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Author Topic: Blues on melodeon  (Read 3199 times)

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drbekken

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Blues on melodeon
« on: July 13, 2016, 09:51:01 AM »

https://youtu.be/u0p4buDok-Y

Here's Cedric Watson playing blues on a GC Hohner. Anyone got other cool blues videos?
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stevejay

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2016, 03:33:31 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZe0kTv4iH0

Yes indeed! I was expecting not 2 be convinced, I was wrong.
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melodeon

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2016, 03:41:31 PM »

He's been playing the two row Hohner for some years, originally on a C/F Pokerwork.

Excellent...thanks for the link and reminding me just how good he is.
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playandteach

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2016, 05:02:01 PM »

I actually prefer his singing. There's something predictable (I know, I know) about the patterns he uses on the melodeon. Still grateful for the link.
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Anahata

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2016, 07:17:53 PM »

That led me to an old favourite from many years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJw2Cp_wnkk
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2016, 07:49:21 PM »

I think these ones by Cedric are … about as good as it gets. Clever blues improvisation is to a large extent about playing "out" of a minor scale. The 'blue' b7 interval comes for free in a minor, but the #4 (A#, played on an Em chord) is the "really" blue note.

A b6 note (C rather than C# on Em) is also very cool. On the turnaround dominant … anything goes! b9, #9 (C or D on a B7) for example. But there's the rub. These are unstable notes and the diatonic rows are made for stability. As I keep pointing out - the really fluid blue scale on a DG is F#. But then you have no left end avaialable ???

So Cedric's playing across the instrument - a pull D scale on a GC. Gives him useful pull G and E basses. He can flex between F# and F for major/minor ambiguity and his 7 note (C) is naturally 'blue'.

Yes, still restricted in practice. But that's the 2 row box for you, and probably why Coltrane switched to  Saxophone ;) I think he carries it very well on voice … you actually need a stable musical line when singing.

France's Cédric Pierini is pretty cool doing blues, albeit on 3 rows. Can't find a video though. So this is me trying to "blues" a classic Ewen McColl song. I'm playing in A across the box, so same approach as the first video  https://youtu.be/X-tuBdGvG1o
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rees

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2016, 08:01:15 PM »

That led me to an old favourite from many years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJw2Cp_wnkk

I always loved that video.
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2016, 08:04:35 PM »

An amazingly timely note is that … you don't have to tune the rows "diatonic". Kniri tuning repeats a [tone, tone, semitone] interval pattern indefinitely  rather than diatonic's [t,t,½, t,t,t,½] and throws in a b7 chord "on the row" with several other blue notes mentioned above in the second octave.

I planned to make an experimental kniri box last year but my luthier let me down. Tried myself … not made for filing and setting reeds and a lot of them, accurate on the electonic kit but just won't play :-\

As it happens I found a fettler willing to take the job on just this dmorning and will deliver the half baked done job to him tomorrow. Will report back on the 'kniri' thread in due course …
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Bob Ellis

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2016, 09:44:56 AM »

Brian Peters also plays blues from time to time. I seem to remember him teaching a good workshop at Witney a few years back using Robert Johnson's From Four Until Late and Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime, amongst other tunes.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2016, 09:47:40 AM by Bob Ellis »
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2016, 09:01:14 AM »

He does indeed, and yes, he did. It was "there's a riot coming on" the time I went.

Brian is also an excellent teacher. Really set out the issues clearly
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stevejay

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2016, 03:59:27 PM »

Learning a few zydeco type tunes and blues on a two melodeon go a long way if you know what I mean.

It can get fairly predictable, especially if you are playing alone. Because of the limitations of useful keys, the novelty could wear off quickly to listeners.   

A Cajun accordion is a different animal, and used as more of a percussive instrument rather than a melodic one (imo)
The zydeco beats are repetitious and trance like, which isn't a bad thing when done well.

On another note, it is my belief that a melodeon makes an excellent reggae instrument.

http://www.how-to-play-reggae.com/The-10-Most-Popular-Reggae-Chord-Progressions.html


« Last Edit: July 15, 2016, 04:26:11 PM by stevejay »
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drbekken

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #11 on: July 16, 2016, 07:46:26 PM »

Thanks for the input, everyone! Here's another video; blues on a triple row this time:

https://youtu.be/mtfmaUWp4gw
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stevejay

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2016, 02:30:56 PM »

Not really a lesson though.
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911377brian

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #13 on: July 17, 2016, 02:51:59 PM »

I'm sure it's all jolly clever but more than five minutes of it would send me insane...
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stevejay

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #14 on: July 17, 2016, 05:37:42 PM »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2eRRh4Bls

I've been in small venues, have seen BW Zydeco.
It is tremendously powerful, you can feel it vibrate your chest.
Voodoo  jj
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melodeon

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #15 on: July 17, 2016, 09:41:24 PM »

And played on a "lowly" Panther.. which puts it in the same category of pre WWII  ladder braced 12 fret guitars.  Just right.
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rileycat

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #16 on: July 18, 2016, 12:45:43 PM »

Just to link this thread to the Tony Hall one below, I'm sure Tony has recorded a slow blues number as well - I just can't find it at the moment - not on Fieldvole Music LP -help anyone? I remember it had a lovely A and a 'simple' (for Tony) B music, all at a speed which encouraged me to have a bash!
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rileycat

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #17 on: July 18, 2016, 01:22:13 PM »

I think the Tony Hall track was titled 'Humphrey Lyttleton'  on Mr Universe says my memory - perhaps more a trad. jazz blues/ funeral march than a real 'down south' number, but it had the right flavour for a beginner stab at the genre.
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Anahata

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Re: Blues on melodeon
« Reply #18 on: July 18, 2016, 06:09:47 PM »

Just to link this thread to the Tony Hall one below, I'm sure Tony has recorded a slow blues number as well - I just can't find it at the moment - not on Fieldvole Music LP -help anyone? I remember it had a lovely A and a 'simple' (for Tony) B music, all at a speed which encouraged me to have a bash!

Perhaps you are thinking of Creole Love Call (not Tony Hall, his version isn't on YT)
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