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Author Topic: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play  (Read 9654 times)

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Jesse Smith

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This topic might be too individual to be practically useful, but I thought it would be interesting to hear about.

I have primarily learned tunes for one or two reasons:

1) It's the next tune in my tutor book.
2) Something about the sound of the tune in a recorded version caught my interest; I like the melody itself.

But I have found some tunes have sections that are physically very satisfying to play, entirely besides the sound of it. There is just something pleasing about the fingering pattern or the mental shapes that playing the tune creates.

Are there tunes for that didn't particularly catch your ear's interest at first, but once you learned them you found that you enjoy playing them because the physical act of playing them is particularly pleasing to you?
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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2018, 02:46:45 PM »

Roxburgh Castle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3qInzAf6EE  a slightly laconic but easy on the ear version

this is closer to my playing,,, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHBO8CGAIeQ

seeing the cloggies dancing to it seems to add another dimension and lift

stumbled across this whilst on a fruitless search for for melodeon version that I liked ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_mutu6GneE   sorfly long tho...
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Graham

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robotmay

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2018, 03:05:22 PM »

Stoney Steps Hornpipe is particularly enjoyable in the upper octave of a box. It's a bit of a pain in the lower octave I find, but the tune just flows if you move it up and all the keys are easier to reach. That's the tune that introduced me to playing hornpipes in the upper octave of C on a G/C (and it works nicely)! ;D
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Lester

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #3 on: June 05, 2018, 03:23:49 PM »

Albert's Last Dance (A Cutting) particularly the B music which upsets guitarists as they strum along  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirC4LmWbpo

Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #4 on: June 05, 2018, 03:43:37 PM »

Albert's Last Dance (A Cutting) particularly the B music which upsets guitarists as they strum along  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirC4LmWbpo

Sadist. Didn't realise this was by Mr Cutting.
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Greg Smith
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #5 on: June 05, 2018, 04:16:16 PM »

Call me boring and Scottish, but the tune my fingers always fall into, is Dancing in Kyle. Also a good tune for those who are struggling with waltz tempo on the left hand end.

SJ
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nigelr

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #6 on: June 05, 2018, 04:20:30 PM »

A set of tunes - Astley's Ride / Welsh March / Egan's Polka.  Used by Customs & Exiles and Chiltern Hundreds Morris for the dance Horbury Rushcart.  They are great tunes that go well together and suit the dance perfectly.  They are a joy to play and just seem to come together and "work" (although I still have a long way to go to perfect them!).
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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2018, 04:24:49 PM »

(...) Dancing in Kyle. Also a good tune for those who are struggling with waltz tempo on the left hand end.

That's another favourite along with The Spinning Wheel (..Mellow, the moonlight) not forgetting Mo Ghile Mear (specsavers sheepshearing ad)  :)
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Graham

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2018, 04:28:31 PM »

Albert's Last Dance (A Cutting) particularly the B music which upsets guitarists as they strum along  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirC4LmWbpo

Sadist. Didn't realise this was by Mr Cutting.

neither did Mozart ...
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Graham

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Graham Spencer

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2018, 07:57:47 PM »

Fred Pigeon's No 2; I often use it to kick off our monthly session, because it just jogs along so nicely.  Don't have a recording of it to hand, but will see what I can do.......

Graham
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arty

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #10 on: June 05, 2018, 08:28:04 PM »

For me, it would have to be almost any tune that I have learned by Stephane Delicq.

Something about playing a beautiful melody, written with imagination and flair but most importantly, written by a diatonic accordion player of considerable merit. These tunes fit the instrument perfectly, making them a joy to play. There is no 'showing off', they are usually quite simple, there are no musical gymnastics, just great music, definitely 'feel good music'.
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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #11 on: June 05, 2018, 10:13:45 PM »

One of my very favourite melodies is the lovely Irish air , The Isle Of Innesfree.
I still watch the film with John Wayne every time it’s on telly  :|||:

https://youtu.be/a-7a8EeJKW4
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george garside

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #12 on: June 05, 2018, 10:22:48 PM »

as I tend to play tunes I enjoy playing it is difficult to select one or two but here goes ……  oh dem golden slippers,  napoleon crossing the rhine, but then there are also the road and miles to Dundee, dark island,  Maggie, Geordie hinnie,  6.20 two step,  home on the range,  muckin of geordies byre etc etc, I enjoy playing them and many others!

george
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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #13 on: June 05, 2018, 10:57:32 PM »

Hands down, for me this has to be Not For Joe. More or less passed me by completely as a tune to listen to but I love playing it. So does just about everybody else I play with. There is something about it.
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Greg Smith
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Chris Rayner

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2018, 11:03:38 PM »

Albert's Last Dance (A Cutting) particularly the B music which upsets guitarists as they strum along  ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirC4LmWbpo

Just a bit of modulation.  I reckon I could strum around that after a couple of listens.  What’s more I could do a proper B min and an F#min if necessary.  Do there.🤡
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Jesse Smith

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #15 on: June 05, 2018, 11:55:26 PM »

Hands down, for me this has to be Not For Joe. More or less passed me by completely as a tune to listen to but I love playing it. So does just about everybody else I play with. There is something about it.

Greg, this is just the sort of thing I was getting at - tunes that are deceptively fun to play because they didn't strike you as a great tune just by listening to it, but something about the actions of playing it is surprisingly enjoyable.

(I do like Not For Joe as a tune, especially the version that John Kirkpatrick plays on Sheepskins with the droning D bass. Though sadly the song is a bit tainted for me since I heard the original lyrics. Possibly we are more sensitive in the US about these old minstrel songs.)
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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2018, 01:35:15 AM »

   As the melodeon is my first chord producing instrument I still get extreme satisfaction when playing a new tune when I select the best fit chord.  I haven't got an extensive repertoire but Uttoxeter Swing is one that I really enjoy playing around with for the cross rowing and also it's one of those minor key tunes where alternative chords can be used to give the tune variety and a slightly different mood. 
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Julian S

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #17 on: June 06, 2018, 07:22:10 AM »

Scottish a Virmoux. Nice and easy tune, no stretches required, notes just ideally placed for relaxed playing - great to warm up and start a set with a more challenging tune afterwards.

J
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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #18 on: June 06, 2018, 09:05:15 AM »

Hands down, for me this has to be Not For Joe. More or less passed me by completely as a tune to listen to but I love playing it. So does just about everybody else I play with. There is something about it.

Greg, this is just the sort of thing I was getting at - tunes that are deceptively fun to play because they didn't strike you as a great tune just by listening to it, but something about the actions of playing it is surprisingly enjoyable.

(I do like Not For Joe as a tune, especially the version that John Kirkpatrick plays on Sheepskins with the droning D bass. Though sadly the song is a bit tainted for me since I heard the original lyrics. Possibly we are more sensitive in the US about these old minstrel songs.)

Fortunately, those associations don't exist over here. It's a tune not a song. I think there are  many tunes which could be offensive to one party or another if the antiquated words were sung to them.Especially if your Irish catholic, or protestant, or a women, or disabled.

It's a shame things can't be accepted for what they are, not what they might have once been.

Would it make things better if I said we normally follow it with The Rochdale Coconut Dance and The Backup Coconut Dance (AKA Tip Top Polka)?
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Greg Smith
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Tunes that you enjoy primarily because they feel good to play
« Reply #19 on: June 06, 2018, 09:30:25 AM »


Fortunately, those associations don't exist over here. It's a tune not a song.

Oh yes they do. I have heard it sung recently and sung with 'that' word it in.

It's a shame things can't be accepted for what they are, not what they might have once been.

Perhaps because some things should never have been in the first place/should be left behind/have no place in modern society?
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