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Author Topic: Bellows - speed up changes  (Read 3849 times)

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Aiberdeen Loon

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Bellows - speed up changes
« on: August 20, 2011, 04:34:24 PM »

As a relative beginner I am having difficulties with getting smooth and fast bellows changes, particularly in the middle of runs in jigs and reels.

I have no problems with right hand fingering but the bellows are a big issue.  I play fiddle and mandolin in sessions and my left hand fingers have no problem keeping up but the left arm/bellows on the melodeon are another thing altogether!

Can anyone suggest practice routines or techniques that I can work on please?

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rees

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2011, 06:59:18 PM »

Using one finger on one button, e.g. G/A. Play G push, take your finger off, play A pull, take your finger off. Play G push take your finger off, A, G, A, ad infinitum.
Repeat for weeks on end gradually increasing speed until the transition between notes is smooth and even.
It helps to imagine a partially inflated football or balloon inside the bellows and you are bouncing the air against the pressure.
It's a technique that takes a while to establish but, like riding a bike, once you can do it, you have it for good. :||: :||:
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LDbosca

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2011, 08:16:44 PM »

Using one finger on one button, e.g. G/A. Play G push, take your finger off, play A pull, take your finger off. Play G push take your finger off, A, G, A, ad infinitum.
Repeat for weeks on end gradually increasing speed until the transition between notes is smooth and even.
It helps to imagine a partially inflated football or balloon inside the bellows and you are bouncing the air against the pressure.
It's a technique that takes a while to establish but, like riding a bike, once you can do it, you have it for good. :||: :||:

Or, if you're playing Irish music instead of English music, NEVER lift your finger when changing direction on one button!

Graham Spencer

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2011, 08:39:45 PM »

In all the years I've been playing I've never actually tried to analyse the physical process of changing bellows direction, and it's now so much second nature I've forgotten how I learned to do it;  but the last two posts have made me look at what I do - I'm very much an English-style player, and I hardly ever - in fact I'm probably safe in saying never - lift a finger off the button when the next note is on the same button but in the opposite direction. Funny old thing, this melodeon playing, isn't it? (:)

Graham
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nemethmik

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2011, 01:04:22 PM »

As a relative beginner I am having difficulties with getting smooth and fast bellows changes, particularly in the middle of runs in jigs and reels.
...
Can anyone suggest practice routines or techniques that I can work on please?
The process may take 5 or even more years, and to many it never arrives. That is the reason I learn tunes with cross-rowing on a Club-system, which is the ultimate diatonic system optimized for smooth cross-row playing style.

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Nick Hudis

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2011, 01:50:42 PM »

Being a committed cross row player, I recently bought a cheap one row to improve my shoddy bellows changes. Great fun, very instructive and potentially addictive.

Ree's advice to lift the finger with every note is something I have heard in slightly different forms from a number of good players, I've found it to be very sound advice.
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Steve C.

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2011, 01:52:30 PM »

Hello Loon-
You did not mention what box you are playing.
Some are a bit easier to get the rumpy-pumpy style going than others.
Light bass side (like an Erica or Pokerwork) can be easier than say a heavy full size, like a Mory.
Inspirational note: look at Lester Bailey's site; he has "it" and also lists the dots, abc's and mp3 so you can follow along.
Agree with the consensus here, though, can take years to get it right.
Mally says: (paraphrase) you can get "OK" but you might never get good.
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Graham Spencer

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2011, 01:58:07 PM »

That is the reason I learn tunes with cross-rowing on a Club-system, which is the ultimate diatonic system optimized for smooth cross-row playing style.


Assuming you want a smooth style. Personally, if I wanted smooth I'd play a PA.  One of the appealing things about a melodeon is that it isn't smooth......
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Among others, Saltarelle Pastourelle II D/G; Hohner 4-stop 1-rows in C & G; assorted Hohners; 3-voice German (?) G/C of uncertain parentage; lovely little Hlavacek 1-row Heligonka; B♭/E♭ Koch. Newly acquired G/C Hohner Viktoria. Also Fender Jazz bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster, Epiphone Sheraton, Charvel-Jackson 00-style acoustic guitar, Danelectro 12-string and other stuff..........

Squeezing in the Cyprus sunshine

malcolmbebb

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2011, 09:38:28 PM »

That is the reason I learn tunes with cross-rowing on a Club-system, which is the ultimate diatonic system optimized for smooth cross-row playing style.


Assuming you want a smooth style. Personally, if I wanted smooth I'd play a PA.  One of the appealing things about a melodeon is that it isn't smooth......
LOL I got my leg pulled on a ceilidh list for describing some Irish-based bands' music as too smooth for dancing. There was talk of "Lumpy" tunes for some while after.
A certain Morris box player of my acquaintance, who plays one of those piano things, has gone back to filling up the gaps with ornamentation. It ain't what's wanted! Keep the lumps!

Malcolm
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Pete Dunk

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #9 on: August 21, 2011, 10:15:00 PM »

The lead musician in the morris side I play with is a great admirer of my three voice Primo which I'm assured is a Serenellini three voice LMM by another name. Today I took the box along to a stand to show it to another player who wanted to have a play on it and Tony took the opportunity to give it a go outdoors. To be perfectly frank I was a bit disappointed and decided it's not really suited to morris at all and Tony's worn out pokerwork with electrician's tape holding the bellows together has that delightful honk and bite that suits morris so well. My box is great for the session afterwards but far too civilised for the cut and thrust of the morris world!
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Stiamh

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #10 on: August 22, 2011, 02:42:44 AM »

I'm surprised that all the answers to a question about smooth and fast bellows changes focus on what to do with r/h fingers. I'd have thought the answer lies in how you physically operate the bellows. Advice I got early on and which proved invaluable was: keep at least one of the four edges of the bellows more or less closed and use this edge like a hinge.

Aiberdeen Loon

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #11 on: August 22, 2011, 10:10:41 AM »

Many thanks to all who have responded to this thread, in particular to Rees and Steve for their helpful and pragmatic input.

The drill recommended by Rees is about left and right hand co-ordination and this is something I should have picked up on after years of teaching fiddle and stressing that speed can only come when both hands are in synch!

The hinge analogy from Steve is a great visualisation aid and I notice that most good players do this (intuitively?).

I play mainly Scottish and Irish music on a B/C box and therefore do not lift my finger on changes on the same button although a friend said that he had been taught to hold the finger but "pulse it" on the change to keep the rhythm.

The players that I admire such as Billy McComskie have the ability to play both smoothly and lumpy as the tune dictates and this is what I would aspire to.

I am always disappointed when I see players who jump around like one legged frogs and seem only capable of playing at warp speed by jerking the bellows and waggling their right hand fingers and apparently random patterns.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am not having a go at Morris players!
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Theo

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2011, 12:26:18 AM »

Learning to make fast bellows changes means first learning good bellows control in making slow changes,  doing loads of practice, and gradually increasing speed.  Of course this applies to all aspects of learning to play at the speec you want to.
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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Bellows - speed up changes
« Reply #13 on: August 27, 2011, 07:05:53 PM »

To any other players, like me, who come to the melodeon from playing the fiddle - yes the bellows DOES do the work we associate with the bow, but it's important to note that whereas when fiddling, all the finger twiddling is done with the left hand, when melodeoning we use the right hand for this and vice versa. We also bow and squeeze with opposite hands - no wonder I'm only just getting on to using the buttons on the left!  :Ph

Fast bellows changes as well? What do you guys want? Blood?  :'(
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