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Author Topic: Where are you going?  (Read 6038 times)

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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #40 on: November 04, 2014, 11:33:21 AM »

Ermm..... if I may interject, but still on this sideline of the thread...
One possibility - and it's only that - is to have a go on some boxes with other keys.
I do like the Bb/Eb sound that Ollie uses on his cd. To my knowledge it's the first time I've heard one played ( I live a sheltered life! ) and the mellow sound I find particularly attractive. Not sure if it's the choice of key or the 'old Hohner' sound, but I do like it.
( Were the old Hohners Bb/Eb key choice to enable playing with German Brass Bands?)

It would cause a few mangled notes and the odd frustrated moan at my local session though, D/G country and firmly ensconced!

Exploration of other keys might be 'where I'm going' in the future, which brings it miraculously Back on Thread....
Phew!
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 #41 on: November 04, 2014, 11:47:27 AM »

I too like the sound of the flat keys for many tunes more usually played in sharp keys.  That's why I like the unmentionable box that does both sharp and flat keys  for  the same learning  !

george ;)
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Anahata

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #42 on: November 04, 2014, 01:07:45 PM »

I do like the Bb/Eb sound that Ollie uses on his cd. To my knowledge it's the first time I've heard one played ( I live a sheltered life! ) and the mellow sound I find particularly attractive. Not sure if it's the choice of key or the 'old Hohner' sound, but I do like it.
( Were the old Hohners Bb/Eb key choice to enable playing with German Brass Bands?)

Almost certainly, and Steirische Harmonikas are often in flat keys for the same reason, e.g. X'elch'ten whose box player Karin Seyringer plays an instrument in all flat keys (B♭/E♭/A♭/D♭ I believe)

I've heard Ollie playing a Hohner B♭/E♭ for morris (probably the same box) and it is indeed a glorious sound.

I'm not sure how exploration of other keys makes a melodeon career decision though, unless you go from D/G to a radically different box like G/C where you are playing in a higher octave almost all the time, everything feels different and you are probably playing a different repertoire (e.g. French). And maybe playing with Hurdy Gurdy and bagpipe players. Now that would be a new direction, and one that I occasionally consider for myself, as I play regularly in a ceilidh band whose fiddle player is also very good at playing French music on the HG.
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #43 on: November 04, 2014, 01:18:54 PM »

Thanks for confirming about flat keys.
Yes, I too have listened to, and I think might have danced to his flat box, and it is a great sound.
Is it they key choice that gives that sound or the 'Old Hohner'
I am sure it's a combination of both, but something must be predominant.

As you say, it's not really a directional choice, more a parallel line.
I suppose such a minor diversion is all I contemplate as I don't really feel like straying from the 'mainly English' with a few other good tunes bunged into the mix!
....just 'better'
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Thrupenny Bit

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

baz parkes

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #44 on: November 04, 2014, 10:33:31 PM »


I do like the Bb/Eb sound that Ollie uses on his cd. To my knowledge it's the first time I've heard one played ( I live a sheltered life! ) and the mellow sound I find particularly attractive. Not sure if it's the choice of key or the 'old Hohner' sound, but I do like it.
Q

I think it's probably both...and Ollie's playing helps... ;)

I bought a Bb/Eb some 18 months ago just because I wanted one and in spite of being told "it's only a fashion..." Bavarian Pete just happened to have two...It's rarely used in sessions (and chances of sneaking it into the band seem slim...) but it's the box I reach for if I fancy a tune at home.  Unless it's the A 1 row...or the pressedwood DG...or...where am I going...MAD i suppose...(it's been said before, but it's true...)
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Grape Ape

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #45 on: November 05, 2014, 12:44:28 AM »

Wow! Everytime I go to post my two cents on where I am going there are ten new posts to read, most of which now seem off topic.

For me, the goal has always been the French Classics and musette pieces.  That had to change when I realized that in order to play the likes of "Indifference" and "Sous le Ciel..." "Mefiance" etc etc etc that I would have to start with easier tunes and work my way up to the those. That has led me to French traditional and pretty much anything else I hear on youtube that I like. I still try to keep it mostly French though, with the thinking that the day I finally do pull off Indifference, I will have a few other tunes to play with it.  One unexpected turn is my love for more contempory French music such as Duo Absynthe, Bruno Le Tron, and Nargaonia (yes I know they are Belgian). That has had an effect more on HOW I play as opposed to WHAT, and the effect is, I think, rather positive.  Why does some guy in Ohio want to play French music? Well now that is another story altogether...

I have no set routine for achieving this goal except that I try to practice 5+ hours a week. Wish I could devote more time, and often I do, but I work crazy hours and lots of them. Don't really care when I get there as long as it is before I die. Sometimes I don't practice at all but just spend hours playing whatever is my head that night. Those are always the best times I have playing and the ones that remind me that this thing is WAY more about fun than work, or goals, or set plans with timetables or discipline etc. i get more than enough of that sort of tediousness at my day (and night) job.

Frank
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melodeon

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #46 on: November 05, 2014, 01:10:39 AM »

One row, and American (Scots, Irish) fiddle tunes/old time , a bit of Quebec, a smattering of Irish Trad and now concentrating on Rockabilly and early rock and roll into the early 60's.
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Sebastian

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #47 on: November 05, 2014, 02:16:06 AM »

"What are your interests and ambitions for your music and what kind of music would you like to be playing in years to come?"
Ambitions: None - full stop! I enjoy making noise. I've had enough of ambitious music teachers for years and years and years.

What kind of music: 1. North-east german dances, 2. German hit songs of the 1910s-1940s (foxtrots and the like). For the latter I occasionally need a Club accordion (enriched harmonies) but otherwise prefer the two-row melodeon.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2014, 02:18:26 AM by Sebastian »
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #48 on: November 05, 2014, 12:57:47 PM »

I think it's probably both...and Ollie's playing helps... ;)

Very much so. While "key" has a mysterious interaction with the human ear/brain,

 the dynamics achieved by a good player are so important ::)
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #49 on: November 05, 2014, 01:26:18 PM »

yes, of course the person playing matters and as Ollie knows, I'm a huge fan of his playing.
As baz implies, it's not a lot of use in sessions unless you access the Flat Sessions previously mentioned, and Sheffield's a long way for a tune!
Down here it would cause a lot of confusion! Therefore it's really a thing of beauty for just you I suppose.....
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Thrupenny Bit

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

bellmartin

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Re: Where are you going?
« Reply #50 on: November 05, 2014, 01:44:45 PM »

Just entering this discussion...

I wasn't specifically interested in playing French music when I got my first melodeon, but I find it more and more appealing. I do very much want to play music from the north of Spain.

Also, where I live there's a need for players to accompany English Country Dancing sessions, and it happens there are some really good musicians involved, so I'm all for that.
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