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Author Topic: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More 2014  (Read 17310 times)

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Lyn

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #60 on: February 15, 2014, 08:43:28 PM »

Just be gentle with us! :'(
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Ada

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #61 on: February 19, 2014, 01:10:36 PM »

Looking forward to a Friday night stay at the Verandah and workshops 4 & 12 on Saturday.
I'll be very surprised if I don't end up at the Royal William on Friday evening - there was no session there last year, but when I visited the place in October (melodeon in hand...) the locals made me play Captain Pugwash, so there might be the opportunity for a quick tune in the bar.
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Mike Carney

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #62 on: February 23, 2014, 03:12:05 PM »

I'll be very surprised if I don't end up at the Royal William on Friday evening - there was no session there last year, but when I visited the place in October (melodeon in hand...) the locals made me play Captain Pugwash, so there might be the opportunity for a quick tune in the bar.
A session on the Friday night would be a great start. It would be good if people can head for somewhere knowing others will also be going. Steve F of this parish did mention that there was little room for a session at the Royal William now they do more food there.  The Kings Head in Mendlesham was mentioned as a possible alternative.  I know there are others. What do people think?
Mike
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ladydetemps

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #63 on: February 25, 2014, 12:10:53 PM »

My cd arrived. Hopefully i'll get chance to listen to it this week

Helena Handcart

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #64 on: February 25, 2014, 12:18:28 PM »

My cd arrived. Hopefully i'll get chance to listen to it this week

Yep, mine too  (:). Just when I thought I was getting on top of my list of tunes to learn from last month's local session... TOTM out of the way (HARD work) ... morris tunes coming along nicely.

I've brought the CD to work to listen to as I code, this has the added advantage of keeping people out of my office. Bonus.  ::)
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malcolmbebb

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #65 on: February 25, 2014, 12:19:47 PM »

Dog chewed mine. Fortunately the tracks I need still play. But I will have to find the dots or abc to learn most of the tunes.
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #66 on: February 25, 2014, 12:21:31 PM »

Dog chewed mine. Fortunately the tracks I need still play. But I will have to find the dots or abc to learn most of the tunes.

Malcolm, I think we are all a little too 'mature' to still be using the old 'the dog ate my homework' excuse.

Naughty Logan.
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malcolmbebb

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #67 on: February 25, 2014, 12:24:50 PM »

 ;D ;D He just caught the edge and cracked it. I'm getting used to sheet music with teeth marks. None, as yet, mine.
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Steve_freereeder

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #68 on: February 25, 2014, 12:28:28 PM »

Dog chewed mine. Fortunately the tracks I need still play. But I will have to find the dots or abc to learn most of the tunes.
Malcolm - I don't not know which workshops you've signed up for, but I will say don't worry too much about fluently learning the tunes. There would be no point about going to the workshops if you could play them straight off. Just some familiarisation with how the tunes go would be fine; the tutor(s) are expecting many people to learn by ear anyway.

One of the philosophies of the EATMT workshop days is the continuation of learning by the aural tradition, so slavish adherence to written music is not a priority in most cases.
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malcolmbebb

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #69 on: February 25, 2014, 12:35:17 PM »

I still need the dots to get that far. There is no way that I will be comfortable enough with the tunes to get any benefit from the workshops if I have to do it all by ear.

I'm doing Andy Turner's workshops. Prob take a G/D concertina, with which I'm very rusty, but hoping to be ably to apply learning to melodeon also.
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ladydetemps

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #70 on: February 25, 2014, 05:42:59 PM »

The only time i know how to play tunes before a workshop is if i've played them previously. Generally i just stick the cd on repeat for a few days. Stab at keyboard till i give up trying to learn by ear. Put the melodeon away. Have cup of tea. Then hope the teacher chooses the tune i know.
Basically i go knowing i don't know and take notes in class. Oh and mime in the showcase when i forget what to do. ;)

Noodle

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #71 on: February 25, 2014, 10:32:15 PM »

Me and Nicki are in on this now! Nicki's doing Steve's Firm Foundations, and I'm on Rees' Playing in the second position, and Alex Goldsmith's Row crossing.

Really looking forward to it!
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rees

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #72 on: February 25, 2014, 10:36:11 PM »

Second position? - never heard of it ....................
Sounds a bit smutty to me.
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Noodle

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #73 on: February 25, 2014, 11:03:34 PM »

Not at all indicative of the tutor, of course!
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Lyn

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #74 on: February 26, 2014, 10:34:20 AM »

I'm really, really happy with the workshops I have chosen. BUT I am SOOOOOO envious of you lot who are going to learning to play Zuppa Inglese with Rees. One day, I keep promising myself! Brilliant tune. :'(
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Katie Howson

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #75 on: February 26, 2014, 11:16:17 AM »

Just to let you all know - and pass on to fellow melodeon & concertina players - that there are still some spaces left in a number of the workshops, it's not too late to book up!

Good luck everyone with the workshops you've chosen. I'd really like to go to Brian's "Squeezin' the Blues" but I seem to have something else to do that afternoon!

There are also a few spaces on the Melodeons Maintenance Day on Sunday 23rd.

Katie

PS I don't visit this forum very often, so if you have questions, please email me at EATMT.
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #76 on: February 26, 2014, 02:08:05 PM »

I have never been to Mendlesham before because it is rather a long way for just one day, but I thought I'd try it this year since I could stay on for the Melodeon Maintenance course on the Sunday. One of my reasons for booking this year was that I could spend a whole day in one-row classes with the inestimable Katie and Rees. Another was that (as with Melodeons at Witney) you get the dots and a CD in advance so that you can gain a rough familiarity with the tunes beforehand, which enables you to concentrate on the finer points of expression, performance and ornamentation in the actual workshop.

The good news is that the CD has arrived already - quite a bit earlier than Dave Townsend sends out the Witney material. The bad news is that there is no sheet music for my workshops. I know Rees thinks you can't write down what he teaches, and maybe Katie's reasons are similar, but they are both missing a basic learning principle. Educational research has shown that if you learn something by ear and memorise it, without writing it down, the average person only retains 10-15% of what they are taught, but you retain 60-80% if you write notes on it that you can consult later. In workshops like these, the easiest way to write down points that are made by the tutors is to note them down at the relevant point on the score, so I am now faced with the task of writing out the dots for each tune myself, which takes up a lot of the time I would like to spend practising the tunes.

I know that some will argue that Cajun tunes like Jolie Catin (and to a lesser extent Irish tunes like Seamus O'Toole's No.3) are essentially improvisation around a basic theme, which I accept. But sheet music is still useful because it provides an aide memoir to which you can refer when you forget something - as I often do! It does not have to be followed slavishly - and I would agree that it shouldn't be - but, without it, and the notes I make on it, I for one would leave the workshops having acquired a lot of knowledge, tips and techniques that I would soon forget.

Maybe I am alone in thinking like this, but there will be at least one defiant individual sitting in Rees's and Katie's workshops with a music stand in front of him and a pencil near to hand.
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Owen Woods

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #77 on: February 26, 2014, 02:22:42 PM »

I will provide sheet music and a handout in my workshop.
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malcolmbebb

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #78 on: February 26, 2014, 02:31:20 PM »

I am of a similar mind to Bob. I note Steve's points about learning by ear, but with all due respect if that was what I wanted I would have looked for a "learning by ear" workshop  ;D

I suspect that I wouldn't have booked these workshops had I realised. But to make the best of it, I intend to find some scores of the tunes, probably abcs, then use them as a basis, in conjunction with the CD, to get as far as I can with the tunes without attempting to fully learn them.

The workshops are not, in my mind, about how to play the tunes but about HOW to play the tunes. If you get my drift.
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Mendlesham - Melodeons and More
« Reply #79 on: February 26, 2014, 02:41:24 PM »

The workshops are not, in my mind, about how to play the tunes but about HOW to play the tunes.

Malcolm, that is exactly how I feel and I am very pleased to have received the sheet music and CD in advance.  I can't speak for absolute beginners or more seasoned players but I think at the level you and I are at having this extra resource beforehand is a huge bonus.  To get the most out of the workshops I will certainly need to have a fairly confident command of playing the melody with simple accompaniment before I go.  Otherwise I will spend the whole of the workshop learning how to play the tune rather than concentrating on learning HOW to play the tune.

This is not a complaint, just an observation, I am very happy with both the quality and the timeliness of the material I have received for M&M... all I've got to do now is learn the flipping tunes but quite frankly after 'The Abbess' nothing on my current to-learn list scares me in the least.
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