Legato On Bellows Direction Change

[jlfinkels]

Now that I've got a decent number of tunes under my fingers, I'd like to actually have them start sounding like music instead of a series of disjointed notes

 

As part of that I'm currently working on getting a smooth legato on reversal of bellows direction. I'm trying to keep bellow movement to a minimum, but I'm still getting more of a separation between notes than I would like to hear. Does anyone have any pointers on getting this to sound smoother?

 

-jeff

Edited April 19, 2006 by jlfinkels

[Daniel Hersh]

Do you play 30-button Anglo? If so, your best bet is probably to learn cross-row fingerings so you can make more of your own decisions about when to change direction. Once you're at the point you can try to make your direction changes at a time when the phrasing of the tune fits with a break in the legato flow.

 

Daniel

 

Now that I've got a decent number of tunes under my fingers, I'd like to actually have them start sounding like music instead of a series of disjointed notes

 

As part of that I'm currently working on getting a smooth legato on reversal of bellows direction. I'm trying to keep bellow movement to a minimum, but I'm still getting more of a separation between notes than I would like to hear. Does anyone have any pointers on getting this to sound smoother?

 

-jeff

[m3838]

It is possible to get more smooth sound on bellows change. I have been more succesful with my accordion, but again, my accordion was top of the line, with handmade reeds, so there is more you can do with such a device, as compared to what I have now.

Now the secret is to sound a note longer, than you feel is necessary. It's counter-intuitive, but if you record yourself, you'll see what I mean. Your notes are probably underplayed, with large gaps of silence between them.

This or/and your tempo is getting faster and faster. To stop it, you have to try to play it longer and change the bellows, when you feel it's already too late. When you record it, to your surprise it'll sound just right. What we feel, when we play, is not what a listener hears. In the freaking beginning the difference is jaw dropping.

[Jody Kruskal]

Hi Jeff,

 

You are on the right path. Controlling the duration of your notes has everything to do with making your playing more musical. Aside from that, you have only two other methods, note choice (including chords) and dynamics. Those three make up the sound world of the concertina. The artistry of playing is about using those three elements to make the music sing or stomp or cry or whatever it is you are after.

 

In practice, I suggest isolating one element at a time. Working on legato playing is extremely valuable. So is working on staccato playing. Taking both, in turn, to their limits will deepen your playing and give you a wider pallet of expression.

 

What I suggest is to practice the tune with your notes as short as posable. Then play it with the notes as connected (legato) as possible. Then play the tune as quietly as posable. Then as strongly as you can. Each time make it music, like you mean it. Not just an exercise, but really playing the music from the heart/breath/bellows.

 

For the legato/connected idea, try thinking of each note as a pearl on a string. They are all connected by the string. No breaks but rather a series of events that come out of you attached and whole. A phrase of music should have the notes sounding attached, even if there are small spaces in between the notes. The reality is that to make a phrase more legato you delay the release of your finger by a little. Try slowing the tempo down, that might help in getting the feel for it.

 

Listen to your playing. As m3838 points out, recording and listening are valuable tools to improvement. When you play you can’t really hear in the same way as when you are in the audience. Performance and evaluation are two separate activities that are more powerful when separated by a few minutes.

 

I hope you find these ideas helpful. Good luck with your playing.

 

Jody

[Dirge]

I have found myself turning the 'working end' in at the top so that when I change direction I use gravity to help the snap of the turn.

[JimLucas]

As part of that I'm currently working on getting a smooth legato on reversal of bellows direction. I'm trying to keep bellow movement to a minimum, but I'm still getting more of a separation between notes than I would like to hear. Does anyone have any pointers on getting this to sound smoother?

I use gravity to help the snap of the turn.

"Snap"?! But a snap is just what he should be trying to avoid.

 

Jeff, are you sure that what you're hearing is entirely a separation? What's perfectly natural when trying to make a quick bellows change is to do it with sudden force. But that creates a dynamic accent, a "punch", which emphasizes the change. Try to keep the pressure as constant and equal on both sides of the reversal, i.e., make the change quick, but gentle. That should de-emphasize the gap itself, rather than creating a dynamic "edge" that makes it more obvious.

[Dirge]

All right snap is the wrong word but it's still how I do it. On both the accordian and the duet this rollingand raising of the wrist before the turn helps me maintain even pressure on the changeover in a pleasingly competent sounding way. I've come to it by practice and was doing it automatically before I was even aware of it. I just noticed myself doing it one day. ( I wouldn't claim the rest of my concertina work is so reliable...) It may be that both instruments have heavier ends than yours and this is something that's less helpful with an anglo, say. But you could try it.

[groeswenphil]

try thinking of each note as a pearl on a string.

 

Mine sound more like pickled onions threaded onto old rope.

 

Phil

[Dirge]

No, mine are pearls, they just need restringing.

[jlfinkels]

Jeff, are you sure that what you're hearing is entirely a separation? What's perfectly natural when trying to make a quick bellows change is to do it with sudden force. But that creates a dynamic accent, a "punch", which emphasizes the change. Try to keep the pressure as constant and equal on both sides of the reversal, i.e., make the change quick, but gentle. That should de-emphasize the gap itself, rather than creating a dynamic "edge" that makes it more obvious.

 

Jim,

 

What I would ideally like is for note changes that occur when changing bellows direction to be as smooth as when just changing notes when moving in the same bellows direction. A nice smooth legato. I realize it can't be exactly the same thing, but I'm trying to get it much smoother. For example, I'm working on "Miss Thornton's" and in the beginning measure there is a nice arpeggio "G2Bd gdBd" which is nice and smooth since on my G/D it is all on a push. In the next measure there is "cBAB cedc" which involves alternating push/pulls with note changes. I'd like to get them both similar in texture, e.g. legato, as I can.

 

To make sure I understand what you're saying, I believe it is that there is a certain amount of pressure that exists inside the bellows and as long as I can maintain the pressure whether on a push or pull the note changes should be much more similar. I just tried this focusing on that and it definitely makes a difference. I just need to practice^3

 

Thanks for the help. As a marooned beginner it means a lot to me.

 

-jeff

[Graham Collicutt]

Jeff, are you sure that what you're hearing is entirely a separation? What's perfectly natural when trying to make a quick bellows change is to do it with sudden force. But that creates a dynamic accent, a "punch", which emphasizes the change. Try to keep the pressure as constant and equal on both sides of the reversal, i.e., make the change quick, but gentle. That should de-emphasize the gap itself, rather than creating a dynamic "edge" that makes it more obvious.

 

Jim,

 

What I would ideally like is for note changes that occur when changing bellows direction to be as smooth as when just changing notes when moving in the same bellows direction. A nice smooth legato. I realize it can't be exactly the same thing, but I'm trying to get it much smoother. For example, I'm working on "Miss Thornton's" and in the beginning measure there is a nice arpeggio "G2Bd gdBd" which is nice and smooth since on my G/D it is all on a push. In the next measure there is "cBAB cedc" which involves alternating push/pulls with note changes. I'd like to get them both similar in texture, e.g. legato, as I can.

 

To make sure I understand what you're saying, I believe it is that there is a certain amount of pressure that exists inside the bellows and as long as I can maintain the pressure whether on a push or pull the note changes should be much more similar. I just tried this focusing on that and it definitely makes a difference. I just need to practice^3

 

Thanks for the help. As a marooned beginner it means a lot to me.

 

-jeff

Jeff

 

Why don't you play second phrase all on the pull; Bs off left D row and d off accidental row.

[jlfinkels]

Jeff

 

Why don't you play second phrase all on the pull; Bs off left D row and d off accidental row.

 

Mainly because I'm on a 20-button G/D

 

Still waiting on my 30-button G/D

 

Thanks for the advice. You make a good point that I will have to rethink things when I have an extra row to add those missing notes from.

 

-jeff

[Brian Peters]

As part of that I'm currently working on getting a smooth legato on reversal of bellows direction. I'm trying to keep bellow movement to a minimum, but I'm still getting more of a separation between notes than I would like to hear. Does anyone have any pointers on getting this to sound smoother?

There have already been several interesting contributions on this point, and I agree with Jody's suggestion that you linger on each note a little longer to achieve legato, and with Jim, that you don't increase bellows pressure at the point of change. In fact I'd go further and suggest that you could swell slightly into each note, i.e. start from low pressure and then increase it. Obviously this is easier to do on a slower melody, but even on a quicker one it can work with practice.

 

No-one has yet mentioned that there is a difference between switching between two notes on the same button (i.e. leaving the finger where it is and using the bellows to make the change), and note changes where you move to a different button and reverse the bellows. It does take quite a bit of experience to co-ordinate the two different movements so that they become as smooth as a single-button reversal. Practising scales isn't something I've ever spent much time over, but it might help in this case.

 

One last point: you can of course make your phrasing smoother by cross-rowing and minimising bellows reversals, but this does lessen the punctuation in a tune, and unless your fingers are very well disciplined there can be a tendency to play a whole sequence as a smear rather than a series of distinct notes.

Brian

[lildogturpy]

One last point: you can of course make your phrasing smoother by cross-rowing and minimising bellows reversals, but this does lessen the punctuation in a tune, and unless your fingers are very well disciplined there can be a tendency to play a whole sequence as a smear rather than a series of distinct notes.

Brian

 

Welcome to the darkside of the English Concertina The bane of the EC is that we are lazy and only reverse the bellows direction when there is no more stretch in the leather of the bellows, or the wood of the end pieces are touching. Playing legato is relatively easy but it is all too easy to end up with that smear of notes. Since putting life into the EC can be done with bellows reversal I would think the smoothest legato on an anglo would have to be different buttons without bellows reversal if the fingering allows.

[Brian Peters]

life can be put into the ec by use of finger attackand also wrist attack

Exactly Dick; English and duet players start off from day one having to use these techniques to separate notes. Anglo players can develop the habit of letting bellows reversals do the work for them, and then fail to articulate properly when they subsequently learn cross-rowing. Same goes for some melodeon players.

Brian

[Doug Anderson]

I've been singing on stage and later in choirs for more than fifty years. I've been playing the English concertina for six or seven years. I found it easiest to mimic the phrasing and articulation of my singing if I concentrated on the button pressing and bellows pressure and held off reversing the bellows until a logical pause came along, just like taking a breath when singing. I started playing the melodeon last year and quickly ran into the issues being discussed here.

 

At first I thought the solution was to buy a melodeon with more buttons to get more reversals so I could play longer phrases completely on the push or on the pull. But several people pointed out to me that no matter now many buttons you have on a push-pull instrument there will still be some bellows reversals needed so I might as well learn to do them cleanly (and save the expense and weight of a more complex melodeon).

 

The solution I am still working on is to try to make my note changes with a bellows reversal sound more like my note changes without a bellows reversal, and at the same time try to make the changes without a reversal sound more like the changes with a reversal, and all the while trying to maintain a semblance of musicality. The hardest thing has been coordinating the button presses and bellows reversals when the bellows direction changes but the button doesn't. An interesting side effect of all this is that I find I am paying more attention to articulation in my singing and I think it is improving my EC playing as well.

[jlfinkels]

[...snip...]

perhaps using the air button might help as well, I know many anglo players and duet players like

tim laycock who consider the use of the air button very important.

 

Thank you for the suggestion of the air button on the anglo. I've been using it to get the bellows into a position so I don't get stuck without enough air to finish the next phrase. I've only got 5 bellows on my anglo, so I've learned that efficiency is important with the amount of air in the bellows. It forces me to think ahead and plan things carefully.

 

Is there a more effective way to use it? I've been wondering if I was doing this properly.

 

-jeff

[Brian Peters]

Thank you for the suggestion of the air button on the anglo. I've been using it to get the bellows into a position so I don't get stuck without enough air to finish the next phrase. I've only got 5 bellows on my anglo, so I've learned that efficiency is important with the amount of air in the bellows. It forces me to think ahead and plan things carefully.

Is there a more effective way to use it? I've been wondering if I was doing this properly.

Sounds as though you're doing the right thing, so long as you're hitting the air button to coincide with a note or sequence of notes in the favourable direction, and not just taking a mighty gasp of air with it when you've already run out. Any experienced anglo (or melodeon) player would tell you that the air button is one of the most important buttons on the box. It certainly is worth planning the best point at which to use it, and if necessary making fingering changes as well. A tune like "Soldier's Joy" played in the home keys is almost all on the push in the A part, and you need to get a good gulp of air on the few, precious pull notes if you're going to get through it without the bellows slamming shut half way through.

Brian