Jump to content

Contemporary/pop Repertoire


Bill N

Recommended Posts

Well at least you didn't come home from NESI with your wife telling you since you have two working concertinas, she can use your twenty button. Never mind she has 7 guitars and 4 mandolins.

 

Alan

 

Mine has a lovely singing voice, but doesn't play an instrument , or have any desire to. But she bought me my Rochelle, and offered to pay for the Morse I just ordered. Seems to run counter to the behavior displayed by some other "concertina widows", as reported by other members of the forum.

 

She did mention to me that scientific studies show that learning a skill that develops new neural pathways (at my "advanced age" she added) is a good way to ward off dementia. As she's quite a bit younger than me, there might be some self-interest in her apparent support of my new obsession :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 43
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I meant if you research the French links, you may find far more interesting EC sites and music, encompassing wider range of genres, then in English. English are crowded around ITM and English traditional melody-right/chords-left with rare exceptions.

If you want to find something else, and speak French, that's the direction of research. Within minutes you'll find tens of sites with hundreds of tunes, few of which will be Irish or English trad.

 

 

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music.

 

I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html

 

I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato. :(

 

I wonder if I should move up to Brittany. :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I meant if you research the French links, you may find far more interesting EC sites and music, encompassing wider range of genres, then in English. English are crowded around ITM and English traditional melody-right/chords-left with rare exceptions.

If you want to find something else, and speak French, that's the direction of research. Within minutes you'll find tens of sites with hundreds of tunes, few of which will be Irish or English trad.

 

 

Merci bien. J'essayerai cela!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I meant if you research the French links, you may find far more interesting EC sites and music, encompassing wider range of genres, then in English. English are crowded around ITM and English traditional melody-right/chords-left with rare exceptions.

If you want to find something else, and speak French, that's the direction of research. Within minutes you'll find tens of sites with hundreds of tunes, few of which will be Irish or English trad.

 

 

I've been Googling in French, but most of the hits are for Irish music.

 

I did find this one though, with arrangements of French tunes for the English Concertina. http://pagesperso-orange.fr/gilbertcarr/pa...glis/index.html

 

I came across a sea shanty group here in the south, but they said they didn't want an EC because they already have a diato. :(

 

I wonder if I should move up to Brittany. :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Forgot to say........ contemporary/pop, I've been making my way through a Queen Greatest Hits book. Nice for the EC to play the second treble-clef part.

 

Unfortunately most of those written by Freddie Mercury are in keys with three or four flats. They're tricky!

 

Here's Crazy Little Thing Called Love. http://www.musicnotes.com/download/viewer/...57&dltype=0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I do enjoy playing some modern pop songs on my concertina sometimes, but I never add them online because of copyright issues. I only add my own original songs, or public domain ones.

 

Some seem to fall into place nicely on my EC, and then others I just give up on after a while if they don't fit.

 

My choices are totally random and include songs written and/or recorded by Van Morrison, Cat Stevens (now called Yusef, I believe), Bonnie Raitt, Bessie Smith, Nora Jones, Maddy Prior.... many others. Also, many songs from the 'Rise Up Singing' songbook, some which are PD (public domain) but not all.

 

Well....there was the one time I did share my version of a Foo Fighters' song. But, of course, not making any profit from it, and probably not hurting the Foos in any way!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi

Ishtar- you could try downloading 'Finale NotePad' (free) and entering the music you wish to play and then use the key change facility in 'finale' to transpose it to an acceptable key. Bit long winded but it works

have fun

chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I get more comfortable with this new instrument I'm doing a lot more fooling around for my own amusement, and have started to play some favorite modern stuff. Lots of things that I have always played on harmonica (like Neil Young's "Comes a Time"), or always wanted to play on harmonica but didn't have the accidentals (Beatle's Eleanor Rigby for instance) sound great on concertina, and have the added benefit of being more acceptable to my long suffering captive home audience than my strangulated rendition of "Porthole of the Kelp"! A cruise through tune-o-tron and Youtube doesn't reveal much beyond trad music and tin-pan alley stuff for the anglo. (Not that there's anything wrong with that :P ) Is anyone playing contemporary, popular music and sharing approaches and arrangements?

 

Edited to add: My primary interest is English Traditional Music, but a change is nice once in a while!

Sorry Chris but the closest I come to this is playing with our singer when he does Sting's - 'Fields Of Gold'.

 

We can't be doing too bad a job of it though, cause someone came up last week & said he'd really enjoyed it, so much so that he wanted us to sing it again & he explained that he'd never realised it was actually an old traditional song! :rolleyes:

Well, it was tempting to just let him think it was an old trad song, but we came clean .... well, after all, he did buy us all a drink, so I guess it pays to be versatile, after all!

 

Cheers

Dick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The riff in "Burning Bridges" by Status Quo is very danceable and playable to and sounds very similar to an Irish Trad tune (which *might* be a Kilfenora slide).

I'd be very curious to actually hear something like this.

It has always been my impression that you can't play anything on anything. An epoch creates instrument for the music and music for the instrument. While I realize that contemporary pop music is based on Anglo-Afro-American tradition, it's very difficult for me to imagine a Concertina in rock or jazz environment. The approach is very different, it seems (to me). Modern jazz or classical music put such complicated goals before the musician, the instrument must be absolutely flawless to rely upon. A concertina as it commonly is, is unsuitable simply by it's technical capabilities. In most of the cases, that I personally observed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about Rock n Roll...stuff you can jive to? Is that plausable to play?

 

 

Sure, but you being the girl genius you will have to figure it out on your own, as I doubt there is a greatest rock hits volume for the concertina. ;)

 

Alan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I realize that contemporary pop music is based on Anglo-Afro-American tradition, it's very difficult for me to imagine a Concertina in rock or jazz environment.

 

Rock/Pop bands do occasionally come up with songs that are based on a trad (or trad-sounding) melody or riff and which do or could sound good on concertina.

 

Apart from the Status Quo "Burning Bridges" example, I've heard Border Morris danced to Abba's "Super Trouper" and Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry" has "Stockport Polka" running through it.

 

Doesn't happen very often, though, which is probably best for all concerned. ^_^

 

This is "Burning Bridges": http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-HsrqzkywSg

 

I'll see if I can track down a recording of the Irish tune that it reminds me of....

 

Edit: It's the middle tune of this set: http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPa...heKilfenora.mp3

Edited by Dave Rogers
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is "Burning Bridges": http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-HsrqzkywSg

 

Yes, it sounds like your usual English/Irish major melody, there are hundreds of them out there. No, I meant that for me, with, err..., Russian ear, Rock does sound like having strong English influence. I'm sure books are written about it, with concocted terminologies and what not. Russian rock is made up of two interwoven tendencies: English/American emulation and exaggerated Russian Folk. Bayan or Accordion, Balalaika and some sort of flutes are common. So I would actually expect a concertina to be bigger part of at least Irish home grown rock scene, than it appears to be. I'm guessing, it doesn't have enough appeal, be it look or sound or expressiveness, sought by Rock artists specifically.

Though I personally tried to persuade a friend of mine, head of Rock band, consisting of one bass guitar (he plays) and two large drum sets, to introduce some folk instrument with unlikely sound, like concertina, or Hurdy-Gurdy. Or even harpsichords, just for the novelty and interesting sound. They have become pretty successful without my ideas, and with less, as they say, hemorrhoids.

Edited by m3838
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about Rock n Roll...stuff you can jive to? Is that plausable to play?

 

 

Sure, but you being the girl genius you will have to figure it out on your own, as I doubt there is a greatest rock hits volume for the concertina. ;)

 

Alan

I've never been called a genius before. :lol:

There isn't a concertina rock n roll book? Awwww.....now I'm all dissapointed. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Burning Bridges is out again on a Quo CD for Christmas in the supermarket, so it's folk music now

 

I always thought Jona Lewie's song was based on a Welsh tune to do with taking a horse's head effigy around at festive time, The Grey Mare or something?

We used it for a Sheffield City Morris dance quite nicely

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always thought Jona Lewie's song was based on a Welsh tune to do with taking a horse's head effigy around at festive time, The Grey Mare or something?

 

Ah, the Mari Lwyd! http://www.folkwales.org.uk/mari.html

 

I've never seen this being performed, so I don't know what music they use. Stockport Polka (or Southport Polka - I think the names are inter-changeable) is usually the tune used for a Morris stick-throwing dance that various sides do in various styles (I've seen Adderbury, Bledington and Bucknell versions).

 

Cock & Magpie Morris from Chesterfield used to call this dance "MFI" because it usually ended in a pile of bits of wood on the floor in the middle of the set. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...