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Author Topic: Smiling  (Read 6621 times)

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Stiamh

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #20 on: February 11, 2019, 04:01:40 PM »

The solution is staring us all in our glum faces: stop using the left hand!

Your right-hand playing will improve, you will look happier and breathe easier, and everyone listening will be happier too  >:E

sticky fingers

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #21 on: February 11, 2019, 07:09:30 PM »

The solution is staring us all in our glum faces: stop using the left hand!

Your right-hand playing will improve, you will look happier and breathe easier, and everyone listening will be happier too  >:E
Seconded!

Lester

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #22 on: February 11, 2019, 07:13:01 PM »

The solution is staring us all in our glum faces: stop using the left hand!

Your right-hand playing will improve, you will look happier and breathe easier, and everyone listening will be happier too  >:E


Are there any videos of yours to prove this?   (:)

Eshed

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #23 on: February 11, 2019, 07:45:10 PM »

I cannot even tap my foot to the music - let alone smile (without looking like I’m leering☹️).
Chris, I think you hit the nail on its head . An almost-consensus in my Foot Tapping thread was that foot tapping should come directly from the music, and not be a conscious effort. In essence it's making a brain-bypass, you need the music playing in your brain and then it goes out to the hands, arms and legs. I suppose smiling is the same, if you're happy when you're playing you should be able to let go of your face and the smile will appear.
Are we happy when we play, then? While I find it enjoyable, I'm mostly stressed because that bum note is just around the corner! If I manage to force a song into submission you might see something resembling a smile :)
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Pazza

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #24 on: February 11, 2019, 07:59:37 PM »

Thank you all for your very interesting comments, I have now decided not to try to smile when playing, everyone says I’ve got a miserable face anyway. Lester I think I have probably watched all of your videos in anticipation of a smile and never seen one. Still time though perhaps one day  😁
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Stiamh

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #25 on: February 11, 2019, 08:59:53 PM »

The solution is staring us all in our glum faces: stop using the left hand!

Your right-hand playing will improve, you will look happier and breathe easier, and everyone listening will be happier too  >:E


Are there any videos of yours to prove this?   (:)

Well, I wasn't the one putting forward the mathematical proof... but come to think of it, if you saw me playing basses I think the point would be settled.

I think I'm a bit better now but in the early days of my trying to play box with a dance band one of the other musicians, after studying my face for a minute or so, asked me if it was painful.  ;)

Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #26 on: February 11, 2019, 09:17:32 PM »

... you need the music playing in your brain and then it goes out to the hands, arms and legs. I suppose smiling is the same, if you're happy when you're playing you should be able to let go of your face and the smile will appear.
Are we happy when we play, then?

Playing is one of the things I love  best. It makes me happy. You can't tell from from my face, but I'm happy.
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Stotty

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #27 on: February 11, 2019, 09:49:42 PM »

I play quite a bit with a very competent singer/song writer who plays guitar at the same time as singing, and it is interesting to compare the difficulty that most melodeon players have in managing even a smile, with the widespread capability of guitar players to sing as they play.

Are guitars slightly simpler to play than melodeons so that they leave enough "brain power" for singing? (should I run for cover?)
Or is it because so many guitar players learn to play at the same time as they sing - singing right from the off?

Perhaps the movement of melodeon bellows in and out, together with coordinating finger movements on both hand does require more "coordination" than playing a guitar?
 
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Mike Carney

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #28 on: February 11, 2019, 09:53:15 PM »

Stotty, as a guitar player I think you have got it about right. Two things versus four things at the same time (bellows button is the fourth)
Mike
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AnnC

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #29 on: February 11, 2019, 10:03:56 PM »

 ;D it's suprising how many mistakes you can get away with if you can master smiling and just carrying on playing the tune  :|||: ..... listeners see the smile and either don't hear the errors or assume it's an "arrangement"  ;D
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Squeaky Pete

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #30 on: February 11, 2019, 10:10:24 PM »

Vic Gammon usually has a genial smile when he's playing his many Hohners though these days he mostly plays to accompany his singing.
I do remember many years ago playing with him at a dance and he was quite happily calling while playing box.
Actually I seem to remember Bob Cann calling too while playing solo.
And I can't even smile. A slight raise of the eyebrows when it's time to change tune is sometimes beyond me.
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #31 on: February 12, 2019, 06:39:17 AM »




Are there any videos of yours to prove this?   (:)
[/quote]

Sharon Shannon ?
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smiley

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #32 on: February 12, 2019, 09:22:11 AM »

Naturally I'm smiling a big toothy smile during all my videos ... but you'll just have to take my word for it    ;)
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george garside

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #33 on: February 12, 2019, 09:34:09 AM »

Vic Gammon usually has a genial smile when he's playing his many Hohners though these days he mostly plays to accompany his singing.
I do remember many years ago playing with him at a dance and he was quite happily calling while playing box.
Actually I seem to remember Bob Cann calling too while playing solo.
And I can't even smile. A slight raise of the eyebrows when it's time to change tune is sometimes beyond me.

if I try to talk while playing the playing stops  , I can however manage a nod of the head for tune changes or a 'dirty look'  if  a bandmember is making a balls of it.  But  it is apparently a well known fact that scowling takes a lot more effort than smiling???!!

george (:)


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Tone Dumb Greg

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #34 on: February 12, 2019, 10:58:29 AM »

... it is apparently a well known fact that scowling takes a lot more effort than smiling???!!
george (:)

Not if you take into account the effect of gravity. Scowling works with it, rather than against it.
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Greg Smith
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #35 on: February 12, 2019, 02:31:27 PM »

‘‘Tis true Pete , Bob Cann could indeed call a dance whilst playing including sorting us idiots out who couldn’t dance right at the end of the hall. He just kept on playing perfectly.  :o
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Stiamh

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #36 on: February 12, 2019, 03:48:26 PM »

Quote
Are there any videos of yours to prove this?   (:)
Sharon Shannon ?

A very natural, unforced smile is never far from John Whelan's face, playing or not playing.

My favourite.

But pick just about any video. (He often plays the basses too!) (:)

Scotty Gring

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #37 on: February 13, 2019, 03:47:09 AM »

I don't necessarily feel I have to smile, but I'd love to look like I'm having fun and do the Fats Waller "eyebrows"...
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Barry Tolson

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #38 on: February 13, 2019, 10:38:17 AM »

The Happy Wanderer, really puts the smile on in his videos. I really enjoy them!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BqHSCGpas0&index=74&list=UUF0iY7TbTF8k4ZtSXX0BsoQ
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baz parkes

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Re: Smiling
« Reply #39 on: February 13, 2019, 12:32:18 PM »

‘‘Tis true Pete , Bob Cann could indeed call a dance whilst playing including sorting us idiots out who couldn’t dance right at the end of the hall. He just kept on playing perfectly.  :o

And also hold a conversation with the rest of the band, God bless him... :|glug
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