Explain Something Please

[squeezebox99]

OK - call me naiive - I did just start playing the concertina - but from what I know, most concertinas are tuned C/G so how come so many tunes here are posted in keys like D and A?? Do players just play them in C or G? Sorry to be so dumb - but I am very curious!!

[PeterT]

OK - call me naiive - I did just start playing the concertina - but from what I know, most concertinas are tuned C/G so how come so many tunes here are posted in keys like D and A?? Do players just play them in C or G? Sorry to be so dumb - but I am very curious!!

I'm presuming that you have a C/G Anglo.

 

I think that you'll find that there are many good tunes written in all of the common keys, however, some actually sound better in the key in which they were written, or noted down.

 

I play a C/G box, mainly, and I have no problem playing some tunes in C, even if they were originally in G, or in G if they were written in D. Playing solo, you can make life as easy, or difficult, as you like.

 

If you play with other musicians, either in sessions, or for dance teams, then your choice of keys may be restricted by the limitations of other musicians, or their instruments. Some tunes, on the fiddle, for example, sound stunning in A, but might get played in D by a melodeon player. With determination, and practice, even these tunes might be possible on a C/G Anglo.

 

Sounds like you have started out on a voyage of discovery. It will have its fair share of frustrations along the way, but the rewards are there for you to find.

 

Keep us posted.

 

Regards,

Peter.

[Pam B]

OK - call me naiive...Sorry to be so dumb - but I am very curious!!

 

 

 

I believe that's why we have forums - to ask questions, and share frustrations and successes --- no question should be too dumb!

[Ken_Coles]

OK - call me naiive - I did just start playing the concertina - but from what I know, most concertinas are tuned C/G so how come so many tunes here are posted in keys like D and A?? Do players just play them in C or G? Sorry to be so dumb - but I am very curious!!

 

My impression is that D (and G and A) is/are common keys because in the 20th century the fiddle (the violin) came to define the standard for several forms of traditional European-derived music that many of us here play. If there were 100 times more concertinas than fiddles (instead of the other way round), maybe C and G would be the standard. You have to admit they easily outnumber us! Sit down with a fiddler if you can, and have them show you how easily those common scales play in "first" position (of the left hand).

 

As to why C/G became the most common key of anglo concertina, leading to the cross-row style for D that you're asking about, I'll defer to the historians here.

 

Have fun, it's a delightful madness.

 

Ken

[Mike Pierceall]

OK - call me naiive - I did just start playing the concertina - but from what I know, most concertinas are tuned C/G so how come so many tunes here are posted in keys like D and A?? Do players just play them in C or G? Sorry to be so dumb - but I am very curious!!

I can't answer your question specificially, because I play an English; however, in some cases a tune may actually sound better on the concertina in a key other than that in which it was originally written. Playing a tune written for lute, for example. Mike

[Michael Reid]

... most concertinas are tuned C/G so how come so many tunes here are posted in keys like D and A?? Do players just play them in C or G?

In Irish traditional music, most tunes have a standard or usual key. People may choose to play them in a different key, either for effect or because the different key better suits their instrument. If you intend to play with others, it's best to learn tunes in the standard key.

 

If you have a 30-button instrument and learn to play "across the rows" -- that is, using buttons from different rows -- you can learn to play in many different keys. Playing in D is easy: You do need the the third or accidentals row, because that's where C#, the seventh tone of the D scale, is found. Playing in A is a little harder, in my experience, and I wouldn't suggest tunes in A for a beginner, but it's manageable.

[Chris Drinkwater]

As I understand it, when the melodeon became a popular folk instrument, a century or more ago, it was a diatonic one row treble instrument pitched in the key of C and this is the key that most English country dance and Morris dance then got played in. Later in the early 1950's, the folk historian Peter Kennedy, who sadly died last year, suggested that if tunes were played in the keys of D and G major, these two keys would suit the majority of common session instruments and make it easy for them to play tunes together. So, he wrote to Hohner, then the main manufacturer of Melodeons and suggested that they produce a two row version in the keys of D and G (they already made one in the keys of C and F). They responded positively to his suggestion and began producing such instruments, as did other manufacturers. That is now why these two keys are the generally accepted session keys, except in remote parts of East Anglia, where a few 'C' melodeons still exist and are played, e.g. by Katie Howson. Oh, and in the far north of Scotland, the Shetland Islands, for example, where the key of A is favoured by fiddlers. Of course, if you have an EC, like me, which is a fully chromatic instrument, you can play in any key you like! Especially if you don't want others to join in!!! As for why anglos are pitched in the keys of Cand G, I guess you'd better ask an anglo player or manufacturer. I believe it's because it's easier than making them in D and G.

 

Chris

[petec]

The reason that the CG anglo is favoured for irish music is that it s range closely matches the fiddle. Its good for C G D and A major plus E A B and D minors. its just as easy to play in D, but its a different pattern to learn, once learnt there is no problem. There is a tendancy to learn the pattern up one row, apply it to the other one and then go no further. Good luck!

Peter

[Hooves]

I'm certainly no expert as anyone who has read my posts can confirm, but I do know the modes play an important role in lots of music, and in Irish or Celtic music D dorian is often played and not D major.

 

D dorian uses all the same notes as the C major scale but you start and stop on D instead of C (I believe this is correct if I'm wrong anybody jump in). So the F# and C# are flatted in the Dorian mode to thier natural versions.

 

Lydian and Mixolydian show up in jazz/blues, and I have heard mention of those modes as well in regards to Celtic music (usually Mix though).

 

On a fiddle however you can slide notes flat or sharp, thus you can actaully play in "Just Temperament" as opposed to "Equal temperament". For this reason, the modes actaully sound different than they do played in Equal temperment, like on a guitar or piano.

 

I think this is one reason why modern music centers around major/minor, because in Equal temperment the modes are less distinctive, and so tend to sound like either Major or Minor.

[petec]

Good point about the modes. Its also worth remembering that so much of the trad music is on the pentatonic scales. The CG concertina is great for flying up and down these in G and D. Except perhaps for the F sharp on the little finger which you have to get used to.

Peter