Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[malcolmbebb]

Use pinky on treble, both on melodeon and concertina.
Use pinky on LH on concertina.
Started playing basses without pinky on melodeon. However, from time to time, pinky spontaneously joins in without being asked.

I have to pretend not to notice otherwise playing falls apart - I'm having enough trouble as it is.
If I consciously try to use pinky, playing falls apart, too.

Confused.

[Chris Ryall]

Use it as much as you can on either end as it adds flexibility. It is particularly useful if you want to arpeggiate chords beyond folky 'triads'.  Also helps in those bass runs, but not critical on left end - as pointed out last time we discussed this.

An exception is when using the melodeon's 'built in' Blues scale - F# on a D/G - B blues on a G#C.  It's  note run meanders 'in threes' between the rows on the pull, and it  is best fingered in that way - using the three big fingers and preserving its symmetry. I was taught it this way, experience bore that out.  Chris

[pikey]

Use it as much as you can on either end as it adds flexibility. It is particularly useful if you want to arpeggiate chords beyond folky 'triads'.  Also helps in those bass runs, but not critical on left end - as pointed out last time we discussed this.

An exception is when using the melodeon's 'built in' Blues scale - F# on a D/G - B blues on a G#C.  It's  note run meanders 'in threes' between the rows on the pull, and it  is best fingered in that way - using the three big fingers and preserving its symmetry. I was taught it this way, experience bore that out.  Chris

'Three fingers' Ryall. It has a certain ring to it 

[Steve_freereeder]

On fiffle it took me ages to learn to use it but I persevered and now it comes naturally.

 What is this fiffle you speak of?

It's like a violin, but you blow it instead of bow it.

Is fiffle a colloquial word?

Unique to north-west Norfolk, I believe...

[Stiamh]

On fiffle it took me ages to learn to use it but I persevered and now it comes naturally.

 What is this fiffle you speak of?

It's like a violin, but you blow it instead of bow it.

Is fiffle a colloquial word?

Unique to north-west Norfolk, I believe...

A Norfolk dumpling replies: Noo that int, bor.

Aradru... look what letter is just to the left of the f on your keyboard.

Obviously Lyn meant "diddle". (I didn't know she liked the old diddly-dye music, but I'm glad to find out.)

[Chris Ryall]

'Three fingers' Ryall. It has a certain ring to it 

Nice try, laddie - it's actually the ring finger that's missing!  Jim Lawton once introduced me as "Doc 3-Rowe", actually.  But that's another story. Chris

[Nick Collis Bird]

I was born in Holt Norfolk and there was certainly a lot of fiffling going on I can tell you.
There was nothing else to do really.
See Urban Dictionary under Fiffle.

[Steve_freereeder]

I was born in Holt Norfolk and there was certainly a lot of fiffling going on I can tell you.
There was nothing else to do really.
See Urban Dictionary under Fiffle.

 

[pikey]

'Three fingers' Ryall. It has a certain ring to it 

Nice try, laddie - it's actually the ring finger that's missing!  Jim Lawton once introduced me as "Doc 3-Rowe", actually.  But that's another story. Chris

 

[Steve C.]

I am with Bob and a few others, always use both "small" fingers.

On the treble, makes it easier to get to the chin end accidentals without using your thumb and on the bass makes for faster, more varied playing, plus great bass chording (ala Milleret/Pignol).

Takes getting used to though, especially on the bass side; it seems like a long reach and required re-thinking the whole bass strap adjustment.

[tedrick]

pinky and working on adding thumb on treble side! 

[Graham Spencer]

Personally I can't see how people manage to play the treble end without the use of the little finger (sorry, I just can't bring myself to use the Americanism), but I rarely, if ever, use mine on the bass end; at least, I don't THINK I do - at any rate I'm not immediately aware of any bass pattern I play that uses any but fingers 1, 2 & 3..............

Graham

[syale]

sorry, I just can't bring myself to use the Americanism

I had never heard of it being an American word...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pinky says it is dutch in origin.

and http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pin1.htm says it is from Scotland. The page states:

Its sense of the little finger is actually quite old. Curiously, though it is now often thought of as an American term, it began its life in Scotland — the first recorded example, from 1808, is in John Jamieson’s An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language.

[Graham Spencer]

sorry, I just can't bring myself to use the Americanism

I had never heard of it being an American word...

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pinky says it is dutch in origin.

and http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pin1.htm says it is from Scotland. The page states:

Its sense of the little finger is actually quite old. Curiously, though it is now often thought of as an American term, it began its life in Scotland — the first recorded example, from 1808, is in John Jamieson’s An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language.

Well there you go......this forum is nothing if not educational!  Thanks for the info. 

[Steve_freereeder]

A Norfolk dumpling replies: Noo that int, bor.

Hev yar fa'er gotta dicka bor?

[OldJack]

Say what?

[Lyn]

 

HAve been a bit under the weather lately and haven't kept up with the posts! Oh dear, (wiping eyes) yes, 'fifflin'. Lyra, I don't think there is ANYTHING you could tell Jock about my fiffling OR fiddling!!! Nothing that would surprise him anyway!!

OK. typo it was. And since then I have realised I use my little finger A LOT on the box - well, treble end, any way. Just hadn't realised how much I was doing it.

Although I live in West Norfolk I am a Scouser-in-exile, so no casting Nasturtiums about Norfolk Fiffling/Diddling, please! (I might add that I was a Health Visitor for 18 years and there's not a lot you can tell me about what goes on in rural Norfolk, believe me!!!)

[Mike Hirst]

OK. typo it was.

I wonder, was that the result of a wayward little finger?

[Lyn]

Ha, no, I'm afraid I couldn't possibly attempt typing with my little finger!

[Graham Spencer]

 (I might add that I was a Health Visitor for 18 years and there's not a lot you can tell me about what goes on in rural Norfolk, believe me!!!)

Melodeon playing.....NFN....

Graham