gcoover Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 (edited) For those interested in playing harmonic-style Anglo, here's announcing a new Rollston Press book: The Anglo Concertina Music of Phil Ham. With a foreword by John Watcham, over 60 tunes, 119 pages, plus QR code links to historical recordings of Phil playing every tune. 20 USD / 16 GBP, available through Amazon and also through Red Cow Music in the UK. Phil was one of the first Anglo players in the folk revival to play across all the rows, and he was an early mentor and influence for John Kirkpatrick, John Watcham, and many others. Most of his music is for English Morris dancing, but he also plays hymns, madrigals, sea shanties, and Geordie songs. Phil never recorded commercially or played in any bands, but he did put together some cassette practice tapes back in the 1970's and 1980's. Through the magic of QR codes over 60 of these tunes are included in the book with note-for-note transcriptions and tablature. I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with Phil on my UK trip a couple of months ago and I am happy to report that he is still going strong today at a mere 92-years-old! He provided the notes for all the tunes in the book plus a detailed biography of his life with the concertina. I've attached the Table of Contents plus a couple of the tunes from the book. And yes, Phil gets a 50% share of the royalties, as he should, for being such a delightful gentleman and an important part of Anglo history. Gary Vicar-of-Bray-PHIL-HAM.pdf TOC-PHIL-HAM.pdf Milleys-Bequest-PHIL-HAM.pdf Edited December 14, 2022 by gcoover revised Milley's Bequest 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Anderson Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 Will there be a Kindle version? 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted December 4, 2022 Author Share Posted December 4, 2022 Yes! I'll try to get it sorted out this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Worrall Posted December 4, 2022 Share Posted December 4, 2022 Gary, Congratulations on a masterpiece! The recordings of Phil Ham are wonderful, and the transcriptions straightforward. To me, more approachable that most harmonic-style players; I'd never heard his playing before. Very well done, indeed; cannot wait to see the whole book. How many keys on his keyboard? Does a 30 key miss much? I'm guessing not from the three examples you posted. Dan Worrall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted December 5, 2022 Author Share Posted December 5, 2022 Here are a couple of Christmas tunes that did not make it into the book but are certainly appropriate for the season. Gary 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelteglow Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 How would you describe his playing style eg it does not sound like melody and chords.? Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianread Posted December 10, 2022 Share Posted December 10, 2022 On 12/4/2022 at 8:12 AM, gcoover said: Yes! I'll try to get it sorted out this week. any news on the Kindle version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted December 11, 2022 Author Share Posted December 11, 2022 The book is now available in Kindle format. I wasn't able to preview it for some reason, so let me know if there are any problems. As to Phil's style, it's definitely not just left hand chords and right hand melody, but he typically uses a variety of harmonic techniques within the same tune. Perhaps that comes from his engineering background, finding several different ways to get the results he wants. Gary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Anderson Posted December 11, 2022 Share Posted December 11, 2022 15 hours ago, gcoover said: The book is now available in Kindle format. I wasn't able to preview it for some reason, so let me know if there are any problems. Thanks, looks great so far! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff W. Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Thanks for including the sample tunes. They're cute and definitely a different sort of harmonic accompaniment than block chords or oom-pahs. I'll be picking this one up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Middleton-Metcalfe Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Is his son Bob ham, who lives in Moulton? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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