Tune Of The Month For August

[Jody Kruskal]

The link for my August Tune of the Month offering, with mp3 and dots is here. The text is below:

 

Crank It Up

This posting is of particular interest to those attending my C/G Anglo concertina workshop at The Fifth Bradfield Traditional Music Weekend or any Anglo concertina player who would like to go, but can’t make it.

 

I’m very pleased to be playing at the Bradfield, UK weekend in England on the second weekend of August. It’s a great festival run by Mark Davies. On Saturday the 9th, 2008, I’ll be conducting a workshop, "COOL AMERICAN STUFF ON THE C/G ANGLO" at 4:00 pm in the Edgemont Barn.

 

If you are planning to attend, you might be interested in seeing and hearing, before hand, just what we will be working on... bluesy grace note slurs as an American sounding ornament. Other genres of music employ this device too, so you may find it useful for whatever music you play.

 

There are a number of things I do which make my Anglo concertina playing sound particularly American. One of them is to emulate the sliding up to pitch as a fiddle, sax or vocalist would do. This works on any fixed pitch instrument and jazz pianists do it all the time. The concertina also has fixed pitches so you don’t really slide but rather, slur two notes. If they are played in rapid succession and the interval is a half step then the brain hears it as a slide or glissando. I like to think of this as a slurred grace note preceding a pitch in the scale being used. In practice, an instrument or singer might not quite reach the second note and these deliberately flat pitches are often called “blue notes”.

 

The technique risks sounding kind of lame on the concertina in part because the instrument cannot play a blue note for it's life (at least I've never heard it done), yet, if you do all of the things in the list below, it can still be very effective. As in all things, let your ear be your guide.

 

• If the first pitch (the grace note) is usually played very short, the second note is placed squarely on a beat with the grace note just before the beat.

 

• Sometimes the first note can be played as a full length eighth note, a sort of pickup that precedes a phrase.

 

• The two notes are played in the same bellows direction.

 

• The second note is louder that the first.

 

• The best interval is a rising half step.

 

The most common pitch to slide to is the third note of the scale used.

A little of this stuff goes a long way. Just a hint of the first note is often enough.

 

I mostly use this effect sparingly when I play, but for teaching purposes I wrote a modal tune that has three different examples of these pseudo slides. It ends up sounding like a fiddle or cross harp harmonica blues tune and included below are the dots and an mp3 of me playing Crank It Up solo on my Jefferies C/G Anglo.

 

See you at Bradfield!

Edited July 28, 2008 by Jody Kruskal

[Spectacled Warbler]

Superb, driving, piece of music there, really enjoyed it. Looking forward to having a go at those bendy notes.

 

Slightly off topic this, so apologies, just wondered if you'd any plans to publicise the music you'll be using for your Whitby workshop?- glad you got the booking, by the way.

 

All the best,

 

Joy

[Jody Kruskal]

Superb, driving, piece of music there, really enjoyed it. Looking forward to having a go at those bendy notes.

 

Slightly off topic this, so apologies, just wondered if you'd any plans to publicise the music you'll be using for your Whitby workshop?- glad you got the booking, by the way.

 

All the best,

 

Joy

 

Hi SW,

 

Thanks. I'm looking forward to playing with you. If you or anyone else had trouble viewing the text or printing out the music... sorry. My web site seems to have a few formatting issues with some browsers. I think I fixed the problem on this page. If you want a printed copy, just click the dots and you should get a pdf download of the tune.

 

As for Whitby, that workshop is still up in the air... I'll try to publish something in the next few days.

[m3838]

The link for my August Tune of the Month offering, with mp3 and dots is here.

 

Hmm. Very american of you. I'm tempted to learn it.

I'll have to invent something for those right hand bass-chords on my EC.

Edited July 29, 2008 by m3838

[Jody Kruskal]

Hmm. Very american of you. I'm tempted to learn it.

I'll have to invent something for those right hand bass-chords on my EC.

 

Well the tune was written to take advantage of the Anglo's modal abilities, like the cross harp harmonica. The key signature is C but the tonal center is G and playing on the row gives you a big G7 sound. I believe that is called the Mixolydian mode.

 

Still, no reason why the EC can't play it too. Show us what you've got, I'd love to hear it.

[John Wild]

Sidetracking slightly from the topic, Jody's tunes are prominently featured in the music supplement of the latest ICA publication Concertina World.

I am having fun having a go. my favourite (so far) is Blustery Day.

 

thanks to Jody and the ICA

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Jody Kruskal]

Sidetracking slightly from the topic, Jody's tunes are prominently featured in the music supplement of the latest ICA publication Concertina World.

I am having fun having a go. my favourite (so far) is Blustery Day.

 

thanks to Jody and the ICA

 

Best wishes

 

John

Hi John,

 

Glad you like Blustery Day. It's one of my favorites too. Yes, Jon McNamara asked me to submit a bunch of my original tunes for Concertina World, bless him. I went through and picked mostly the ones that had recorded examples and that could be played on a 30 button C/G Anglo, chords and melody all together.

 

I play a 38 button G/D which gives me a bit more facility. For the supplement I included a section where I briefly gave an explanation for how to modify the tunes to make them workable on the more common type of C/G Anglo. Things like switching octaves and changing a few notes or chords or transposing to another key.

 

I wonder though, how many anglo players feel comfortable reading music from the page? Not all, I bet.

[Jody Kruskal]

Superb, driving, piece of music there, really enjoyed it. Looking forward to having a go at those bendy notes.

 

Slightly off topic this, so apologies, just wondered if you'd any plans to publicise the music you'll be using for your Whitby workshop?- glad you got the booking, by the way.

 

All the best,

 

Joy

Hi Joy. Roger Digby and I have put together a special Whitby workshop. Materials posted here. See you at Whitby?

[m3838]

Hi Joy. Roger Digby and I have put together a special Whitby workshop. Materials posted here. See you at Whitby?

Although I'm not roger, and I will not see anybody at Whitby, I thank you for the "fly around my pretty little miss tabs and notation.

I'll try that one too. Classical pieces are not kind to me.

[Spectacled Warbler]

Hi Joy. Roger Digby and I have put together a special Whitby workshop. Materials posted here. See you at Whitby?

 

 

Hi Jody, thanks ever so much for posting this. Glad you've chosen this tune - one of my favourites which I've been meaning to learn for a while now, you've given me the incentive to do it. Better start practising now or else I won't dare show my face at your workshop....

 

Thanks again,

 

Joy