Hello From A New Concertina Player From Finland

[KBob]

Hello there!

After a few years of thinking about it, I today finally got a concertina connection Jackie!

Suprisingly, I found a Finnish vendor for it, who said they sell maybe one or two of them

per year. There's no shortage of accordionists in Finland, but the concertina is pretty much

unknown here, although I have got in contact with someone who can give me lessons on it.

 

My musical background is the of usual piano-lessons as a kid -variety: I can still more or less

read sheet music and play a little on piano, so atleast I'm not starting from ground zero on music.

 

The cats have given their approval of the instrument by almost pushing it off the kitchen table,

so I guess I'll have to start learning it now.

 

Mikko

[Henk van Aalten]

Hello there!

After a few years of thinking about it, I today finally got a concertina connection Jackie!

Suprisingly, I found a Finnish vendor for it, who said they sell maybe one or two of them

per year. There's no shortage of accordionists in Finland, but the concertina is pretty much

unknown here, although I have got in contact with someone who can give me lessons on it.

 

My musical background is the of usual piano-lessons as a kid -variety: I can still more or less

read sheet music and play a little on piano, so atleast I'm not starting from ground zero on music.

 

The cats have given their approval of the instrument by almost pushing it off the kitchen table,

so I guess I'll have to start learning it now.

 

Mikko

Hello Mikko

 

Welcome to this forum! I hope you will have much pleasure with your Jackie.

Keep us updated

[bellowbelle]

Hello, Mikko!

 

Nice to have another English-system player around.

 

I don't post here often but I pop in every now and then and poke around.

 

A lot of my family has studied Finnish -- all except me! So, I can't even say 'hello' in Finnish. (My grandfather was Finnish and spoke the language.) My daughter went to Finland with some friends when she was 18. She loved it there, though, then she became more interested in Spain for some reason and went there twice.

 

Anyway, 'hello' in English!

[KBob]

Thanks for the welcome. I've been going through the tutorial that came with the Jackie and it seems pretty good.

 

I was playing the song Long, Long Ago and thought that I'd go and see if someone had played it on youtube and was a bit dismayed to

find 21348923 videos of 4 year old chinese kids playing it on the violin. Well, I guess it's a good beginner tune so it is just the thing for me.

 

Wendy, I tried finding the notes for a nice finnish polka called 'Iitin Tiltu', written in 1930 by Hiski Salomaa, who was actually also a Finnish ex-patriat living over the big water, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be in free distribution yet. Would have been a nice song to learn and astound your relatives with

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiski_Salomaa

[bellowbelle]

Hey!

 

Well, I put off mentioning 'The Finnish Polka' that I'd found quite a while ago online, because, having only the little scrap of music notation to go by, I couldn't sense the bounce and excitement in it.

 

However, I just went and looked it up again, at The Session: here it is. I followed the newer of the two comments under 'Comments,' and found a few versions of Leva's Polka on YouTube. It does sound like the same basic polka.

 

So, I'll have to learn that one! My daughter will have to help me figure out the vocal part, though. I'm not sure if that's a combination of language and nonsense, or if it's all real words!

[bellowbelle]

Okay, this one is pretty cute, and more true to the original 'Ievan Polka' by Eino Kettunen, I'd guess...

 

 

on YouTube

 

 

edit added later....

 

Here's some guys playing it on

, on YouTube! I have no idea who that is...maybe it's someone who posts here, I don't know. Edited March 6, 2008 by bellowbelle

[tamborileru]

Hello from Spain!

 

 

Welcome to the magical World of Concertina. You can find a lot of videos for learning in youtube. Search "concertina" and... VOILÀ!

[Woody]

Hi Mikko

[Chris Timson]

Seems to me you ought to think about going to the Scandinavian Squeeze-In in southern Sweden at the end of April. I've been several times (all the way from England) and it's a heck of a lot of fun. It's split about 50-50 English and anglo players with the occasional wandering duettist.

 

Welcome indeed to the forum.

 

Chris

[KBob]

Thanks for the welcomes everyone!

 

I'm been going through the tutorial I got with the jackie, and got myself a copy of Frank Butler's book as well (read: printed it from www.concertina.com).

I've been playing things from both of them as the mood struck me and it's been pretty nice this far, since learning new stuff happens

pretty quickly. I also got my hands the sheet music for Dirty Old Town and it was a thrill to be able to play a song I've listened to a million times

(by the pogues).

 

About Ieva's Polkka. That song became an overnight Internet hit a year or so ago, sung by the acapella group. Parts of it is ofcourse your

genuine unwashed villager gibberish, but naturally there's a story in there, too. Basically it's sung by a boy who wants to take his girl, Ieva,

to a dance but her overly religious mother just wants to keep the girl home. Ieva sneaks out of the house and goes to the neighbours place where there's a

polkka-party underway. They dance from the east to the west and everyone's sweating from the polkkaplosion. Then when Ieva goes home her mother is

there, feeling irate and the boy settles thing by saying that she should go away while she can walk.

 

The jackie's been pretty nice. I was a bit worried that the bellows were leaking, but after I read some threads here in concertina.net I came to the

conclusion that is was all normal. One thing I have noticed is that one of the reeds on the right hand side leak on the pull, making me have to

pull a bit harder than normal to achieve the correct sound.

That's for my status report for now

 

//Mikko

 

EDIT:

Here's a link to the acapella-version of it. Performed by Loituma.

Basically the rimpatirilla and hilipatihillaa -stuff is the unwashed villager gibberish -stuff

 

ps. The Dubliners are in Helsinki on the 21st of May. I saw then 6 years ago when they were here last and hopefully I'll see them again

this year.

Edited March 13, 2008 by KBob

[m3838]

EDIT:

Here's a link to the acapella-version of it. Performed by Loituma.

Basically the rimpatirilla and hilipatihillaa -stuff is the unwashed villager gibberish -stuff

 

Hmm, as the One, who posted this video here on the Net a few months ago, I am happy to surprize you even more.

This polka, and generally this performance was a huge hit in Russia somewhat a year ago.

And it is translated into Russian. My friend, balalaika player and singer, sent me the words and man, was I surprized. If the lyrics are true translation, it is something about youth party at home, and mother thinks the kids are good, and doesn't suspect what's happening in the back rooms. Speak about phlegmatic Finnish character!

Is that true words? Does Finnland still experience demographic problem?

[KBob]

m3838,

Well the internet thingie kinda got started by this (

) video,

and the original Loituma song got around a bit later. I found a complete translation for the lyrics (http://www.noside.com/nsd6010note.html at the

bottom of the page).

 

As for a problem with demographics... I'd say it's good there's so few of us (around 6 million). There is such a thing as too much

of a good thing.

[bellowbelle]

m3838,

Well the internet thingie kinda got started by this (

) video,

and the original Loituma song got around a bit later. I found a complete translation for the lyrics (http://www.noside.com/nsd6010note.html at the

bottom of the page).

 

As for a problem with demographics... I'd say it's good there's so few of us (around 6 million). There is such a thing as too much

of a good thing.

 

Thanks, KBob, for the clarification re Loituma and Ieva's Polkka. I'd been wondering if the group on YouTube was actually Loituma. And what a great lyrics link... better price for the Loituma CD, too, than on Amazon (where it's not available now, anyway). So I've ordered a copy.

 

If I ever, ever... in a million years... learn how to sing all that, I'll let you know! Heheh.

[JimLucas]

Hello there!

Terve, Mikko! (En puhu suomeksi... except for a few words. Great language, though, in my opinion. Great country, too.)

 

After a few years of thinking about it, I today finally got a concertina connection Jackie!

Good choice. We'll all be "watching" your progress.

 

Chris T. mentioned the Scandinavian Squeeze-In at the end of April. Any chance that you might join us? Beginners are as welcome as anyone else, and if there's a drawback, it may be withdrawal symptoms after it's over.