Song Accompaniment On Anglo

[Woody]

Can any body recommend any resources for how to approach song accompaniment on an Anglo?

 

- W

[m3838]

Can any body recommend any resources for how to approach song accompaniment on an Anglo?

 

- W

 

Is there any special trick or theory one can learn?

I think any harmony theory will help in this aspect, but it takes a school, time and money with no guarantees.

Play chords, like a guitar.

I tried once to sing and play alone, but using thirds. Nope, didn't work. It's like patting yourself on the head, and rubbing your stomack in the same time.

[Daniel Hersh]

Can any body recommend any resources for how to approach song accompaniment on an Anglo?

 

- W

Here's one way to approach this:

 

You can start this from a couple of different places: harmony to go with the vocal melody, or chordal accompaniment to the melody.

 

First, harmony...when I started singing with the Anglo (a very long time ago) I began with songs played on my concertina's home keys, primarily in C in my case because it matched my vocal range better than G. I would first work out the melody on the concertina and play in unison with my singing. Then I would add a harmony on the concertina by playing the next button on the same row, either higher or lower. This generally gave me a tolerable harmony to go with the melody, usually a third above or below the melody. If something really didn't sound right I'd look for a different harmony button to play. Initially I would play both the melody and harmony on the concertina, then for variety I would play only the harmony on the concertina while singing the melody. My next step was to expand on this by playing more complex harmonies by adding more harmony buttons from the same row. Then, as I got better at cross-row playing, I started pulling harmony notes from the other rows, which gave me many more harmonic options.

 

This is still where I tend to start when working out a song accompaniment on Anglo. But I eventually realized that I could also take a very different approach, starting with chords rather than harmonies. I figured out where the chords were on the concertina and would play chords to accompany my singing, in an "oom-pah" style or just playing two or three notes from the chord or using various other chordal possiblilities. Now on my most fully worked-out arrangements I'll often use both approaches, sometimes alternating between a harmonic approach for one verse of the song and a chordal one for the next.

 

Something else that I'll do that combines both approaches is, on a long note in the melody, play the melody note on the first beat and then, while still holding down that button, playing a quick chord on the next beat. Another idea along the same lines is if a few consecutive notes of the melody form a chord, I'll just play the melody but hold each button down while adding the next one, "constructing" the chord on the concertina while playing only melody notes

 

I also sometimes add variety by changing octaves.

 

I'm sure there are other, very different ways of looking at song accompaniment on Anglo, but this has worked well for me.

 

Daniel

[Chris Timson]

Woody, if you are still coming to the session tomorrow night then I'll bring a C/G and we'll have a talk about how I do it.

 

Chris

[Woody]

Woody, if you are still coming to the session tomorrow night then I'll bring a C/G and we'll have a talk about how I do it.

 

Chris

 

Thanks Chris - I should be there. What time does it start - I can't remember?

[Daniel Hersh]

Woody, if you are still coming to the session tomorrow night then I'll bring a C/G and we'll have a talk about how I do it.

 

Chris

I would make the same offer to you if I were in your part of England rather than in California...but I was wondering: was the information in my previous post at all helpful to anyone?

 

Daniel

[Samantha]

...but I was wondering: was the information in my previous post at all helpful to anyone?

 

Daniel

 

Oh, yes, absolutely! I'm noodling about in a similar way myself, and it's always good to know that other people are successfully doing the same sort of thing.

Samantha

[Woody]

Woody, if you are still coming to the session tomorrow night then I'll bring a C/G and we'll have a talk about how I do it.

 

Chris

I would make the same offer to you if I were in your part of England rather than in California...but I was wondering: was the information in my previous post at all helpful to anyone?

 

Daniel

 

Hi Daniel,

 

yes very helpful thankyou & thaks for the offer - shame it'a a bit too far to drive. Parts of it tie in to what TRCT (The Real Chris Timson ) showed me last night.

 

- W

[Animaterra]

Yes, thanks Daniel- this is something I've been slowly working on over the past couple of years and your post affirmed what I've been working on!

[Chris Timson]

but I was wondering: was the information in my previous post at all helpful to anyone?

As Woody says, your style of playing with the parallel thirds is a lot like what I do on quite a few arrangements. It's not suitable to every song, of course, but I think it is a pretty good way of getting started on your own arrangements, where the chordal route can get somewhat technical at first. It also gives the lie to those people who insist that you mustn't have the melody appearing anywhere in an accompaniment (and then go on and do it themselves, as often as not ).

 

Chris

[Daniel Hersh]

Thanks, you guys. After several experiences with putting a fair amount of time into writing long posts that got no responses, I decided to ask this time to see if my post had done anyone any good.

 

Chris, I too have found that harmonies on Anglo (especially in thirds) come to me more easily than chords. But my background is mainly in playing melody, and I have wondered if I'd feel differently if I had started out on an accompanying instrument like guitar.

 

Daniel

Edited August 30, 2006 by Daniel Hersh

[PeterT]

Thanks, you guys. After several experiences with putting a fair amount of time into writing long posts that got no responses, I decided to ask this time to see if my post had done anyone any good.

Hi Daniel,

 

The thing to bear in mind is that not everyone on the Forum is a regular reader. Also, posts are there for future Forum members to read, so don't get discouraged!

 

Regards,

Peter.

[Woody]

...I too have found that harmonies on Anglo (especially in thirds) come to me more easily than chords. But my background is mainly in playing melody, and I have wondered if I'd feel differently if I had started out on an accompanying instrument like guitar.

I think different approaches suit different instruments. As a guitarist of limited ability I don't feel that there's much of how I would use chords on a guitar that would easily translate to the Anglo.

 

The kind of "oom pah" chord accompaniment that comes to mind with an Anglo is ok, but I feel that unless it's well executed it can be quite dull - where as I find it easy to add to the "life" of chords accompaniment on the guitar.

 

With the responses here so far it gives me a lot to consider, but I think for me that the style that instantly resonates (pun??) is what you and TRCT described with the thirds plus added notes from the left-hand side to give emphasis. I'll have to see how I get on with this approach - but first I've got to decide on a song to work on

 

- W

[Trilby]

I've found some of what you said very interesting Daniel. I play English and am beginning to try to "flesh out" my playing, though not with too much success at the moment. Any tips ?

[Daniel Hersh]

I've found some of what you said very interesting Daniel. I play English and am beginning to try to "flesh out" my playing, though not with too much success at the moment. Any tips ?

I've been thinking about your question, and I don't think that I have anything to offer an English player beyond what I said in my earlier post--and I don't know how much of that would apply to an English. I've heard some great song accompaniment on English--Louis Killen comes to mind, and Riggy Rackin here in California--but since I don't play English myself I don't fully understand what they're doing or why they take the approaches that they do.

 

I'm going to start a new thread to see if any of the English players on c.net want to chime in on this.

 

Daniel

[Trilby]

I've been thinking about your question, and I don't think that I have anything to offer an English player beyond what I said in my earlier post--and I don't know how much of that would apply to an English. I've heard some great song accompaniment on English--Louis Killen comes to mind, and Riggy Rackin here in California--but since I don't play English myself I don't fully understand what they're doing or why they take the approaches that they do.

 

I'm going to start a new thread to see if any of the English players on c.net want to chime in on this.

 

Daniel

 

I had wondered about doing the same. I was a little conscious of not appearing even more dim / talentless than I usually do. I suppose it must be if it feels good do it and a formulaic approach would lead to everyone sounding the same. Still there must be some ideas that would make a good starting point.

 

Trilby