Harmony and drones..

[Folderol]

Hello, I’m still new to concertina so go easy on me! I’m an Irish trad player and lately I’ve become more interested in harmony and using drones or double notes. I’m question is, is there a short cut to using chords if you don’t know what chord your in at the time? Say I’m using a long f# but want to use a chord, how can I quickly figure out what would work? Thanks!! 

[Paul_Hardy]

Trial and error, with some basic guidance.

 

Two notes harmonise well if their frequencies are close to simple integer ratios - starting from a root note (e.g. G), then octaves (G to G') are 2:1, fifths (G to D) are 3:2, fourths (G to C) are 4:3, major thirds (G to B ) are 5:4, minor thirds (E to G) are 5:3. All these sound vaguely pleasant if you play those two notes together.  

 

Notes that are any closer together than a third will clash - so you don't want to play an A at 9:8, or even worse an F# at 15:8 with a G (try them and hear!).

 

So, if you are just adding a single harmony note to a G, then try one of G, B, D, C, E. To fit your example F#, they would be F#, Bb, C#, B, D#)

 

Additionally, the combination of the root, the third and the fifth (G, B, D) all fit nicely together as a harmonious triad, and that is the set we know as the major chord (minor chords flatten the third).

 

So if you are playing a melody G and you want to put a chord against it, then try chords that have an G in them -  as their root, major or minor third, or fifth.  That is G major (G B D), E minor (E G B), C major (C E G), or conceivably Eb major (Eb G Bb).

 

For your example melody F# (a semitone lower than the G used above) that would be chords of F# major (F# A# C#), D major (D F# A), D# minor (D# F#, A#) or B major (B D# F#).

 

Note that it is common in accompaniments to often just put an 'open' chord - just the root and fifth, missing out the third so as not to be too heavy. Also there is a whole system of common chord progressions - which chords follow one another well in a sequence, but that is beyond scope for a single post which has got longer than I intended!

Edited July 2, 2024 by Paul_Hardy
Avoid B) becoming emoticon!

[Folderol]

Paul thank you so much!! In fast reels I sow times here some chordal type stuff used loosely..I just wonder if they tend to be the root and fifth or full chords during fast tunes

[Kathryn Wheeler]

I don't play Irish music, but I would be experimenting with what sounds good or interesting.   From what I know the harmonic accompaniment is often extremely bare in that style, with some bits here and there.  It's all about the horizontal flow of the melody and it's ornamentation?  It's almost like any other notes are a kind of ornamentation.

 

There are some harmony "rules" about what notes can be useful.  Do a bit of research on chords and how they're formed and the chords that go with the notes of scales of different keys. 

 

If you've just got one big long Fsharp and you want to put some accompaniment in to go with it, you could try any notes in the chord of Fsharp major (F# A# C#) or Fsharp minor (change it to a non sharpened A) - I think it's probably most likely it'd be a F sharp minor as that's most commonly used in folk music, for example.    OR it could be a chord of D major (which has an F sharp in it) so you could try any notes from D F# A.  There are other chords you can use (and I've just read the other response above which has some others).  Experimentation is the best bet as it can throw up some really interesting and unexpected sounds which can be used for effect.

Edited July 3, 2024 by Kathryn Wheeler

[Mic]

Here are a few suggestions to supplement Paul Hardy’s excellent advice.

1. Chords are used sparingly for Irish music on the concertina. E.g. if you use a chord first time around, best to leave it out when you repeat that part of the tune. You’ll probably know about this already if you’ve listened to recordings of Irish concertina music.

2. A lot of Irish music is modal, so a chord made up of 1st & 5th will almost always be OK but inserting the 3rd can be risky.

3. Most Irish music is in the keys of G or D, so best to prioritise learning chords in those keys. For the key of G, it’s mainly G, C, D, Em & occasionally Am & Bm for transition/progressions. For the key of D, the equivalents are D, G, A, Bm & occasionally Em & F sharp minor.

4. If you hear recordings of accompaniment on guitar or piano that you like, you can experiment with borrowing some of the chords used.

 

[Leah Velleman]

If you're a learn-by-doing person, a fun thing to play with is to take a tune in G or D and just use low D as your harmony note. Whenever there's a note you want to emphasize, add a low D under it.

 

You'll find that most tunes have a few notes that low D sounds terrible under, but you'll get used to recognizing those notes.

 

It helps that you have convenient low D's in both directions, and they're both out of the way of the strong fingers you're using to play melody. They're a bit less convenient, but you can try the same thing in other keys with G, A, or E as your harmony note.

 

It won't work 100% of the time, and eventually you'll want to branch out and learn more options. But it works a lot, and it suits the style of Irish music, because we're used to hearing this style of harmony from fiddlers (using an open string for harmony) and pipers (using a regulator).

[b13]

I also do this when playing my bandoneon. On the left side i look for a fitting drone (usualy the 1th of scale) in push, look for it at pull and play around with neibourship-knobs. If some is fitting, i play it again and again and try to remember.

Later i change some of the Drones with other Tones and play around.

 

I think, this takes me foreward without always play from schools and sheets. And it is funny, ... almost, ... not always. 🤪

[wunks]

As no mention has been made as to system of concertina, I'll add that with a duet, using that D ( or any other suitable note in the overlap zone ) yields a beautiful and haunting mid-range drone, a much different effect than a low note beneath the melody.  with my Jeff duet I can use my right thumb in this manner for 2 or 3 useful notes while playing melody with my fingers as usual.