Tapping To Make A Roll

[Larryo]

Hi all,

Would anyone be able or willing to describe exactly what is to happen when you attempt this (in)famous tapping of the concertina on one hand in order to sound a roll?/ornamentation. I obviously understand that you tap the right side but what is the input on the other side suppose to be? Do you just hold the button down or is there an action to be initiated on the left side on top other than obviously playing the note?

 

Thank you

 

Larry

[richard]

Hello

 

Here it is from the Horses mouth........

 

"The way I execute a D roll is as follows: Play the D and keep your finger down as you tap the opposite side (above the keyboard) with one (or two) finger(s) on your right hand. That tap will produce the second D. That same tap will cause the finger you’re holding down on the left hand side to bounce twice if you do it just right. It works sort of like those kinetic sculptures from the 70s that had steel balls hanging next to each other in a frame and you would swing the end one into the row of balls and only the ball on the opposite end seemed effected because of the transfer of energy. If you can do this just right it produces the 'D D/D/D' triplet you're hearing in the D roll on that tune. The tightness and clarity of this triplet is astonishing and you can execute it at just about any tempo. The problem being that it takes a long time to get it to work… i.e. loads of practice. But this is how some of these hot players you hear on recordings are getting it.

 

I have a name for this technique by the way... I call it the phantom button. That tap on the right-hand side plays a note as if there were a button there; hence, it's a phantom button."

[ceemonster]

i have been practising this caper since seeing edel fox do it on the cce video featuring her playing. i had kind of ignored it until then because i don't like staccato effects, i'm looking for a "rounder," "smoother" sound, and this ornament sometimes sounds to me like a car running out of gas. however, edel's doesn't sound like that, so after practicing it for a while i realize that you can (ideally) calibrate it so it is sputtery and staccato, if that's what turns you on, or very modest, just tiny little clicks, which is what i like.

 

 

when i first heard of this ornament on the web, i was confused by it because it was talked about like a half-roll with a missing button, and you could definitely look at it that way, sort of an "aural illusion." but i hear it as a same-note quadruplet, with the "slap" as a way to "cheat" on the fiendishly difficult same-note quadruplet that is the same length as a half-roll but all the same note. that ornament is fiendishly difficult because your finger tends to lock up doing that many hits on the same note so rapidly. accordion players get around this by alternating fingers, but that is hard to do on concertina.

 

 

personally, i have my best luck using the "slap" as the second of the four while holding my finger on the sounding note. i then take the finger off and do two tiny hits of the note with that finger, rather than having the "slap" provide that impetus. so it's x-SLAP-x-x. anybody can do two hits in succession without locking up. but it sounds like you're doing four, in a world where there is no free lunch, yet! the great thing about it is that if you don't pull it off, (plenty o'times, in my case) it just sounds like a same-note triplet, more or less, which i do a lot of anyway because i love the way john williams does them on his first, self-titled debut cd with micho russell guesting. very non-staccato and clean....it's enchanting how handy this is for that pesky f-sharp on the left side, as well as that pesky lower pull-d on the left...

 

results may differ, but the "slap" is easier for me on the pull, and easier to achieve with notes on the left side than the right. on some notes i can do it on the push, on others i just get a same-note triplet.

Edited April 20, 2007 by ceemonster