Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lyra]

Popped up on FB - unattributed, as per.

[Simon Cragg]

Here is a pdf of the words (I don't mind if I have all the wrong words) with buttons underneath.
Red is push, Blue is pull. Underlined is the outside row - which you need a couple of times. The main difficulty will be reversing the bellows and changing row at the same time, but you'll get it soon enough. I think I've got it right for the normal set up. Let me know.

After a fair bit of practice, (just had to change red for blue etc), I can now play this fairly easily and oddly enough did not find any difficulty in changing rows etc!. I know its a very basic way of learning, but is seems to work well for me (colour coded numbers). Instead of me pestering you every few weeks to convert a new tune, do you (or anybody else), know where I can find this type of layout on the internet?. Surely, I cannot be the only person who likes to learn this way, or is it too child-like?. Very grateful to all who are helping me enjoy something I never, ever, thought I would be able to achieve!.

[playandteach]

Some of the great Stephane Delicq's pieces are notated this way but that is a few steps further on your journey. I do agree with others that you should trust yourself to start picking out tunes. Of course I can still help but I'm taking a break due to tinnitus.

[Simon Cragg]

Not sure what you mean by that, but anyway hope the tinnitus improves. I have had it for over 15 years!.

[malcolmbebb]

Treat the red and blue pens like stabliser wheels on a bike. They're great to get you started but will soon hold you back.

[Steve_freereeder]

Treat the red and blue pens like stabliser wheels on a bike. They're great to get you started but will soon hold you back.

...I do agree with others that you should trust yourself to start picking out tunes.

Totally agree with both these comments. The melodeon is a strange instrument. At the beginning especially, it lends itself to playing by ear (this includes 'picking out tunes', rather than reading from notation, tablature, number systems, etc.

When teaching beginners, I always emphasise that they should have the tune in their head. If you can sing it, hum it, whistle, or otherwise 'hear' it, then you should be able to pick it out on the melodeon and soon be able to play it without too much trouble.

Well-known tunes and songs with a relatively simple melody and structure, e.g. 'Auld Lang Syne' as you've requested, are ideal. You might also try out nursery rhymes and songs: 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', 'Frere Jacques', 'Grand old Duke of York'; hymn tunes, and at this time of year, carols, are also excellent.

Try 'Silent Night', 'Unto Us a Boy is Born', 'Holly and the Ivy', 'Good King Wenceslas'. Don't be tempted to look up the tunes in a book of carols, because they will probably be written in a different key. So long as you can hear the tunes in your head, simply try fitting the tune to either of the rows on your melodeon, letting the instrument itself decide what key it is happiest to play in: 'Unto Us...' is good because the first part it is based on a major scale, so it will start on the 3rd button push on either row.

Above all, don't be afraid to try. Put the written music and coloured pens and numbers away and, in the words of Norfolk melodeon player Tony Hall, 'just pooke abewt a bit'.

[george garside]

seconded!   

( In my book there is a section entitled  ''poking, Prodding and Listening!  - or how to get a tune from your head to the buttons")

george

[Simon Cragg]

Interesting. I think I am probably getting too reliant on the coloured numbers etc. and am not really listening to the relevant notes. I will try and give it a go without, but having as much musical knowledge as a house brick, might not turn out to well.

[malcolmbebb]

... but having as much musical knowledge as a house brick, might not turn out to well.

There's quite a few others started from there  Nothing to stop you using the numbers until you get comfortable with the tunes, or continuing to use them for a while yet.  Enjoy the journey.

[Steve_freereeder]

Interesting. I think I am probably getting too reliant on the coloured numbers etc. and am not really listening to the relevant notes. I will try and give it a go without, but having as much musical knowledge as a house brick, might not turn out to well.

You probably have as much musical knowledge as you need. If you can sing (or hum, whistle, etc.) a nursery rhyme or a carol, or 'Auld Lang Syne', then you have sufficient musical knowledge to play the melodeon.