What Key

[Galley Wench]

On my English concertina if I am playing a tune in G and move all my fingers down one row (or up one row for that matter) what key am I then playing in? I thought I had just moved down and Octave but hubby seems to think that I am changing key completely and as I passed my tutor book on with my Jackie I cannot check to see what I thought I was taught.

Cheers

Edited December 20, 2007 by Galley Wench

[Pete Dunk]

Hello Carol, what an odd question! You must have realised that moving along one row in either direction wasn't an octave jump because the only way to make a tune play properly in these positions would mean a change of fingering.

 

If you move down a row from G (one sharp - F) you'll be in C so you'll have to change to no sharps or flats. If you move up a row from G you'll be in D (two sharps - F and C). All this is assuming that you are actually playing in G major rather than it's relative minor or some form of modal scale.

[spindizzy]

You're changing by a fifth ... so G goes up to D or down to C (check me here someone :-) !)

To change by an octave you'll be changing hands, rows and almost everything except the rhythm .. and probably falling off the bottom or top of the concertina unless you have a 56 button - fun to do though - I quite like playing a piccolo version if the session is a bit noisy!

 

Chris

[JimLucas]

On my English concertina if I am playing a tune in G and move all my fingers down one row (or up one row for that matter) what key am I then playing in? I thought I had just moved down and Octave but hubby seems to think that I am changing key completely and as I passed my tutor book on with my Jackie I cannot check to see what I thought I was taught.

Not an octave, but a "fifth". The octave is on the opposite end of the instrument.

 

If you try shifting your fingers up or down one row, you'll find that one note of the scale will be wrong, but that "wrongness" will be fixed if you just shift your finger for that one note between the inner and outer columns on the same side of the center line. (If it's inner, shift to outer; if it's outer, shift to inner.)

 

If you go down a row from G, you'll need to change the F#'s to F-naturals, by moving from the outer columns to the inner ones, and then you'll be in C. If you go up a row from G, you'll need to change the C-naturals to C#'s, by moving from the inner columns to the outer ones, and then you'll be in D.

[Galley Wench]

Hello Carol, what an odd question! You must have realised that moving along one row in either direction wasn't an octave jump because the only way to make a tune play properly in these positions would mean a change of fingering.

 

 

 

Its only an odd question if you understand what you are doing I obviously misunderstood what I read when first starting to play. I don't understand music to any great degree or to any minor degree if the truth be told, it is therefore presumptious to say that I must have realised anything, if I had I would not have asked. I don't read music particularly well and whilst my playing is now good enough to join in on songs and tunes in a band (I do this by learning the tune from the dots that I have to change to letters) the difficulty comes when hubby asks me what key I play a particular piece in and I have moved down or up a row from the original notes. I now know from Jeff Lucas that I will have moved a fifth. I am aware that sharps have to be added or dropped when moving as this is obvious from the dreadful sound I got before I worked it out! Thanks Jeff for clearing this up for me.

[peelypost]

You can produce some interesting tunes by doing this, though!

 

The first few bars of the Simpsons theme is one of these modal keys (start on the F, keep on the natural notes), as is Scarborough Fair (start on the D, keep on the natural notes).

 

The keys have odd names (Lydian and Mixolydian are some of the best known), but I can never remember which one is which!

 

Enjoy!

 

Neil.

 

Its only an odd question if you understand what you are doing I obviously misunderstood what I read when first starting to play. I don't understand music to any great degree or to any minor degree if the truth be told, it is therefore presumptious to say that I must have realised anything, if I had I would not have asked. I don't read music particularly well and whilst my playing is now good enough to join in on songs and tunes in a band (I do this by learning the tune from the dots that I have to change to letters) the difficulty comes when hubby asks me what key I play a particular piece in and I have moved down or up a row from the original notes. I now know from Jeff Lucas that I will have moved a fifth. I am aware that sharps have to be added or dropped when moving as this is obvious from the dreadful sound I got before I worked it out! Thanks Jeff for clearing this up for me.

[Mikefule]

If I've understood you properly:

 

First you play a tune in G.

 

then you move your fingers exactly one button further away from you or exactly one button closer to you.

 

Then you try to play the same tune.

 

Is that the situation?

 

If so, then if the first tune is in G:

 

If you move your fingers exactly one button further away, you will be playing in D. (Up a 5th)

If you move your fingers exactly one button closer, you will be playing in C. (Down a 4th)

 

But it won't sound right, because G has exactly one # (F#)

C has no # at all.

D has two #: C# and F#

 

So you will need to find the relevant # or natural button and this will change the fingering slightly for the melody.

 

I think your chord shapes will end up different too.

[JimLucas]

I think your chord shapes will end up different too.

Only those chords that include the changed note will be different, and then the only difference will be the slight sideways shift of that one note to the adjacent button.

 

....... Unless the shift takes your chord off the end of the button array, such as trying to shift a low G chord "down a row" to C, when there isn't another row to shift to. Then you'll have to play the chord in a different octave, which will alter both the chord details (up an octave is in the other hand; up two octaves stays in the same hand, but reflects through the midline) and the feel of the transitions between the chords.