, then bar two, then put them together and so on. Particularly effective for Northumbrian variations I find.

[Jeff Stallard]

Sometimes I'll just have a tune looped on the computer or CD player or whatever while I perform some boring task like the washing, and eventually the tune just "soaks" in.

 

Excellent suggestion. If I want to learn a song by ear, I don't attempt to play it until I can hum it correctly. Once I can sing/hum it, I know it has sunk in. Also, it helps me if I think of the different phrases as a question and answer kind of thing. It works best with Irish music. For example, let's look at Irish Washerwoman. Think of it like two people talking and it makes more sense and is easier to learn. The first person asks a question, and the second person answers is. The question/answer thing keeps going throughout the song. In my example below, I made the questions short, but the length of the question should be dictated by the feel of the tune. You might even find a song where the entire A part is the question, and the entire B part is the answer (an extreme example). Anyway, try thinking of it in those terms and see if it helps you figure songs out.

 

Edit: Think of each Irish tune as a spirited, but friendly, debate between two people. I think it would be fun to have one musician play the questions, and the other play the answers.

Edited June 14, 2005 by Jeff Stallard

[Mark Evans]

Thank you Jeff. I didn't know the name to that tune. Irish washerwoman, or I find from a search on the Session Do Virgins Taste Better.

[Jeff Stallard]

We seem to have gotten off the subject of song ACCOMPANIMENT...but as long as the thread originator is okay with it, so am I.

[Mark Evans]

We seem to have gotten off the subject of song ACCOMPANIMENT...

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Jeff, you brought that Washerwoman bit up. Given an opportunity to drift, I will for I can't help myself. Like the moth to flame...

[Jeff Stallard]

I should have rephrased what I said. I am to mostly to blame for this thread going astray.

 

To get it back on track, I wonder if an accompanist could use the question/answer model to plan their accompaniment. I'll have to think about that...

[Paulino Forte]

I'm ok with getting off track a bit. The tunes that I've "acquired" on the guitar most quickly and permanently have been songs that I can hum to myself or have heard ringing around in my head in the wee hours of the morning (causing a bout of insomnia)!

 

Focusing on the physical mechanics of a tune also helps...slowing it down, breaking it up into digits and hand shifts, etc.

[Mark Evans]

I wonder if an accompanist could use the question/answer model to plan their accompaniment. 

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That certainly is one way to go. I think any accompanyment should be interactive. For me as the singer the accompanist completes a thought or the singer expands on an idea or feeling the accompanist states during the introduction. Many years of singing Schubert and Schumann song literature have confirmed this for me.

 

Different traditional musics do it in different ways and to different extent. As mentioned on another thread, I've been pouring over a live recording of a concert from Newcastle with Alistir Anderson. He accompanys a soprano on several songs. The man is having a very real conversation with her. The concertina in his hands is an extension of his mind and voice. Very, very fine indeed.

 

See...I didn't drift !

Edited June 15, 2005 by Mark Evans

[Henrik Müller]

Have most of you picked up tunes from recordings? I've done that for years - twenty- with the guitar but have yet to attempt it with my box. Would you recommend learning that way?

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Recordings or sessions/jams with other players, but as Jeff has said, hearing and sight reading the tune and then playing it without the dots can be a very effective way of learning.

Sometimes I'll just have a tune looped on the computer or CD player or whatever while I perform some boring task like the washing, and eventually the tune just "soaks" in. Instrument Maker Craig Fischer calls it "the Osmosis Method"!

If the tune is tricky to play I'll learn it bar by bar. Play bar one over and over until I have it, then bar two, then put them together and so on. Particularly effective for Northumbrian variations I find.

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Learning tunes by osmosis! Great - now I have a name for it! Personally, I find it a very, very effective way a learning new tunes. I have used it a lot the last 6 months, since my full collection of Irish music is in iTunes in my computer at work. After running a tune in a loop for several hours (low volume, and door closed - otherwise the mental ward awaits me, courtesy well-meaning colleagues ) I often find myself whistling the tune in the car on my way home.

 

The process has actually been put in words in a very precise way by Marc Savoy, Cajun accordion maker and musician:

 

"THE LOGICAL SEQUENCE OF STEPS IN THE LEARNING PROCEDURE

 

Learn the music first! To do this, you don't need an instrument. You do need to listen to music (CD, cassettes, LPs, live performances, etc.) until you can instantly recall each note in the melody correctly. This may take an hour, or it may take a month. But whatever time it does take, it's no use to proceed to the next level of actually putting the instrument in your hands until you have mastered the melody in your head.

 

The manner in which you will orally recite the melody by whistling, humming or singing is identically the same as the manner in which you will attempt to play it. It's the same analogy as sitting down at a typewriter and attempting to type a word when you can't ever spell it. Committing the melody to memory and being able to recall it instantaneously has the same significance as a spelling class being a pre-requisite to a typing class."

 

Read the text in full here. Click "Writings" in the left sidebar, and then "Helpful Hints for Learning Songs and Playing Your Accordion (New)". (I found Marc's other writings very worthwhile reading, too).

 

What never stops to surprise me is that no matter how much I feel "Now, this tune is difficult - I will never learn it" - I still end up learning it. It may take longer time, but it always works. That I sometimes end up finding that the tune, or parts of it, is unplayable or doesn't come out well on EC, is another story. When it comes to uploading the tune to your permanent memory, nothing beats this method. Just remember to keep the door closed

 

Henrik

[Paulino Forte]

These have all been great suggestions. Thank you very much for the feedback. Sounds like I have quite a bit of listening to do!

[CaryK]

My personal experience bears this out. With songs I've known since childhood, I can easily find the melody on my Anglo and have the rhythm in my head already. With new songs from a book, I'm sometimes at a loss as to how to play them, because I don't have a feel for the rhythm or expression. Finding a recording to listen to over and over, such as are provided in Levy's book, has been the best solution for me. Still having trouble getting past more than the melody line though.