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Author Topic: Where are you going?  (Read 6037 times)

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arty

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Where are you going?
« on: November 02, 2014, 05:04:31 PM »

As someone who (I think) has left the beginner's stage and could now be thought of as an intermediate player, I find that I am thinking more and more about the kind of music I want to play and my ambitions for my playing.

In order to find out more about the different routes one can take with melodeon music, may I ask: "What are your interests and ambitions for your music and what kind of music would you like to be playing in years to come?"























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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2014, 05:35:15 PM »

Phew arty, as well as utterly thought provoking it's the $64,000 question I think we'd all like to answer!
I think I'd honestly say I don't know which direction, but hope my overall playing improves.

I always stated that ' I'm an English player, and enjoy our traditional tunes'.
I now realise on top of what I'd call an English repertoire, I also have tunes from France, Estonia, Belgium, Quebecois; Texas and would like to venture into the odd Norwegian, if I knew where to start  (:)
I keep hearing a tune and getting an earworm and feeling it's something I have to learn. I suppose my narrow minded approach has broadened into something more along the lines of ' English predominantly, but also anything else that catches my ear '
 ...... but whatever they are, I hope they will be played better  ;)
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

george garside

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2014, 06:08:54 PM »

the  answer to the question  probably lies within the head already  as whats in there is what you like and would enjoy playing.

 Types of music that you are not interested in tend not to be stored in the long term memory!

george ;)
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Ollie

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2014, 06:09:57 PM »

would like to venture into the odd Norwegian, if I knew where to start  (:)


 :o
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george garside

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2014, 06:18:14 PM »

? but would the odd Norwegian enjoy   being ventured into - the mind  boggles!

george ;)
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2014, 06:40:47 PM »

OY!
Ollie and George - you bad lads  ;D
For once I was thinking about tunes...... But I take your points, well made   8)
Q feeling hot and flustered!
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

nigelr

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2014, 07:14:57 PM »

would like to venture into the odd Norwegian, if I knew where to start  (:)
Nothing risque in that at all ...

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/norwegian

(:)
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #7 on: November 02, 2014, 07:53:31 PM »

Well, I live and learn.....thank you nigelr.....
of course, that's what I meant all along, keep up chaps  ::)
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

arty

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #8 on: November 02, 2014, 08:47:01 PM »

Well, that's my serious question hijacked.....ha ha!  :D
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sqwzboxstudent

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #9 on: November 02, 2014, 08:49:49 PM »

Im going in, and out. Alot. :||:
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2014, 08:53:14 PM »

Well I'm now exploring what different scales I can play in, on my D/G two and a half row. In theory, I can play in A/C/D/F & G
I also have a C/G that I am thinking I might learn some French tunes on. One day.

John
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nigelr

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2014, 09:02:09 PM »

Well, that's my serious question hijacked.....ha ha!  :D
Sorry Arty  :-[

Back to the serious point, I would very much like to be good enough to play for dance in the future (I've still got a long way to go).  To me, music is a social thing to be shared and enjoyed with others.  N
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butimba

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #12 on: November 02, 2014, 09:14:09 PM »

Very interesting question! I’d love to know your thoughts, arty?

My ambitions are less to do with repertoire and more to do with style/technique etc. These may well change, but at the moment I’d like to learn how to:
  • Create more interesting and varied arrangements
  • Pick up tunes quicker in sessions and workshops
  • Be able to put the sort of nuanced dynamics into my playing that I naturally hear when I’m 'listening' to a tune in my head
  • Create the sort of space and lightness in my playing that people like Naragonia and Sophie Cavez are able to achieve
  • Try to think of the melodeon less as melody and chords, and more as different combinations of melody, harmony line, chords and bass line.

(Yes, I like to aim high  ;))
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baz parkes

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #13 on: November 02, 2014, 09:51:39 PM »

backwards...but in a good way...
 (:) (:)
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Mike Carney

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #14 on: November 02, 2014, 10:28:02 PM »

Hoping to just keep improving and make better use of opportunities that come up. Have had encouragement from several people when they have noticed an improvement in my playing, which keeps me going.  I have noticed being able to find notes more easily on the instrument, take less time to pick up a tune both from notation and by ear and have even managed a bit of sight reading!
Melodeon playing in a ceilidh gig is not far away, I fear. French tunes may be attempted soon, too.
Hope to still enjoy it as well.  (:)
Mike
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squeezy

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #15 on: November 03, 2014, 12:31:09 AM »

Like everyone I'm looking to improve all the time - but the question of how is always a moot point.  At the moment I've got to grips with my new(ish) 3 row D/G/+ with stradella bass box - and I am spending most of my creative practice with it by playing simple tunes in very unusual keys ... on top of that I am looking at technically demanding music outside my usual trad English repertoire and learning it by rote ...

at present I'm trying to master Entry of the Gladiators by Fucik, The Black & White Rag and Les Triolets by Emile Vacher on my Hohner - they're all a bit cheesy for my tastes - but by Christ are they brilliant as exercises!   I'm not on top of them yet - but they are proving very informative studies!
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #16 on: November 03, 2014, 12:59:32 AM »

This may seem a bit OCD, but I do a self-review every three months. I review as honestly as I can how much progress I have made in achieving the goals I set three months ago and then I set myself new targets for the next three months. Before I began this self-review system, I found that I made less progress because I didn't have a clear idea of where I wanted to go or how to get there. I would merely think, "Oh, that's a nice tune. I'll learn that one."

Now, I have a coherent plan against which to measure my progress. If this seems a bit clinical, joyless and lacking in spontaneity, nothing could be further from the truth. I get increased pleasure from focusing on specific areas I want to develop in my playing, while the spontaneity is catered for by allowing myself sufficient flexibility to modify the targets when I feel the urge to do so. My targets for the last three months were (1) to improve my proficiency in the keys of Dm and Gm; (2) to learn ten new French tunes I needed for our spot at the Festival des Panards last month; (3) to develop some more inventive bass lines (4) to play for enjoyment (this is on every list of goals I make to guard against them becoming a chore). In my last review session, I concluded that I had made significant progress with (1); I had learnt all but one of the tunes in (2) (the exception being La Sansonnette in Dm, which I still find very difficult); I had made some progress with (3) but could have made more if I had given it a higher priority; and I had 100% success with (4)!   ;)

My next set of goals are (1) to carry forward my inventive bass line target from the previous three months and give it a higher priority, (2) to work on the tunes and techniques for Melodeons at Witney (3) to explore the possibilities of my new Clément Guais box (which arrives on Tuesday ;D) and (4) to continue playing for enjoyment. As I said before, it may seem rather OCD, but it works for me.
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Steve_freereeder

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2014, 01:26:50 AM »

Im going in, and out. Alot. :||:
A bit like the Southwold tide then...  ;)
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #18 on: November 03, 2014, 06:58:28 AM »

retirement  (though was offered another job yesterday :-\) is intended to give me time for fullfillment of the true purpose of working … which is the playing of nice melodeons. I used to be a " cover all useful keys in 2 boxes" man, but my 2-year old  C#DG van der Aa has been such a success that I don't seem to use anything else!

So right now my aim is to tame the raucous nature intrinsic to melodeons and get back into folk singing properly. It was my fiirst musical love (I was once abused by the Wilsons for moving on)  ::) Stéph Milleret has offered a week at his house with coaching - but I didn't get in to year 1 of his mentoring scheme. We'll see.

Seems I am a rather deeper baritone than in my salad days, and it looks that Bb is often the sweet spot. Strangely vdAa's C# row eats that key on pull, with the odd help from its neighbours, and "English style" sus based harmonies just … fall under the fingers. Theo turning over a Grenoble layout chord plate to make Eb a pull has helped massively in this. Eb as a key is proving more of a challenge, but attacked from a Cm perspective there is progress. My current earworm is Armstrong's "row between the cages", a song I heard on my first date with a (now ex)-wife.

To this end I've joined in with the current fad for Bb/Eb sessions, though mainly chording as that's the way my brain works. Bit disappointed that much of the "Flat Tendency" repertoire has been "same tunes, different key", but there have been some quite glorious exceptions to that! Frankly if I carried a Bb/Eb around, I'd exploring D blues (which is the "built in" blues key on that 2-row). That incidentally ties in with Bob's sansonnet scottiche, which used the augmented G# in common with D blues scale. [noodle … noodle: yes, first phrase just lies there, you'll always need accidentals though]

I'm slowly recoding Melodeon Explorer, a web page designed to fine such strange scales in unexpected places and hope to have it online by Christmas. No everyone shares my eccletic approach to tunes, but it does promise to find all chords, on any box. And that includes Nick's refurbished Sally Army concertina.

Oh yes … and I set up my first ever pilgrimage to Québec with daughter Dolly last night ::) I understand they have melodeons there too …
« Last Edit: November 03, 2014, 07:14:47 AM by Chris Ryall »
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #19 on: November 03, 2014, 08:01:00 AM »

While not as self-disciplined as Bob Ellis I do set myself targets for certain time periods, currently as we are in the morris practice season and out of season for festivals my goals are oriented around getting me to where I would like to be by next May Day when the season rolls round again:

1) To continue my journey to the land beyond oom-pah - learning more complex basslines and beginning to craft my own.
2) To become Queen of the accidentals - improve flexibility and confidence when reaching for those buttons.
3) Develop playing for Cotswold morris. I usually dance Cotswold and play for border but playing for Cotswold is an aspiration.
4) To go to as many sessions as possible and take an active part - six months ago sessions used to terrify me, now I love 'em  ;)
5) To support, encourage and assist those coming along the journey behind me, because I know how important this type of support is to me.
6) To stay away from ebay.de.

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