Quint

[tallship]

Furthermore (this addressed to "Whom it may concern") the fiddle is the perfect complementary instrument to the melodeon and does NOT sound like a strangled cat (I checked that my own auburn-haired beauty was well out of reading range before daring to write this phrase, but no - she's come downstairs and is demanding to be let out!). [Writer here flounces out with a monk on.  ]

Ah, I wasn't saying that the fiddle inherently sounds like someone strangling a cat, far from it. In the hands of a beginner however it can be erm, you know, rather less than tuneful. 

[Ebor_fiddler]

My Lady purred at that! Mind you I remember throwing my fiddle across the room when I was around 13 or so, but thank goodness it landed on the settee! I still play it, but better (I hope!). 

[tiny]

sqeak  sqwark  ....... violin

Me too!

and me!

[Lin Erica]

with so many of us going squeak sqwark, im beginning to think that maybe we are right, and its all the others who are wrong!!
      
Lin

[Keithypete.]

I wanted to learn tunes other than in D or G

You know very well that the correct response to that is to buy more melodeons.

Or just get a B/C - presto hey - all the keys you could ever want or need in one 'box

[ganderbox]

sqeak  sqwark  ....... violin

Me too!

and me!

Been there, done that. After a year or so of aching neck and shoulders I had just about got past the squeak squark stage, but I decided I was never going to be Tommy People's or Kevin Burke and gave up!

[george garside]

I wanted to learn tunes other than in D or G

You know very well that the correct response to that is to buy more melodeons.

Or just get a B/C - presto hey - all the keys you could ever want or need in one 'box

preferably one with stradella bass & while your at it you might as well have a C# row on the treble end!

george

[Fidjit]

I have found that going through that learning experience has indeed made me (hopefully) a better melodeon player, at least I understand more about music now, which cant be bad, and now Ive learnt about "Quint" ................ thats a half hearted attempt to get this thread back on topic for the watch dogs  

Lin

Yes. I'm in the same boat so to speak. Playing other instruments helps the brain box with the others.

Edited to add.
But then this wasn't easy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS3sirJp55A  

See you a M & M

[Falseknight]

I've said it before on this forum. I always think that the term 'quint' is a misnomer, when applied to instruments in D/G, C/F, G/C, etc. .
We normally name a musical interval in ascending mode. In other words a fifth is the interval going up in pitch from from C to G, D to A, and so on. A fourth is the interval ascending from C to F, D to G, etc.

So - if we name melodeons from their lower pitched row to higher pitch row D/G, C/F, etc. that interval is a fourth, not a fifth, and therefore two-row instruments tuned like this should be termed 'quad' boxes, not 'quint' boxes.

You know it makes sense.  

I know this has been discussed before, but I always think of the inside row as being the basis for the layout of a "quint" box. Take a D/G....the conventional bass layout favours playing in G rather than D, and E minor (the favoured minor key)  is the relative minor of G. D is the fifth note of the scale of G which is the most important harmonic (if that's the right word), hence "quint". 

Funny, I've often wondered about that.  I think of the outer row as the basis for layout, have always 'gone inside' for the chord of the fourth degree on the push (in D), and always cross rowed for the "A" root on the pull.  Sure, I play Gmajor tunes up and down the inner row, but E minor is outer row, crossing in for the Gmajor chordal phrases.  That said, I tend to play more Irish derived music that I learned (in D) as a guitarist and mandolin player.

[Steve Jones]

I wanted to learn tunes other than in D or G

You know very well that the correct response to that is to buy more melodeons.

Or just get a B/C - presto hey - all the keys you could ever want or need in one 'box

preferably one with stradella bass & while your at it you might as well have a C# row on the treble end!
george

Phew, thanks George. I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for the last two days!

[Bill the Farmer]

I thought it was a hole in the side of the nave for the lepers to peer through. 

[Ebor_fiddler]

Isn't Iepers the place we used to call Wypers?

[C age ing]

Thanks Lin, all I did was to introduce you to a guy who could make a special key and you did the rest.

To bring a little more controversy to this thread, the melodeon was the first non chromatic instrument attempted. Yes, even my gob iron had a slide. In my present world of saxophone the resemblance is uncanny. There are, mainly abandoned instruments, with bell tones of C and F but the vast majority are in the Brass Band keys of Eb and Bb. So like melodeons, are saxophones quint or quad?

Old, grumpy and sore-lipped Bill.

post script:-Saxophonist refer to the Eb alto as being a sixth up and Bb tenors being a ninth down. Confused? So am I. 

[Falseknight]

Neither, because they are fully chromatic.

[george garside]

Neither, because they are fully chromatic.

just being pedantic but an instrument is either chromatic or it isn't.  i.e is capable of playing a 12 note scale including semitones or  in piano terms 7 whites & 5 blacks

george

[Falseknight]

Fair cop George.