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Author Topic: That 'a-ha' moment  (Read 7260 times)

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Rog

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #40 on: January 27, 2020, 05:33:31 PM »

Do you mean you crossed rowed to start and then went to bellows waggling up and down the row?

playandteach

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #41 on: January 27, 2020, 06:08:02 PM »

Do you mean you crossed rowed to start and then went to bellows waggling up and down the row?
Yep first time with a box started immediately with cross rowing. Now I'm beginning to see some holes in my skills that aren't likely to get better, so I've just bought a one row cheaply to make sure I can't cheat and I'm spending a bit of time on that (right hand only - I haven't adjusted to the limitations of chord choice). Waggling is early days so far, but starting to not phase me anymore.
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richard.fleming

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #42 on: January 27, 2020, 06:15:49 PM »

“that a-ha moment”.....I’m still waiting for mine!

But wait....It is the most illogical, silly, annoying, mad instrument that you could possibly play but, it is also the most satisfying, wonderful instrument.
I think  ???

Don't get that. Seems entirely natural and normal to me. But then I don't play D/G!
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Rob2Hook

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #43 on: January 27, 2020, 07:24:10 PM »

Theer was a slow realisation that most tunes contain short phrases that you have met before and so as you progress much of the learning has already been done.  Now this applies to choosing whether to play across rows or on the row, choosing chord structure, etc. but it is all wasted unless you can maintain tempo.  I would always advocate playing for dance - and watch the , they will give you your tempo.  I've played with many beginners who rush through the "difficult" phrases and end up half a beat ahead of the tune!

Rob.
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Jon Stapleton

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #44 on: January 28, 2020, 12:21:41 AM »

Sometimes just poke a different bass or chord for the hell of it  nine times out of ten it sounds awful but one in ten it sounds sublime    .... experiment
« Last Edit: January 28, 2020, 12:27:18 AM by Jon Stapleton »
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Nick Collis Bird

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #45 on: January 28, 2020, 08:59:48 AM »

when I started a long time ago as a teenager  you were virtualy 'on your own'  unless you knew another melodeon player, which I didn't.  My lightbulb moment was getting a recognisable tune out of the thing which I did my treating it as a hand operated mouthie.   

george

Identical to me George, i came from the mouthie. But i was very lucky being in Bourne River Morris in the very early 70’s and following the late great Paul Havell around like a pet dog. The aha moment came when I realised if someone could hum it I could play it.........more or less ::)
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Graham Spencer

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #46 on: January 28, 2020, 09:03:20 AM »

My "a-ha" moment was when I dumped the PA and bought a melodeon........

Graham
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george garside

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #47 on: January 28, 2020, 09:38:46 AM »

when I started a long time ago as a teenager  you were virtualy 'on your own'  unless you knew another melodeon player, which I didn't.  My lightbulb moment was getting a recognisable tune out of the thing which I did my treating it as a hand operated mouthie.   

george

Identical to me George, i came from the mouthie. But i was very lucky being in Bourne River Morris in the very early 70’s and following the late great Paul Havell around like a pet dog. The aha moment came when I realised if someone could hum it I could play it.........more or less ::)

The 'more or less' is of course  a necessary skill for coming up with  a new/your own arrangment of a tune!

george :D
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baz parkes

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #48 on: January 28, 2020, 10:14:19 AM »

Quote from: Nick Collis Bird link=
 But i was very lucky being in Bourne River Morris in the very early 70’s and following the late great Paul Havell around like a pet dog.
[/quote

Me too...different morris team, same canine behaviour. One of the best box plyers I ever heard...and one of the most unassuming...

Going back to the OP...things you wish you'd learned...you have 4 fingers on your left hand... :|glug
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Little Eggy

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #49 on: January 28, 2020, 11:08:36 AM »

I wish someone could offer a 'light bulb' moment to enable me to play 3/4 time properly  :(  !!
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #50 on: January 28, 2020, 11:34:11 AM »

Paul Havell gave me a great 'aha' moment, when as a concertina player joined in with my newly acquired Morris friends ( Baz's lot! ) at an impromptu moment on the deck chairs at the Ham, on Sidmouth seafront. After  a few tunes I launched into some newly learnt sets and Paul kindly said 'don't look at me, he's got the ideas at the moment!!'
I really felt like I had 'arrived' as a player.
It meant a lot.....
Then I took up this confounded instrument  ;)
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

The Oul' Boy

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #51 on: January 28, 2020, 05:18:38 PM »

I feel I'm in the position of the hyphen, somewhere between the 'a' and the 'ha' (i.e. I've started to appreciate how wonderfully complicated this instrument is but realise how much I still have to get to grips with, so no 'ha' out of me just yet!).
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Dick Rees

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #52 on: January 28, 2020, 09:29:03 PM »

The wonderful thing about the 2-row diatonic is that it keeps delivering aha moments.  The longer you play (years), the more the box gives until "aha" becomes "oh yeah".
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george garside

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #53 on: January 28, 2020, 11:01:57 PM »

I wish someone could offer a 'light bulb' moment to enable me to play 3/4 time properly  :(  !!

It can help  if you start of   the bass rhythm before starting the tune.  i.e commence with a steady um pa pa rhythm by Lightly tapping the bass buttons and then go into a waltz without pausing.  Choose a simple  sing along waltz tune eg daisy daisy,  oh dear what can the matter be,  endearing young charms , or whatever tune you know well and keeping the um pa pa's steady but light make the melody fit the bass rather than the bass fit the melody. 

hope this helps

george
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Rob Lands

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #54 on: January 29, 2020, 10:26:06 AM »

removing my thumb from the thumb strap
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melod-ian

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #55 on: January 29, 2020, 03:30:14 PM »

Attending a workshop by Roger Watson who insisted that we should think of it as a single instrument, not as a D row and a G row, and who first showed me the possibilities of cross-row left-hand chording.

Mr Watson was definitely the catalyst of most of my 'a-ha' moments. Cross-row and chording especially.

I did think there was some sort of black art to working out chord structures for tunes, I believed it to be solely based around music theory knowledge until I was sat next to a good guitarist at a session one evening, and worked out where the chords were changing and in most cases were either a: #1, #4 or #5 chord anyway. I then went back and deconstructed all the tunes I knew into simple chord patterns on the left and right hand, after a while, it started to become a kind of second language.

Suddenly there was a whole new world out there beyond the reel/jig/hornpipe/morris tune! Acomplyment and Improvisation    
BINGO!
 
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Thrupenny Bit

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #56 on: January 30, 2020, 10:21:33 AM »

Just had a quick tune and twiddle, which reminds me:
Some time ago Squeezy mentioned something that could be called 'constructive fun'.
i.e. after a 'formal' learning session where you try to learn a tune, a complicated piece of a tune, work out um-pah's etc...… just have a twiddle.
Go explore the box, press all the buttons, absent mindedly let your fingers twiddle a tune, work out if you can play a little tune on the basses only etc etc....
Essentially just play with it for a few minutes. Nothing long, nothing planned just..... get to know it, find out it's 'dusty corners' and have a few minutes of mindless wandering.
You'd be surprised how sometimes something out of the blue gives that 'aha' moment!
cheers
Q
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Thrupenny Bit

I think I'm starting to get most of the notes in roughly the right order...... sometimes!

Julian S

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #57 on: January 30, 2020, 10:33:43 AM »

I'm just wondering about starting an 'Oh Curses' thread to discuss moments where things don't go so well, and consider possible remedies (other than chucking the instrument of course !). The antithesis of the 'a-ha' moment...

J

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Chris Ryall

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #58 on: January 30, 2020, 12:23:01 PM »

1. Major tunes on push, minor on pull. At LAST a use for those Em, B basses!

2. Crossfingering part scales, generally against those minor pull chords

3. Right hand chording.
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playandteach

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Re: That 'a-ha' moment
« Reply #59 on: January 30, 2020, 02:23:01 PM »

1. Major tunes on push, minor on pull. At LAST a use for those Em, B basses!

2. Crossfingering part scales, generally against those minor pull chords

3. Right hand chording.
Have to agree with all of those.
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