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Author Topic: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes  (Read 11562 times)

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Clive Williams

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #40 on: June 24, 2018, 01:11:46 PM »

Here's my contrib; I've been trying to learn this tune for *ages*. Finally got it, though I think perhaps my version in a year's time might have a bit more of the original's musicality in it. This is Batiska, written by Toon van Mierlo  of Naragonia, and on their Naragonia Quartet album of the same name.

https://youtu.be/GVGmPsHz1YQ

The original is actually a very fast waltz, though it's so quick it took me a while to actually realise it was a waltz!

Played on a Castagnari Mory in D/G.

arty

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #41 on: June 24, 2018, 01:25:00 PM »

This is Batiska, written by Toon van Mierlo  of Naragonia, and on their Naragonia Quartet album of the same name.
 

Oh I love that tune! In fact I love that whole CD. When I bought the Naragonia Tunebook, I was really disappointed that Batiska wasn't in it. I presume you learnt that by ear Clive. Lovely, well done!
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Clive Williams

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #42 on: June 24, 2018, 02:37:01 PM »

This is Batiska, written by Toon van Mierlo  of Naragonia, and on their Naragonia Quartet album of the same name.
 

Oh I love that tune! In fact I love that whole CD. When I bought the Naragonia Tunebook, I was really disappointed that Batiska wasn't in it. I presume you learnt that by ear Clive. Lovely, well done!

Thanks - and yes, learnt by ear with more than a little help from the Amazing Slow Downer app...

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #43 on: June 27, 2018, 08:36:19 PM »

Hello! I did make a video for this month, but I think during the course of recording with a fixed exposure, the sun came out and completely blew everything out into a white mess! So, here's just just the story and the audio:

March 2017, last year, I joined my first morris side after starting to learn to play melodeon a few months prior. I was surprised to discover they didn't have any other melodeon players at all! We were getting close to dance out season so we'd run through quite a few of the dances each night, rather than going over the same one again and again, so, it was pretty hard for me coming in without knowing any of them, and I went away each week and practiced one or two of them. One of the tunes we use for a dance (Bluejay) has music called The Carpathian Tune, and it really stuck out to me and I thought 'yeah that's a cool tune, I bet that'll be the hardest one of them all' - it uses the Bb accidental and it has a cool sound, and I thought to myself 'I should work on this one a little bit each week since it will surely take me months to get this one figured out'. While it was genuinely pretty hard to play at first - it required a bit of homework on my part to work out how to actually go about organising the pushes and pulls, especially in the B music - it actually came together pretty quickly for me! It ultimately turned out that All Around My Hat was the hardest tune to learn for me due to there being some more creative chord choices. Bottom line, though is it actually came together faster than I was expecting, and it's still one of my favourite tunes that we play for dance today.

But, this post is not about The Carpathian Tune! On one of those practice evenings last year, a friend of one of the band members who was visiting from far away, a chap named Jan, came to visit. Jan played a rather old Castagnari Tommy which seemed to have had an accident in its grill, and he'd been playing for many a year. He was the first person I was able to talk to about melodeons in any significant depth really, so, obviously, I talked to him quite a bit, including about some of the tunes we use, the Carpathian Tune included. I ultimately got several key pieces of information/experience from him:
  • Firstly, don't sweat the basses not fitting perfectly (I got into cross row playing pretty quickly because of trying to always match the chords the PAs were playing)
  • Secondly, he let me have a go on his melodeon, and turns out I'm pretty partial to LMM 3 voice boxes, but also, my Scarlatti Nero's air button is reaaaaaly heavy and hard work to use and I should fix that...
  • Thirdly, my accidental sounded a little bit off, but maybe it just needed a work out... and if I wanted a tune that's got some accidentals, I should check out Day Trip To Bangor by Fiddler's Dram.

I'd never heard of Day Trip to Bangor, so, he played it for me - I really quite liked it, but, honestly I have no idea how he went about playing it or what he did with the basses etc. I mostly went home and became obsessed with it for a week or so and sort of worked out how to play it if I'd had an A row, but never went any farther than that.

When Everest tunes came up as a theme this month, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do - I have quite a few tunes I want to get figured out, but really, this was the one with the most personal story behind it, so, here we are! It's particularly relevant to me at the moment because I recently made the choice to reverse the accidental plates in the melodeon I play, moving to pull F / pull G# etc, and I was trying to decide if that was the right choice for me not. Day Trip to Bangor has the lovely distinction of using all 4 of the standard accidental notes (played on the outside row), so, there's a bit of fun for you, I suppose, and explains why it's maybe a good workout for your accidental reeds!

Anyway, after working at it for a few weeks, here you go:
https://soundcloud.com/user-889775496/day-trip-to-bangor
played in D, on a DG Black Pearl II in with 'reversed' accidentals. I would share the ABC but I suspect that's not appropriate in this case, the important thing is that it has a cheeky D# over B major in the outro, which I hadn't picked up on when I tried to work it out myself. Thanks for the inspiration to go back and figure this one out!
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Eshed

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #44 on: June 27, 2018, 09:12:27 PM »

Anyway, after working at it for a few weeks, here you go:
https://soundcloud.com/user-889775496/day-trip-to-bangor
I didn't know the song until now, so thanks for that!
Your playing definitely advertises it well :)
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #45 on: June 27, 2018, 09:20:27 PM »

Anyway, after working at it for a few weeks, here you go:
https://soundcloud.com/user-889775496/day-trip-to-bangor

One of those tunes that sounds like it couldn't be done on a melodeon - well played!

I hope you're convinced about the accidentals reversal.
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #46 on: June 27, 2018, 11:30:28 PM »

On one of those practice evenings last year, a friend of one of the band members who was visiting from far away, a chap named Jan, came to visit. Jan played a rather old Castagnari Tommy which seemed to have had an accident in its grill, and he'd been playing for many a year.

I've known Jan for more than 40 years since I started dancing with Thames Valley Morris Men. Really excellent player and wise in the way of the melodeon.

Gena Crisman

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #47 on: June 28, 2018, 01:49:57 AM »

Thank you for the comments!

I hope you're convinced about the accidentals reversal.

So far, so good, at least! I've flirted with disaster a couple of times since I did it, and then having to play a tune that I knew from before hand, but, only in the form of rapidly thinking to myself 'don't mess it up' rather than being genuinely confused. Most of those issues have been straightened out now. I think so far at least, the positives have outweighed the negatives. Flipping G#/Bb is still definitely the less certain choice since there're runs either way, but I concluded it had to be the bass pairings that decided it, and this way around won: Bb goes with almost everything (including B major, apparently) and G# only really pairs with E.

I've known Jan for more than 40 years since I started dancing with Thames Valley Morris Men. Really excellent player and wise in the way of the melodeon.

That could very well be him! It never ceases to amaze me how many people know other people, and how only a marginal level of description can result in someone else identifying who you were thinking of! I certainly hope he's doing well; he was a big influence on one of my band mates deciding to get into music to begin with. I eventually found other local box players to befriend and joined up here on mel.net, but, it was very encouraging to chat with him for that one evening.
« Last Edit: June 28, 2018, 02:20:41 PM by Clive Williams »
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Jesse Smith

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #48 on: June 30, 2018, 07:57:30 AM »

I felt that I haven't really been playing long enough to have anything fitting the original definition of an "Everest Tune" as a tune that you tried and failed but eventually learned after multiple struggles. So I thought I would reinterpret it, borrowing the (probably apocryphal) quip of Everest climber George Mallory when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest: "Because it's there." In my short playing career thus far there have been a handful of tunes that just reached out and grabbed me and I instantly knew that this was a sound that I wanted to learn to create and that this was a tune that I needed to learn to play someday.

One of those tunes for me is John Kirkpatrick's "Shreds and Patches", as played on his album "The Duck Race". It sounded daunting to me at first, but once I sat down with it I discovered the actual melody line is not very difficult at all. This tune is all about the rhythm, both in just coming to terms with the 3/2 time signature (it's like 4/4 except the next phrase keeps jumping the gun!) and also the pronounced "short um long pah" at work here. It took me all month to work up, and I'm still "climbing the mountain" on this one, with too many places where I can hear my rhythm wobble or fingers fail to hit the notes with the right amount of staccato. Someday I would love to go back to the original tune and figure out the majestic chordal improvisation that John plays during the outro, but that will have to wait for another time.

Shreds and Patches: https://youtu.be/mu_rTJyaQIE
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #49 on: June 30, 2018, 08:43:01 AM »

...Bb goes with almost everything (including B major, apparently) and G# only really pairs with E.
If you think about Bb as being A# instead, that gives you the leading note (7th) in the scale of B major (and B harmonic minor) so in a sense it is useful similar to having the G# leading note in the key of A
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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #50 on: June 30, 2018, 09:41:24 AM »

That sounds great Jesse. You've got the Kirkpatrick reverse rhythm thing off great. I see the phantom thumbs downers are still at work. I would have given it a thumbs up, but I've lost access to my Youtube account, so I can't do any posting, commenting or liking.
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fc diato

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #51 on: June 30, 2018, 05:26:55 PM »

Wonderful contributions! Intimidating as always.

First posting of my playing ... month after month I resolve to do the TOTM or ThOTM, but then for one reason or another never make it (I hate my recordings being one.)  So here we go, under the wire. At least, now I’ll be able to vote for TOTM    :D

I’ve been gnawing at Latt om foten since it popped up here over a year ago (http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,20095.msg242844.html#msg242844) Tried to make it for last month’s mazurka theme, in vain.
I think I’ve now reached base camp, in spite of some swallowed notes and tempo quirks. 
I’m starved for feedback, so any advice, constructive critique are most welcome.

https://soundcloud.com/fcdiato/latt-om-foten-v1-juin-2018
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #52 on: June 30, 2018, 06:44:02 PM »

That sounds great Jesse. You've got the Kirkpatrick reverse rhythm thing off great. I see the phantom thumbs downers are still at work. I would have given it a thumbs up, but I've lost access to my Youtube account, so I can't do any posting, commenting or liking.
No need to worry, I gave one on your behalf  :D
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #53 on: June 30, 2018, 07:38:58 PM »

I’m starved for feedback, so any advice, constructive critique are most welcome.

First of all, that is a great tune which I still have saved in my bookmark folder called "out of reach"... I already envy you for getting this far. Respect for learning it!

Two words of well-meaning advice: try to slow it down a little bit, as your playing seems quite superb but suffers a little bit from the relatively high tempo. Just a slight deceleration, like 5 or 10 bpm less, and you should be golden with the swallowed notes as well.
Keep on practicing, this tune is a piece of gold and it deserves every moment of attention to detail you can spare.  :||:
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fc diato

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #54 on: June 30, 2018, 09:57:30 PM »

Why thank you, Fred.
I'll try the slowdown. Probably time to start practicing with a metronome, too... I think I speed up as I go along.

As for
[/quote]
a great tune which I still have saved in my bookmark folder called "out of reach"
[/quote]
I wouldn't be so sure. It sounds more complicated than it is (though I've been slogging at it for a while). My judgment is based on the fact that I'm working on 'your' (ie> discovered from your rendition) Mazurka Manana now. I'm nowhere near the fluency and swing that you have there.
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #55 on: June 30, 2018, 10:08:14 PM »


I’ve been gnawing at Latt om foten since it popped up here over a year ago (http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/topic,20095.msg242844.html#msg242844) Tried to make it for last month’s mazurka theme, in vain.
I think I’ve now reached base camp, in spite of some swallowed notes and tempo quirks. 
I’m starved for feedback, so any advice, constructive critique are most welcome.

https://soundcloud.com/fcdiato/latt-om-foten-v1-juin-2018

Thank you for posting this. I certainly can't criticise in any way but just wanted to say that you have inspired me to learn this wonderful piece. I came across it about a year ago but thought it too difficult for me but I think I might just be able to get through it now. It will be good to have a challenge on the back burner, something I can work at over a period of time. Thanks again  (:)
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Clive Williams

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #56 on: June 30, 2018, 10:56:30 PM »

Thanks all - some great contributions this month; stick late contribs on the end of the theme as ever! Onto the next theme...

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #57 on: July 01, 2018, 12:43:11 AM »

Thanks all - some great contributions this month
Absolutely agreed! And I also want to say thank you for picking these nice themes every month, it's always a pleasure to see what comes around when people have a theme in mind. (:)
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fc diato

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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #58 on: July 01, 2018, 02:24:47 PM »

Thanks Arty, and you’re welcome.

The only problem is that the Dony (and I see you have one too) only has one B-flat. You also need a high B-flat to play the Tanghe-Coudroy version, or a low one for the Louise Wanselius original. I found that lack so frustrating (seems I like keys with B-flat) that I had a low b-flat/g# swapped in place of the low notes on the inner row.  Works well, and it opens up lots of tunes and reduces need to transpose. If you are better at music theory than me, I am sure there are other solutions though. I look forward to hearing your rendition! You managed a wonderfully sensitive Deux Freres, after all. That one still stumps me.
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Re: Theme of the Month for June 2018: Everest Tunes
« Reply #59 on: July 01, 2018, 02:39:19 PM »

Fc diato....Thank you for your response. I haven’t really had time to look at it properly yet. I found an abc on a previous thread, which is in Gminor. I put it in an abc converter and changed it to Aminor and that is as far as I have gone! I shall use the abc as a starting point and also learn what
I can by ear. I am likely to go to the recording of the composer for that though. I’ll let you know how I get on!
Keep plugging away  (:)
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