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Author Topic: Bellows before button?  (Read 1494 times)

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Paul Brennan

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Bellows before button?
« on: May 20, 2020, 09:25:09 PM »

So on the fiddle I was taught to play "finger before bow" which in practice meant that beginners would play staccato, carefully getting the finger in position before applying the bow. And then with more practice the staccato note become longer and the phrasing smoother. So on the push-pull free reed, which is new to me, I'm gathering that the same thing applies, I should be practicing staccato at first and using the silences between the notes to change bellow direction - is that right?
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Gonk

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2020, 09:41:00 PM »

I'm also a beginner on button, but 30 years on various other instruments.  That sounds similar to my approach to a new tune, because I figure that if one plays long notes at slow speed, one extends the instrument in ways that aren't really ideal muscle habits to learn.  I don't worry about getting a staccato sound.  I learn one phrase of a tune, and slowly raise the speed, then slow down for the next, and so on.  I expect it is very much about your learning style, though.
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Dick Rees

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2020, 10:30:25 PM »

Paul...

You can think of it that way.  In the end, though, your ear will have the say-so.  The music (and other players interpretations thereof) will lead you through as you say regarding beginner>intermediate>mastery. 

My path has been LISTEN, play, play, play.  The only time I really think about it is when transcribing or teaching. 

Play now, think later.  Avoid paralysis from analysis...
« Last Edit: May 20, 2020, 10:37:02 PM by Dick Rees »
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Peadar

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2020, 10:44:51 PM »

I started to learn melodeon last year I didn't take my finger off at all if two successive notes where are the same button....That was how forty+ years earlier I had learned to sound the mouth organ.
So for me  starting was very legato, I was about three weeks in before I discovered that this was the "wrong" way of dong it...but by that time I had a repertoire of a couple of tunes.
Legato works for me when I am feeling my way through an unfamiliar melody. Staccato is a rythm effect which I can only add on after I've got the harmonics at instrument pitch fixed in my brain.

I think it all depends on how you personally make the link between the tune you recognise  and the sound the box makes in your capable (or not) hands.
 
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Dick Rees

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2020, 11:04:08 PM »

Bellows changes and bowing a fiddle are quite similar.  There are so many articulations and expressions arising from the various possible combinations of the physical manipulations and timing of the buttons and bellows that it's nigh impossible to list them all.  Then there's "fudging" and diatonic sleight of hand...

I've been playing music my whole life and the skweezbox keeps on amazing me as no other instrument.

Enjoy the journey.
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Graham Spencer

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #5 on: May 21, 2020, 04:56:40 AM »

I started to learn melodeon last year I didn't take my finger off at all if two successive notes where are the same button.... I was about three weeks in before I discovered that this was the "wrong" way of dong it...but by that time I had a repertoire of a couple of tunes.


I've been doing it "wrong" for forty years or so, then....... ;D :||:
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Lester

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2020, 06:50:19 AM »

I started to learn melodeon last year I didn't take my finger off at all if two successive notes where are the same button.... I was about three weeks in before I discovered that this was the "wrong" way of dong it...but by that time I had a repertoire of a couple of tunes.


I've been doing it "wrong" for forty years or so, then....... ;D :||:


I'll join you on the naughty step

folkloristmark

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2020, 08:13:57 AM »

Boys
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Mark Taylor
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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2020, 12:13:22 PM »

I started to learn melodeon last year I didn't take my finger off at all if two successive notes where are the same button.... I was about three weeks in before I discovered that this was the "wrong" way of dong it...but by that time I had a repertoire of a couple of tunes.


I've been doing it "wrong" for forty years or so, then....... ;D :||:
I'll join you on the naughty step

I suspect that may need to be quite a large step....


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george garside

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2020, 08:43:10 PM »

leave  bit of room on the step for me as I sometimes/quite often change a note 'on the bellows'  But then like other naughty step occupants I have been playing for a long time  and know when to take a finger off the button between bellows changes. 

Both methods are totally valid according to the tune and even which bit of a tune sounds best using which method.

However when teaching those new to the box  I strongly advocate getting the finger off the button button between the push and pull notes thereon.  This is not me being two faced but simply because getting the finger off the button between bellows direction is more difficult than keeping the button down  so needs to be learned whereas keeping the finger on the button comes fairly naturally to most beginners so is best learned so that the player has the ability to use whatever sounds best
george
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Theo

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Re: Bellows before button?
« Reply #10 on: May 22, 2020, 09:40:47 PM »

All sorts of bits of advice like this are good, but need to be kept in context. Using the bellows before button technique is great for developing the ability to play staccato.  Sometimes it’s good to play staccato but you wouldn’t want to do it all the time.  So by all means spend some time on acquiring this particular bit of technique, but remember it’s only one building block towards becoming a better musician.
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