Simple Ec Accompaniments For Christmas Carols?

[Musical Sore]

I'm hoping to learn a few simple EC harmonies for traditional Christmas carols or wassails (unison voices). Any ideas as to where I might look, whether online or in a published book?

[Leo]

There are a few Christmas tunes on these sites:

 

http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/xmas.html

 

http://www.etplanet.com/download/midi/

 

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/christmas-music/index.htm

 

http://www.dongrays.com/midi/archive/xmas/

 

To play and convert MIDI to screen notes or print I use this:

http://notation.com/DownloadNotationPlayer.htm

Not very complicated, and free

 

Thanks

Leo

[Musical Sore]

Thank you very much. The Notation Player does seem simple, and useful - but I wonder if there are any simple harmonisations specifically for the English concertina?

[Mark Evans]

Thank you very much. The Notation Player does seem simple, and useful - but I wonder if there are any simple harmonisations specifically for the English concertina?

 

Specifically? I don't know, but an EC is very adept at chordal accompanying. Each year I get out the New Oxford Book of Carols and have at it. I don't particularly want to play the four part arrangment as written, but will pick duet notes and drones to go along with the melody. If my wife is doing the singing I can play all sorts of counter melodies.

 

I suggest you just start knocking about with a few you like and see what evolves .

[m3838]

Thank you very much. The Notation Player does seem simple, and useful - but I wonder if there are any simple harmonisations specifically for the English concertina?

 

Specifically? I don't know, but an EC is very adept at chordal accompanying. Each year I get out the New Oxford Book of Carols and have at it. I don't particularly want to play the four part arrangment as written, but will pick duet notes and drones to go along with the melody. If my wife is doing the singing I can play all sorts of counter melodies.

 

I suggest you just start knocking about with a few you like and see what evolves .

Sorry Mark, but I'd suggest taking Mark's advice with caution. Mark is a professional musician. Some things he takes for granted. So far my "knocking about" produced fewer results than I expected.

If I, say, attempt to simplify arrangement for accordion, dropping the chords and leaving basses, they have to be transposed an octave up, and a lot of the feel is lost. Too high chords on English should be moved down, but then they interviene with the counter-melody and don't have contrast, become mushy. Often a bass note left sounding for a measure, counter-melodied by high arpeggio, sounds too heavy and loud, but can't be transposed up an octave, because it ruins the accending bass run. Arranging is an art in itself.

Danny Chapman's (ratface) arrangements are nice, but they are few, and most use low notes for Tenor Trebble, that have to be omitted for regular Trebble. Old arrangements for EC make heavy use of 4 or 5 note chords, that arern't so hot in equal temper.

In my accordion days I was taking lessons from Gary Dahl. I had German book with Rag-Time note-to-note arrangements and was learning Maple Leaf Rag. It wasn't working well, and I sent my tape to Gary. He was furious! He stopped me from learning further, and sent his own arrangement instead. Much simpler, but made all the difference, esp. the emphasized counter-point, which was only semi-present in German tutor. Opened my eyes on art of arranging. And disspelled the groundless hopes. One of them was "If I fiddle around long enough, it'll come to fruition".

[Mark Evans]

Sorry Mark, but I'd suggest taking Mark's advice with caution.

Sound council on anything I might venture advice on . Professional?.... a questionable career choice on my part that yielded a rather meger living.

 

Just knocking about with music reflects my habit with everything (in most cases questionable results). The first step is always to loose the instructions and make it up as I go along. Ooh, even I don't like the sound of that!

Edited September 28, 2007 by Mark Evans

[Musical Sore]

Well, I think I'll "proceed with caution" and keep on twiddling.

[m3838]

Well, I think I'll "proceed with caution" and keep on twiddling.

 

 

Take a look at this site:

http://www.noelnoelnoel.com/leadsht/shtmx.html

 

Adeste Fideles

From beginning:

G || G D G | D-chord D | G-chord D G C-chord | D-chord short with B sounding as written, A Em-chord | G F# E |

D G A Em7-chord | D-chord A7-chord D| D-chord 4 parts |

It covers first three lines of Adeste Fideles.

 

What do you guys think? Am I close? Any other suggestions?

[pauline de snoo]

Have you seen the christmas tunes for English concertina under Teaching and Learning. Now dots and mp3 files at website concertina academy under tuition/downloads.

Pauline

[Robin Harrison]

Sorry Mark, but I'd suggest taking Mark's advice with caution.

Hhhmmmmmm. I think Mark's advice is excellent.

There is a lot of piano,choral,recorder etc ( anything that reads fron the trebel clef) music available.

I am the most amateur of musicians. I started teaching myself about 5-6 years ago to read music using the english concertina and continue still with constant practice .I do it slowly and with huge pleasure.

At Christmas time I too pull out the Oxford Book of Carols and pick through what I can.It's a great place to start. SATB type scores are good .....many simple piano arrangements use two notes in the treble and sound wonderful

 

I suggest you just start knocking about with a few you like and see what evolves

Right on!

Regards Robin

[JimLucas]

Have you seen the christmas tunes for English concertina under Teaching and Learning. Now dots and mp3 files at website concertina academy under tuition/downloads.

Took me a while to find it. Here's a more direct link. Then it's both the "Conac 41" and "Bongort" stuff.

 

Interesting stuff, I think, though neither is familiar to me. "Over the Hill and Over the Dale" is completely new to me. "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" was an old favorite in my family, but the tune used here is completely unfamiliar. Is it the common tune in England? I'm American.