Priscilla Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Last night the world was caving in on me. I took one look at my 20-button blistering red Renelli concertina, and said... it's you and me, babe, against the world. You're all I've got. So I picked her up gingerly, and I took a dangerous look at the first tune in my new Concertina learning book I just got in the mail that very day, and it was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I thought, okay, it's this or bust. I'm goin' for broke. Livin' dangerously here. It showed me the buttons to push, it broke it down nice and easy, and ...I started playin'. It was like a miracle. That first tune... that tune which tells you, greater things are *possible*, just possible, nothing more. A whisper in the night. You've just gone from zero to ten, and you've glimpsed the stars ...there are millions of them, and they're all out of reach "today", but, this first little tune was out of reach yesterday! What's possible tomorrow? I never realized what sublime depths Twinkle Twinkle Little Star had. The subtle beauty. I played it over and over, grinning from ear to ear. All the world's troubles were forgotten. I wondered...what genius wrote this tune? Gives so much pleasure, is so wonderfully accessible... Well, I'd just like to thank all the composers of super easy music, who help us beginners play our very first tune! It's a moment one never forgets. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in years to come will presumably never sound as lush and rapturous to me again, but for now...it's just the most longing, wistful, soul searching melody, it understands all my sorrow...and the Renelli felt my pain, and gave voice to it. I think we were well matched, the beginner and the less than top notch c'tina, howling at the moon. It was a beautiful moment. It got me through the night, onto a brighter day. So, what was the first tune you learned, and how'd it make you feel? Priscilla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Rogers Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 The first tune I learned - on the fiddle, which was my first melody instrument - was "Floral Dance". It made me feel like dancing! First tune on the concertina was "Blue Eyed Stranger", but it had already been one of my favourite Morris tunes on the melodeon for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikefule Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Funny how you remember these things. The first tune I can remember "playing" on anything was a mangled version of The Manchester Rambler" (?) The one that goes: "I'm a rambler I'm a rambler from Manchester way, I get all my pleasures the hard northern way..." The first tune I learned properly on any instrument was either Young Collins, Bledington, or Getting Upstairs, Headington Quarry. I learned them both at a friend's house in Bury St. Edmunds and remember la da dum - ing them all the way home to Nottingham on my bicycle. A long day! My first concertina tune? For my first lesson with my first teacher, Keith Kendrick, I remember showing him that I could play Waltzing Matilda in the, er... single note style. First tune played with any sort of accompaniment and in front of other people was Old Molly Oxford, Headington Quarry, at a Morris practice. First public performance was Nutting Girl, Bampton in a Morris show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fergus_fiddler Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Well, my first tune was the jig 'Out on the Ocean'. For some reason, I felt from the begining that playing 'in the rows' wasn't the fastest or more productive way to render a tune; and when I researched for information in this forum, I realized that the way I was playing the tune was the so called 'across the rows'. It made me felt quite proud about myself - something that doesn't hapen very often, honestly - and my next thought was: 'Well, first step. Now you've to put all the tunes you play with the fiddle into this little box'. Now I'm working on my repertoire and messing my head with all the possible fingerings: Not too many bellow changes, not too few if this means awkward fingerings, phrasing and giving the tunes a nice 'bounce', learn to use properly the air button, hearing a lot of concertina music... enough for to keep me busy Cheers, Fer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDT Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Unless I can claim this random pressing of keys is a tune it would be twinkle little star.First thoughts was relief I could make a tune appear without, hurting my fingers on strings/feeling dizzy/getting a headache/having a other sibling take the instrument off me and play it better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Rogers Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 The Manchester Rambler" (?) The one that goes: "I'm a rambler I'm a rambler from Manchester way, I get all my pleasures the hard northern way..." I believe that Ewan Maccoll wrote it as "hard moorland way", but hey, that's the folk tradition! I don't think he ever quite got over hearing his song "Shoals of Herring" passed off as a traditional Irish ballad, "The Shores of Erin"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 I'm sure "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is the musical version of Software Engineers' "Hello World", or the Embedded Engineers' "My LED is flashing!" My first tune was Amazing Grace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Day Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Firstly well done Priscilla,do you realise now that from this moment on someone with a brand new instrument, that has never played before,will hear you play and wish they could play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as well as you.They will also say "Who Taught you to play like that"? "When did you realise you could play a musical instrument" ? "Can you play Amazing Grace" ?. My first tune was Shepherds Hey I actually played it for the Morris a week later because the musician failed to turn up.Now that's REAL pressure. Al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Madge Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 The first tune that I played on an Anglo was "The Sweet Nightingale", because the rather broken instrument that I had been lent had all the notes for that one! Robin Madge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newgrange Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 The first tune I learned (and the only one so far!) was 'The Fog in the Bog'. I think it must have another name as I can't find any examples of someone playing it. It's a jig. It's not that difficult so I reckon it is a popular 'beginner's' tune, though possibly not under that name. I play it at a funereal pace compared to our teacher, but there you go. We have to start somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnC Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbones Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Blow the Man Down. AKA the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. It was my only goal at the time but, alas, I found I wasn't satisfied, Oh No!! I had to keep going. Now I feel like I passed the light at the end of my tunnel and I can't even see the final one yet. Although there have been a few flickering candles along the way. It's truly turned into an obsession. Heaven help us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_boveri Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 my first tune on the concertina was the irish washerwoman. the first tune i ever learned was "the lion sleeps tonight," which i had heard in the lion king, on the tin whistle. my uncle taught it to me one day while we were upstairs in my grandparents house, when he lived there. i will always remember that it was on a blue tipped, nickel generation whistle. he was going to give it to me, but for whatever reason i never ended up getting it. i probably didnt play music after that day for several years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asdormire Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Blow the Man Down. AKA the Spongebob Squarepants theme song. It was my only goal at the time but, alas, I found I wasn't satisfied, Oh No!! I had to keep going. Now I feel like I passed the light at the end of my tunnel and I can't even see the final one yet. Although there have been a few flickering candles along the way. It's truly turned into an obsession. Heaven help us all. Is that why the kiddies all like it? Here I thought it was just a fun little tune to play for them. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 The first tune I learned (and the only one so far!) was 'The Fog in the Bog'.I think it must have another name as I can't find any examples of someone playing it. It's a jig. It's not that difficult so I reckon it is a popular 'beginner's' tune, though possibly not under that name. So you mean this one? It crops up in various collections with variations. X: 12711 T:Rattling Bog S:Kevin Briggs, via EF M:4/4 L:1/4 K:D P:A d/2e/2|"D"f2 "D7"f3/2e/2|"G"dB B3/2B/2|"D"Ad d/2c/2d/2e/2|"E7"fe "A7"e2|\ "D"f2 "D7"f3/2e/2|"G"dB B3/2B/2|"D"Aa af|"A7"ed "D"d:| P:B d/2e/2|"D"fd "A7"ed|"D"fd "A7"ed/2e/2|"D"fa af|"E7"ed "A7"ed/2e/2| "D"fd "A7"ed|"D"fd "A7"ed/2e/2|"D"fa af|"A7"ed "D"d:| Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newgrange Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 (edited) So you mean this one? It crops up in various collections with variations. X: 12711 T:Rattling Bog S:Kevin Briggs, via EF M:4/4 L:1/4 <snip> No, it's not that one. I know that as a song. I think it might be a bit beyond me yet. I have this for the first section: E' / F' E' F' D' - B / A B F A B D' / F' E' F' D' B A / B - E' E' D' E' / F' E' F' D' - B / A B F A B D' / F' - A' A' F' D' / E' D' E' F' -|| Does that sound like anything you recognise? Edited February 27, 2009 by newgrange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polutropos Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 Oro from John Williams DVD but never really stuck it out and quickly moved on to Cock O The North ... which I seem to have been stuck on ever since. Though just starting to pick up the Kesh Jig. First tune on guitar, long time ago, but it may have been Elizabeth Cotten's Freight Train or House of the Rising Sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 No, it's not that one. I know that as a song. I think it might be a bit beyond me yet. Does that sound like anything you recognise? OK - I was just going by a possible similarity in the title, not the tune. Sorry I do not recognise the piece you posted. regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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