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Author Topic: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!  (Read 9825 times)

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Stiamh

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #20 on: July 30, 2009, 10:57:02 PM »

When it comes to playing more challenging material I think melodeon is harder because usually a major step, such as learning to play in a different key, means learning new fingering patterns. Whereas with a fiddle once you have mastered the basic technique and have a decent tone and intonation its a much smaller step to play harder stuff.

Theo, I've been pondering this remark of yours for the past day or so and have come to the following conclusion: you are a box player who has relatively recently taken up the fiddle and I am a fiddle player who has relatively recently taken up the box, and one of us is suffering from the "convex hilltop/receding summit" delusion - where at any point in your progress you think you know where the top of the mountain is but the closer you get the farther away you realize it is.

I think it's you, of course.  ;)

joe

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #21 on: July 30, 2009, 11:11:06 PM »

I started both fiddle and box at roughly the same time, found them both fairly easy to scratch out a tune. I'm struggling with playing the 2 1/2 row though, not quite so logical, whereas I can adapt fairly quickly to different fiddle tunings
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drjack

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #22 on: July 30, 2009, 11:33:29 PM »



I've seen an ad which states that a one row melodeon is a very intuitive instrument to play. I assumed this to mean that  one could start picking out easy tunes without much in the way of instructions  unlike a string or a brass instrument.

Jack
 
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Martin Duffy

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #23 on: July 30, 2009, 11:36:00 PM »

I've been playing the violin for about 12 or 13 years (mainly classical & folk), and recently took up the melodeon, and I have to say that I've gotten a tune out of the box a lot quicker than I ever did from my violin.  I'm also sure that even at the complex end of the melodeon it probably isn't as difficult as mastering the heady heights of classical violin (not sure I'm ever going to get there, as it takes me weeks to get to grips with some of the Vivaldi pieces!).  However whether an instrument is easy or not to pick-up makes no difference at the end of the day, the difficulty of an instrument to learn isn't somehow an indication of an instruments worth - I love my melodeon as much as I love my violin & both give me equal pleasure...and I suppose a little pain also!!
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Randal Scott

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #24 on: July 30, 2009, 11:36:05 PM »

I started both fiddle and box at roughly the same time, found them both fairly easy to scratch out a tune.

Except, in the beginning, while the box is always in consistent tuning and, chances are, good voicing, the fiddling will often suffer from poor intonation and poor voicing, I'll wager..
« Last Edit: July 31, 2009, 12:04:51 AM by catty »
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joe

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #25 on: July 30, 2009, 11:42:50 PM »

I found the 'bowing' pretty easy, i suppose that is just luck more than anything, so I never went through the cat wailing phase. But I agree, even now I rarely get though a tune without a couple of notes that could do to be a bit more in tune, though I try and cover it with lots of brashness.
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flipper

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #26 on: July 31, 2009, 02:16:44 AM »

I have been playing a D/G box for about 20 years and I am just beginning to feel happy with some of what I play. I always feel that it could be better and that others would critise me for the way I play. I first played out for a morris side about 3 months after picking up the box as I was the nearest thing to a muscian we had. We were a side that wrote thier own dances and so we put dances to tunes as I learnt them. They were very basic but the formula worked. As I played alone I developed a technique that made the box as loud as I could get it by using lots of bellows movements and also to add emphis to certain phrases of the music. A couple of years ago I found that this was considered to be a bad thing and after so long I can't change it, it's automatic. My advise is play the way you feel is right for you and in the fits the circumstances and let the stuffed shirts who insist that opening the bellows more than about 2" is a sin do thier own thing.
To cut a long story short I found it an easy instrument to get a tune out of but I am still trying to master it. What does come with time is knowing exactly where a note is by ear and so being able to play a lot more by ear a good trick in a session.
Sue
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Sue,
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Pushpull

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #27 on: July 31, 2009, 08:47:10 AM »

The recorder IS a wind instrument, and it needs as much effort to play it in tune as any other. This is the trouble with teaching it to kids in school, who are taught the fingerings but not how to listen to what they are playing.
OK, my response was not written carefully enough, though as a recorder player and oboist I can tell you it is much easier to play a recorder in tune than an oboe. There are aspects of the recorder, however, which are much more difficult than the oboe. The keywork on "modern" woodwinds is partly there to make fingering easier and to make legato playing smoother.

The point I was attempting to make is that whilst both recorder and melodeon may be perceived as easy instruments and whilst it is relatively straightforward to pick out an easy tune on either, playing them to a high standard is (in common with all other instruments) not easy.
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Falseknight

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #28 on: July 31, 2009, 06:30:42 PM »

Come on.  Recorder fingering is not that illogical, and for a simple, open hole instrument to play in tune chromatically over two and a half octaves is quite a design feat.  Compare and contrast with the bombarde!
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press on regardless

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #29 on: August 02, 2009, 07:20:45 PM »


I think the thing that sets the melodeon apart is the relative ease with which a determined but naturally non musical person can learn to play to a very basic standard enabling them to play with others and experience this wonderful thing.  It is thus such and inclusive, happy and enabling instrument.

Like most really worthwhile things in life hwoever to get to an advanced level is a lifetimes work. But the genius of it is you don't have to.
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HallelujahAl

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #30 on: August 02, 2009, 07:25:43 PM »

Quote
I think the thing that sets the melodeon apart is the relative ease with which a determined but naturally non musical person can learn to play to a very basic standard enabling them to play with others and experience this wonderful thing.  It is thus such and inclusive, happy and enabling instrument.

Couldn't agree more - except that I would put it alongside the ukulele in its simplicity to be able to make music rapidly.
AL
btw I play both the melodeon and ukulele - hum...?
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #31 on: August 03, 2009, 07:10:01 AM »

I think the thing that sets the melodeon apart is the relative ease with which a determined but naturally non musical person can learn to play to a very basic standard enabling them to play with others and experience this wonderful thing.  It is thus such and inclusive, happy and enabling instrument. Like most really worthwhile things in life hwoever to get to an advanced level is a lifetimes work. But the genius of it is you don't have to.

What a wonderful summary of the box that is.

In my view this is so close to the quintessence of melodeonism that I think it might usefully be added to this board's FAQ (Do we have one)? Chris
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Sebastian

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #32 on: August 03, 2009, 10:41:27 AM »

I would put it alongside the ukulele in its simplicity to be able to make music rapidly.
Ukulele? I could never understand how to play these stringed instruments. How do you play melody and chords on only four strings? ???
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HallelujahAl

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #33 on: August 03, 2009, 10:59:30 AM »

Quote
Ukulele? I could never understand how to play these stringed instruments. How do you play melody and chords on only four strings?

But Sebastian - count how many fingers you have! Dead easy ;D
And also it lends itself to being played and sung with at the same time. Something a lot of box players struggle with for some strange reason.
AL
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Sebastian

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Re: Easy Instrument the Melodeon!
« Reply #34 on: August 03, 2009, 11:48:34 AM »

But Sebastian - count how many fingers you have!
What do I have to do with them?

Seriously, when I got my first melodeon, I did immediatly (*#+!@ spelling!) know what to do. I have no idea what to do with these four strings to play a melody together with chords. Do you have a link?
« Last Edit: August 03, 2009, 11:51:59 AM by Sebastian »
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