Alan Day Posted January 20, 2004 Share Posted January 20, 2004 (edited) I have done my fair share of playing concertina with a drone instrument and it is not easy,particularly with a hurdy gurdy and bagpipes as they have a number of drones with different notes.Obviously one could just play the tune and with a Hurdy Gurdy, a concertina sounds lovely(see other topic). Against bagpipes however unless you play a counter melody the concertina has a job to be heard and often chords can be difficult as they clash with the drone notes.One method I found worked in a lot of tunes was to play a sixth down left hand whilst playing the tune on the right hand.On the Anglo this is fairly simple to do if you play an octave down,just move up one button(left hand)and you have it.It is also a nice variation on some tunes as a change of chord pattern. Regards Al Edited January 20, 2004 by Alan Day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 I have a bias against pipes, based on harsh experience. A couple of years ago our Morris dancers were performing at a festival around here...we were on stage in a big shed with bad acoustics, I was playing Anglo solo -- and just outside the shed were 100 or so Scottish pipers doing their thing in unison. I was trying to play Orange in Bloom, but they were playing Scotland the Brave. Guess who won. 1 concertina plus 1 set of pipes: well, maybe 1 concertina plus 100 pipes: forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhomylly Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Hmmm...Cotswold morris with Scotland the Brave as a tune... I'm having a hard time visualizing this. Alan, have you tried playing a hurdy gurdy? I'd love to, just for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Day Posted January 21, 2004 Author Share Posted January 21, 2004 Yes Rhomylly, It sounded like my fiddle playing ,Terrible!! Just too many things to do at once.I think I managed one buzz from the trompett the wheel sounded uneven and turning the handle with my left hand while playing the tune on the right and create buzzing in time with a jerk of the wheel ,had a strange effect on me and I have never been the same since. Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Edgley Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Concertina with Scottish Highland pipes is not a fair contest. A much better combination would be concertina with scottish smallpipes or Northumbrian smallpipes. They're both very sweet sounding with volume matching the concertina. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Hmmm...Cotswold morris with Scotland the Brave as a tune... I'm having a hard time visualizing this. Why not? Flowers of Edinburgh and Highland Mary are old Morris standards. (Well, OK, the Morris tune Highland Mary is not the same tune as that used for Robbie Burns' song.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Concertina with Scottish Highland pipes is not a fair contest. I had just started a song (open mike, floor spot, whatever you want to call it) at a folk club in Roskilde when a Highland piper started playing in the next room. So I immediately switched to doing Sammy's Bar, a song I normally do in the key of Bb. It's also one I do unaccompanied, but because of the pipes I decided to ad lib an accompaniment on the concertina. It worked beautifully! (And the audience joined in on the refrain lines.) If you can't lick 'em, join 'em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexCJones Posted January 21, 2004 Share Posted January 21, 2004 Concertina with Scottish Highland pipes is not a fair contest. A much better combination would be concertina with scottish smallpipes or Northumbrian smallpipes. They're both very sweet sounding with volume matching the concertina. That's one of the things I like about your Bridges CD. Who is that playing those Northumbrian smallpipes anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Edgley Posted January 22, 2004 Share Posted January 22, 2004 Me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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