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Author Topic: Strigulino's Squeezebox Diary (Was "Essex beginner")  (Read 27564 times)

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AnnC

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #80 on: January 16, 2012, 05:55:32 PM »

 ;D  there's a lot of us with one of these little boxes  :|||:   ( bright red @ £14 some years ago, was late OH's)

  now if only I could play this   William Tell    on it (or on the big G/C for that matter )      :|||:

   must practice more  ;D
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ladydetemps

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #81 on: January 16, 2012, 06:06:46 PM »

I tried mine outside the shop and got asked where I got it from. lol

Ollie

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #82 on: January 16, 2012, 07:58:03 PM »

Mine came from PJ Music at IVFDF last year. So much fun (till the thumb strap broke off, along with the bit of plastic...).
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Owen Woods

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #83 on: January 17, 2012, 01:05:52 PM »

You were all robbed, I don't have one at all ;D
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Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #84 on: January 25, 2012, 11:28:55 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47uQFcsmbfc

Princess Royal.  My current party piece, with only a few bum notes.  I've nearly got the fast bits sussed anyway.
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The Strig

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Lester

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #85 on: January 25, 2012, 11:34:50 AM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47uQFcsmbfc

Princess Royal.  My current party piece, with only a few bum notes.  I've nearly got the fast bits sussed anyway.

For 4 months that is outstanding  ;D

My only observation is I would play more with the tips of your fingers, mind you as a girl you may have fingernail problems  ::)

Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #86 on: January 25, 2012, 12:08:33 PM »

Heh, on the one hand an outrageously sexist comment, but to be honest, totally accurate.   ;)  One of my little Essex girl foibles is french polish gel overlays, which was a way of a) stopping me biting my nails and b) keeping them nice despite all the typing I do.  It does indeed make my fingertips a bit slippery, but I've been thinking I'll just end up with whatever playing style I end up with.

Gratified you think it "outstanding" - that might have something to do with the fact that despite a foray into carols in December, I tend to just play four tunes over and over again.  The Sloe, Princess Royal, Bear Dance and now attempting Trumpet Hornpipe as it's a song of my youth and also a good way of practicing arpeggios and scales.  I think my poor husband now knows those tunes better than he should.  But I like playing them, and I'll add other tunes as and when a TOTM comes up that I like, or I hear one at a session I'm really desperate to learn. 

I've been coming home from work and playing those four, or concentrating on one or two of them, for half an hour or an hour perhaps.  One day I just played the complicated bits of Princess Royal over and over again.  Must have driven the cats insane. 

It's good to be a patient person.  Most of my hobbies and jobs include repetitive practice - knitting, photocopying, typing, lace work, embroidery, grinding mobs on computer games.  I set goals and keep going until I reach them.  Probably true to say that I am more hard on myself than I am with anyone else.  If I want something bad enough, I'll keep going until I get there.  I try a lot of things but there's only a few that stick, but by any God you care to name once I'm into something I have to master it!
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The Strig

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george garside

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #87 on: January 25, 2012, 03:35:04 PM »

congratulations! - I totally agree with Lester. You are way ahead of an average 4 monther!. Perhaps now is the time to start experimenting a little with dynamics by varying the volume  (by changing bellows pressure) to highlight bits of the tune here & there.

george
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Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #88 on: January 25, 2012, 03:49:44 PM »

I tend to be playing quite quietly as I'm usually practicing in the evening, but I do give it some welly of a weekend sometimes and damn the neigbours' baby!  :D
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The Strig

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Pets:  Two cats, one husband, a D/G Hohner Morgane, a C/F Liliput, a dark and mysterious anglo concertina, a Streb, a Giordy...

ladydetemps

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #89 on: January 25, 2012, 03:51:27 PM »

damn the neigbours' baby!  :D
sounds like a good name for a tune. lol!

Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #90 on: January 25, 2012, 04:04:55 PM »

damn the neigbours' baby!  :D
sounds like a good name for a tune. lol!

I have just found a "Dancing the Baby" which will have to do.  :)
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The Strig

"World-famous poker player. Give her a good poker and she'll play any tune you like." - The Goon Show
Pets:  Two cats, one husband, a D/G Hohner Morgane, a C/F Liliput, a dark and mysterious anglo concertina, a Streb, a Giordy...

Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #91 on: September 24, 2012, 01:07:55 PM »

Just noticed I'm now a Hero Member.  Zero to Hero in a year.   >:E

Just thought I'd take that opportunity to report back. 

In that year, I've bought not one but two melodeons (four if you count the iPhone one and the toy one).  Loving playing, and play most days.  I now have a small repertoire I can do reasonable justice to, complete with bum notes and mumbled swearing.  Have made good friends, and performed with my melodeon at the Edinburgh Fringe with someone who has been on telly. 

Definitely a keeper as hobbies go.
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The Strig

"World-famous poker player. Give her a good poker and she'll play any tune you like." - The Goon Show
Pets:  Two cats, one husband, a D/G Hohner Morgane, a C/F Liliput, a dark and mysterious anglo concertina, a Streb, a Giordy...

sue higham

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #92 on: September 24, 2012, 06:26:54 PM »

Just read your thread from the very beginning, Strig - I SO identify with it!  From first sight at one of the last Edinburgh Folk Festivals (courtesy of the Music Room), I was fascinated by these instruments and wondered how on earth anyone got a such varied tunes out of them when appearing to only hit about three buttons!  It took me two years to take the plunge - mainly because in my neck of the woods melodeons/button accordeons were like hen's teeth; there was no shop anywhere near to drop into and try and there was no-one at all to give guidance but it wouldn't let go of me because .... yes, you've guessed - I was a 70wpm typist too! 

I was lucky enough to cross paths with an Irish player who gave me a few lessons (mainly to help me avoid bad technique) but mostly I've learned the music from being around the music.  Very easy to do that here in Edinburgh where there are plenty of sessions and where we have a wonderful organisation called the Scots Music Group which offers weekly classes for over 16s and where around 400 folk turn up each week for tuition on fiddle, mandolin, pipes, whistle, guitar, piano accordion and also learn to play in a mixed instrument setting which was an excellent environment for me and infinitely preferable to the piano accordion class (I could join in - and I could  hear myself too!)  At first, other folk couldn't make head nor tail of the box till I explained it's like a moothie and it helps if you can operate a qwerty keyboard in the dark!  I play by ear, it's how I learned and what I prefer - but now I have attained the dizzy heights of being able to read 'retrospectively'.  If I know the tune I can follow the dots ... but don't ask me to do it the other way round   :o 

So, I play in sessions  :|glug and also in a band  :||: and I love it all  :-*  My first box was a Saltarelle Irish Bouebe.  I added to that a Castagnari Dinn II (both B/C because Scots traditional music is what I love) but I later fell in love with a Lilly in D/G which system has gone a fair way to scrambling my brain - not least because it means using both sets of fingers!  I promised myself to learn each new tune on both tunings if possible  .... I failed a fair bit, but am improving - if extremely slowly.

..... then a couple of years ago along came a fiddle and tapped me on the shoulder.  Back to SMG classes :D
« Last Edit: September 24, 2012, 07:18:35 PM by sue higham »
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Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #93 on: October 08, 2012, 01:46:28 PM »

I have now Played for Morris.  I feel like a proper melodeonista now.

That said, it was in a practice session and I was to be fair doing the "doing the odd run when I worked out a bit and then doing a huge chord at the end to pretend I was playing the whole time", but people were very nice and I now have a list of new earworms I need to learn properly - Paddy McGinty's Goat, Mhairi's Wedding, I'll Tell me Ma and Stern Polka for starters.
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The Strig

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Lester

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #94 on: October 08, 2012, 03:41:41 PM »

Paddy McGinty's Goat, Mhairi's Wedding, I'll Tell me Ma and Stern Polka for starters.

Not proper morris then   >:E   :M

Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #95 on: October 08, 2012, 03:47:05 PM »

Well, seeing as it's a ladies' side I doubt you'd call that "proper" either LOL.

My take on the matter, in all seriousness, is that the dances hundreds of years ago would be to songs popular at the time.  So if the tune fits the dance, and it's a popular tune, so be it.  There's tradition and then there's hidebound.  ;P

They did play a lot of other tunes that I'm sure would have met with your approval.  :D
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The Strig

"World-famous poker player. Give her a good poker and she'll play any tune you like." - The Goon Show
Pets:  Two cats, one husband, a D/G Hohner Morgane, a C/F Liliput, a dark and mysterious anglo concertina, a Streb, a Giordy...

Lester

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #96 on: October 08, 2012, 04:00:22 PM »

Well, seeing as it's a ladies' side I doubt you'd call that "proper" either LOL.

My take on the matter, in all seriousness, is that the dances hundreds of years ago would be to songs popular at the time.  So if the tune fits the dance, and it's a popular tune, so be it.  There's tradition and then there's hidebound.  ;P

They did play a lot of other tunes that I'm sure would have met with your approval.  :D

Who is it?

And I was only joshing   ;)

Strigulino

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #97 on: October 08, 2012, 04:30:14 PM »

I know.  I was only pulling your leg back.  It has bells on.  :)

Erm... that I remember names being mentioned: Country Gardens, The Rose Tree, Portsmouth/Sailor's Hornpipe, Curly Headed Ploughboy, Laudanum Bunches. 

The side are Hands Around.  They don't have much of an online presence (I had the devil of a job tracking down when and where they rehearse.  Might suggest a website of some sort when I'm a known face there).  There are some videos on YouTube.
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The Strig

"World-famous poker player. Give her a good poker and she'll play any tune you like." - The Goon Show
Pets:  Two cats, one husband, a D/G Hohner Morgane, a C/F Liliput, a dark and mysterious anglo concertina, a Streb, a Giordy...

Peter G

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #98 on: October 26, 2012, 06:10:34 PM »

I notice no-one has mentioned the bodhran for your husband. He could make his own with Mog at Renegade Rhythms www.renegaderhythms.co.uk
But just make sure he stays away from Morris teams and English sessions! (Though my present Grump is the Turkish style drums with plastic skins which occasionally appear in sessions  >:()
But played well with the right music the bodhran is a joy!
BTW it' s taken me about 4 years to learn to play the tunes you mention!  :||:
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Pete Dunk

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Re: Essex beginner
« Reply #99 on: October 26, 2012, 10:00:57 PM »

Erm... that I remember names being mentioned: Country Gardens, The Rose Tree, Portsmouth/Sailor's Hornpipe, Curly Headed Ploughboy, Laudanum Bunches. 

We don't use Portsmouth (except as an apres morris session tune) but play the other four for dancing. I find that the slows in Laudanum Bunches tend to throw me, I'm not quite sure why but some tunes seem almost evasive and that's one of them. Our side do a crowd pleasing and dangerous looking stick dance to The Curly Headed Ploughboy which they call 'Old Twanger', I've yet to see another side dance it but then again I live a sheltered life. The 'B' music sets off at breakneck speed for the dangerous sticking bit then rapidly slows back down in the last two bars to return to the rather sedate 'A' music. I'd be interested to know what Hands Around dance to the tune.

Pete.
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