Beggining On The Ec

[lildogturpy]

I've come across two situations where I would like to use alternate fingers when hopping up and down a 5th but not sure quite how to do it. Both situations involve my left hand index finger alternating between d and a (above middle C). This happens in the B parts of the Otter's Holt and Tarbolton. For hopping between E and B with the left hand, using my ring finger on E and my middle finder on B there's no problem but with the a-d hop it seems I would need to use my thumb, or a toe maybe

 

Offending bits in abc:

 

Otter's Holt

d2fd adfa

 

Tarbolton

(3ddd fd adfd

 

Any suggestions?

[RatFace]

Some folks have talked about using 3 fingers in rotation on the same button, a technique which is something more commonly used on accordions.

 

To prove it can be done (well, 3 out of 4 times anyway - first time I mess it up : ) - it's used on the second beat of the first bar of the second half(!) of the "Louise's Lament" tune on the recordings page. If you play it with Windows Media Player you can play at slow speed (Ctrl-shift S then Crtl-shift N to play at normal speed). I use it when playing the same note 4 times in a row, because it you get it right it just "cuts" the note. In this case the sequence is

 

long short short long

 

where each "long" is a quaver and each "short" is a semi-quaver and when it's played with fingers:

 

1 3 2 1

 

the timing tends to naturally work. It's quite tricky though, especially with the left hand.

 

The other thing is that it means you end up on a "1", where if you played the same sequence "1 2 1 2" you end up on a different finger - not relevant in this tune, but it is in some others.

 

That's another thing about ornamentation - it gives you lots of opportunities to swap your fingers around and get them in a good location for the next bit of the tune. For example, playing the sequence:

 

a b a

 

you might be forced to play the first note with finger 1. Since the middle note is on the other side that means you can play the last note with any finger you like, ready for the next part of the tune.

 

As for 2 vs 3 fingers, I was originally shown to play with 2 fingers (like many in the south west UK?), and that was a really bad habit I never really got out of, in the sense that I never ended up with a standard 3-finger technique. Instead I use 3, sometimes 4 fingers, but each finger is pretty flexible about what row it works on, and the little one isn't particularly attached to the rests, as I've described elsewhere.

 

For playing 5ths (e.g. A-E), and the same note twice, where possible I will always play consequtive notes with different fingers, whether it's a fast or slow tune. If you don't it will always (IMHO) lead to timing inconsistencies or phrasing that is determined by the mechanics, not by the musical phrasing.

[RatFace]

Otter's Holt

d2fd adfa

 

Some options:

131 2131 (assuming the a is high)

132 1231 (maybe what I'd do)

play the first a an octave down (definitely what I used to do!)

 

Tarbolton

(3ddd fd adfd

 

Some options:

play the a an octave down

play the 4th d with 2.

 

I.e. both cases are no problem if you get used to using the second finder on the row "normally" covered by 1.

 

PS I'm using cello fingering - i.e. 1-4 and will use "T" to represent thumb if necessary

[BruceB]

Robin,

 

For these fifths I'd bring finger two over to play the lower of the two buttons. I'd then use finger 3 to play the f.

 

I've never done the 1321 hammer on one button. I'm going to try it out later today.

 

bruce boysen