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Author Topic: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown  (Read 2768 times)

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Gary

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Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« on: April 18, 2019, 01:21:24 PM »

I have been visiting possible venues in Grantown, my latest response from a hotel/bar owner " whats a squeezebox "" did not fill me with hope, another place said fine ok, but only had room for 6 next to dining tables.  Are there any readers in the Strathspey area who would support my search? Turning up on my own to start with is not the best way forward...
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2019, 03:05:41 PM »

Aye, there's not many of us up in this end of the world. There's a guy who plays a Saltarelle, who's Falkirk way, and there's Pete Shepherd, but I can't think of any melodeon players, unless you count B/C players, who are anywhere near you, Grantown is about 80 miles south of me.
This all assumes you mean Grantown on Spey ;)
A mixed session is the best you can hope for. I would try an advert on FB or in the local rag.

Sir John
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2019, 05:20:19 PM »

I am not surprised your man had never heard of a squeezebox - I've only ever heard the word as English slang for a concertina.  Button box or melodeon are more likely to be understood straight off.

If you want to think about a slow and steady focusing on Gaelic traditional music (don't knock it-there are one or two native speakers in Badenoch even now) you might just find some synergies.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2019, 05:27:07 PM by Peadar »
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richard.fleming

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2019, 07:26:50 PM »

'unless you count B/C players'
Sir John
And why wouldn't you? Or are there now so many English people retiring to Scotland that the DG melodeon is sweeping all before it?
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2019, 10:39:07 PM »

Strangely enough I heard the word melodeon mentioned for the first time ever (in my listening) on Reidio nan Gaidheal this week  (Air program Choinnich). In the same sentence as fidheal and clarsach.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 11:46:16 AM by Peadar »
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2019, 01:00:17 AM »

'unless you count B/C players'
Sir John
And why wouldn't you? Or are there now so many English people retiring to Scotland that the DG melodeon is sweeping all before it?

In Gaidhlig I have only ever known one generic word for accordion : Bocsa-ciuil - which would apply to all accordions from one rows to 120 bass PA's.
If I wanted to specificaly refer to a button box I would say Bocsa-phutain.

Now I find myself thinking of a B/C button accordion as "Am Bocsa-Eireannach" and a D/G melodeon is  as "Am Bocsa Shasunnach".  I might call a PA bocsa-phiana.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 10:08:52 AM by Peadar »
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richard.fleming

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2019, 08:35:25 AM »

'unless you count B/C players'
Sir John
And why wouldn't you? Or are there now so many English people retiring to Scotland that the DG melodeon is sweeping all before it?

Now I find myself thinking of a B/C button accordion as "Am Bocsa-Eireannach" and a D/G melodeon is  as "Am Bocsa Shasunnach". 

I'm pretty sure that the BC has a strong place in Scottish music, along with the BCC# of course, though I wouldn't claim to be an authority. Melodeon in Ireland (and in Irish too) is only used of a one-row instrument - the 2-row is a button box or of course bosca ceoil. PA is cairdín piano.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 08:45:20 AM by richard.fleming »
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MikeK

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2019, 09:54:32 AM »

The BC box has still strong roots in the Eileanan Siar(Western Isles). The young ones start with the 2 row
before progressing to BCC#. Every year I come back from there, green with envy and also full of admiration
for their playing skills.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2019, 04:47:45 PM by havaLaff »
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2019, 12:35:54 PM »

Going back to the original question- what sort of session are you trying to start ?

Accordion and Fiddle? English folk music? Button box? Melodeon?  Slow and steady?

It occurs to me that there are well established accordion and fiddle clubs in Inverness and Forres, and Scottish Country Dance classes run through the winter
 (in SCD terms class implies club) in Kingussie, Nethybridge and Grantown itself.  Are you already in contact with any of these?

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Hugh Taylor

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2019, 05:50:56 PM »

I think that using the term 'squeeze box' diminishes the instrument, as does 'melodeon', and would prefer 'diatonic accordion' as used on the continent. It will help push the instrument into a position of being a serious instrument
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Andy

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2019, 08:23:08 PM »

melodeon melodjun

That's it sorted now.
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richard.fleming

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2019, 08:46:44 AM »


Now I find myself thinking of a B/C button accordion as "Am Bocsa-Eireannach" and a D/G melodeon is  as "Am Bocsa Shasunnach".  I might call a PA bocsa-phiana.

Come to think of it weren't the Wyper brothers, from Scotland, crucial in the spread and maybe the development of the BC box?
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2019, 08:53:29 AM »

Scottish melodeon band, from Ness in the Western Isles.
Not a sound I like very much I'm afraid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FQR0KoNrW8

Sir John
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2019, 08:57:25 AM »

I rather like the term 'melodeon', certainly easier to say that 'diatonic button accordion' and quicker too.

The first time I ever heard the term 'melodeon' was visiting my Scottish relatives as a young child in the '70s. I've not managed to find which of my 8 squillion McBride cousins it was that was playing the thing but melodeon was definitely the term used - I thought it was a horrid, silly name for the accordion at the time. How little I knew....
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John MacKenzie (Cugiok)

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2019, 09:52:46 AM »

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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2019, 10:01:51 AM »


Now I find myself thinking of a B/C button accordion as "Am Bocsa-Eireannach" and a D/G melodeon is  as "Am Bocsa Shasunnach".  I might call a PA bocsa-phiana.

Uile gin dhuibh ann an cointeacs bocsa-ciuil - every one of the in the context of "accordion".  Translating of individual words is one thing but when you shift into a different language and culture the boundaries between genres and the territories they cover are somewhat different. It helps to keep an open mind while also recognising the parameters you normally live within. 

Quote
Come to think of it weren't the Wyper brothers, from Scotland, crucial in the spread and maybe the development of the BC box?

Peter Wyper, from Lanarkshire: Music shop proprietor, accordeon/melodeon national champion and probably first man ever (c.1902) to make commercial recordings of accordion music (which were sold as far away as Leith!)  patented the BC box.


« Last Edit: April 20, 2019, 10:50:33 AM by Peadar »
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2019, 11:14:44 AM »

The first time I ever heard the term 'melodeon' was visiting my Scottish relatives as a young child in the '70s. I've not managed to find which of my 8 squillion McBride cousins it was that was playing the thing but melodeon was definitely the term used - I thought it was a horrid, silly name for the accordion at the time. How little I knew....

Six months ago I didn't know what a melodeon was- I was looking for a small accordeon of a pattern (old style 1 row) I had seen once many years earlier. It took me a while to think of this type of accordion as a melodeon. When I told oldest child (who spends more on a fiddle bow than I do on a box) that I was thinking of buying a melodeon, he thought I was talking about a melodica.
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Peadar

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2019, 06:15:07 PM »

Gary - If you do get a session going in Grantown post it up here and if work takes me to Grantown on the right day (Thursday - about twice a year at present) I will try to get there.
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Gary

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #18 on: May 18, 2019, 11:09:43 AM »

Thanks for the varied suggestions, I had missed spotting the replies as my search for a new job had taken me away from here for a while.  Now got the new part time job i have got thinking space again. I need in my view to find at least one other musician to start the session, music is as varied as those who turn up to play. I find the accordian fiddle clubs to formal.
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Helena Handcart

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Re: Trying to start a weekly session around Grantown
« Reply #19 on: May 18, 2019, 11:46:05 AM »

Best of luck with this Gary - and don't lose heart if it takes a while. I sort of volunteered to HELP run a session when I'd only be playing a few months, the other guy turned up once and then left the whole thing to me. Apart from being scared before every session because they were all so much better than me it took a while to get established - now we have a lovely steady-speed session which is twinned with a more open speedy session run by a good friend and fellow melnetter.  It's a really rewarding experience and I wish the same for you  :|||:
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