Sway those bellows!

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I often hear people commenting on how concertina players sway their instruments, and maybe use movement in playing; and they maybe do not understand why [ the layman at least I mean, or casual observer].. 

But then they do not know, like we do, how important, and what a difference, it can make to sound on free reed instruments, when certain postures or bellows position is adopted. 

It's fascinating how the sound can be changed drastically by a slight vibrato, for example, or staccato, increasing volume etc.. just by applying bellows and a bit of imagination. The swell of sound can come forward, and then be reduced by this important part of the instrument, which can add extra life to what could be, otherwise, perhaps a more standard performance. 

Sometimes a specific performance of music needs a particular approach, within its anatomy to achieve a characteristic sound.

I wrote piece of music last year based upon the sound of Church Bells, of which I had overheard many times going through York City [UK] and it kept fascinating my mind, as it has a strange plaintive set of tones in it, and almost chromatic feel in the few notes sounded.

So, out popped a tune based upon it, using an old-style minim-based time signature, to go with a bells theme, and once I was ready to record a performance of it, I knew I had to perform it, by swaying the bellows, which really does project the sound out differently, which gives an impression of that metallic tone of a bell, as it slightly wavers in the air. A contrasting middle movement gives a slightly more tuneful feel, before then, at the close, fading away on a held note, until the note ceases very gradually to nothing again.  

 

 

Edited February 20 by SIMON GABRIELOW