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Author Topic: Tunes for the dusty end?  (Read 4386 times)

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Mike Hirst

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #20 on: August 14, 2015, 11:09:32 PM »

Its a bit odd how many players almost seem to view the 'dusty end' as foreign territory

Way I look at it. If you've paid for 21 buttons you might as well play them all. Anything else and you're wasting your money.

Nearest I get to this is when I first started playing. I spent maybe six months playing only the top five buttons on my G one row. I'd switched from a 20 button anglo, so this had a kind of logic - also anyone who has tried to play a four stop Hohner in the low octave will know the folly of taking this approach.

On switching to a C one row I continued to play in the higher octave, using the lower octave as a source for unison and harmony.

I recall recording a solo with a country band c.1985 where I purposely set out to use all 10 buttons -  a practice which I have continued to this day.

Familiarity with all possible playing positions is a crucial element in musical expression. Where two and three row instruments allow creative use of left hand harmony, the one row demands consideration to be focused on right hand play. On the one row typically I will play most melodies in the top octave. After two times through I might switch one or both parts to the lower octave; next I will play the melody, or sections of the melody, in octaves; a final iteration will use harmony and arpeggios, before returning to the theme, played in the top octave. Non of this demands any special musical knowledge, but the result of playing across the full two and a half octave range is both effective and pleasurable.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2015, 11:21:07 PM by Mike Hirst »
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #21 on: August 14, 2015, 11:16:11 PM »


think we agree, Mike. I've a couple of tunes, one is "fis scottis" which I think I got from Grupa but cannot trace back, that use every button on the main rows. They are true pleasure ….
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Mike Hirst

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #22 on: August 14, 2015, 11:19:14 PM »

It is absolutely crazy to pay for a 21 key instrument and then only play on about 12 of them.

apologies for cross posting.

accordance and cocurrence share many moments of significant coincidence.

As they used to say in the 1970s " A million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beans and say, what an amazing instance of synchronicity!"
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gettabettabox

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #23 on: August 14, 2015, 11:19:47 PM »

struggling to agree with posting above about octaves etc..
confused by the spiel.
mike can play though, remember hearing him on a clip here, so i guess he knows his onions.
« Last Edit: August 14, 2015, 11:21:38 PM by gettabettabox »
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Mike Hirst

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #24 on: August 14, 2015, 11:52:52 PM »

confused by the spiel.

by way of illustration, the recordings listed below (all played on one row), all use 'octave switch' to add dynamic momentum.

http://libtrad.eu/mp3/mazurca.mp3 D
http://libtrad.eu/mp3/Rabbit_Stew.mp3 C
http://libtrad.eu/mp3/Michael_Turners.mp3 D
http://libtrad.eu/mp3/La_Va_Bb.mp3 Bb
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gettabettabox

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #25 on: August 15, 2015, 12:07:04 AM »

got it. you mean dropping or lifting octaves on a single row (where poss with trickery) and keeping the same bass/chord run.
incidentally, the sound coming from your fourth clip does it for me, 'tis an older sound.
great playing and bellow work.
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Mike Hirst

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #26 on: August 15, 2015, 12:16:26 AM »

incidentally, the sound coming from your fourth clip does it for me, 'tis an older sound.

Hohner One Row tuned down from C to Bb using blobs of solder on the reeds.
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gettabettabox

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #27 on: August 15, 2015, 12:54:59 AM »

delete that before the fettlers wake up.  ;)

b flat is a lovely warm key, well done with the tuning. -  pipers etc... even the old generation whistles (from shropshire) sound good there.
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Steve C.

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #28 on: August 15, 2015, 03:20:27 PM »

Very nice Mike, thanks...
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #29 on: August 15, 2015, 05:00:11 PM »

The andro (Sandro?) Gweharall plays both ends - as do most Bretons. They have to be bombarde/bagpipe friendly, and these instruments usually have only one octave.

Actually Bretons are a rich source of tunes to 'get practice in' @ dusty end,  some only use 6, or evn 5 notes of the scale …
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911377brian

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #30 on: August 15, 2015, 07:14:31 PM »

Mike, I really liked your Bb tune, number 4. It's the sort of sound I heard as a nipper when we moved to Essex and do'nt seem to hear any more...and before the sky falls on me I know the old boys were playing one rows in C...
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Steve_freereeder

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #31 on: August 16, 2015, 12:19:43 AM »

Mike, I really liked your Bb tune, number 4. It's the sort of sound I heard as a nipper when we moved to Essex and do'nt seem to hear any more...and before the sky falls on me I know the old boys were playing one rows in C...
The tune is called 'Varsovienna'.
According to Katie Howson's notes in the East Anglian tune book 'Before the Night Was Out', the tune was introduced into England in 1858 at the Highbury Barn pleasure gardens in London, by the master of ceremonies, Henri D'Alcorn who acquired the tune when he was in Paris. The tune seemed to be popular in East Anglia and there are archive recordings of the tune played in the key of G by Norfolk fiddlers Herbert Smith and Walter Bulwer. Variants of the tune turn up across Europe and also in Australia ('Sally Sloane's Varsoviana').
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #32 on: August 16, 2015, 09:50:48 AM »

The tune was also popular in the Yorkshire Dales, where Harry Cockerill called it Varsovienne. It has been in the Beresford family repertoire for several generations.
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911377brian

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #33 on: August 16, 2015, 12:02:34 PM »

Thanks Steve and Bob. I shall now try and learn it. Just hope it doesn't finish up in the charnel house of half learnt tunes I laughingly call my repertoire....
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911377brian

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #34 on: August 16, 2015, 12:06:55 PM »

Oh, and by the way, lovely as the tune is what really brought on the nostalgia attack was the wonderful sound of Mike's instrument and his playing...
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oggiesnr

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Re: Tunes for the dusty end?
« Reply #35 on: September 05, 2015, 08:20:09 AM »

Nigel Chippendale's "Ain't no Accident".  Uses every note on a D/G with standard accidentals (well standard for when he wrote it).

Still trying to play it after all these years  (:)
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