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skipyskiphire
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1# |
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From: Great_britain
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04/09/2007
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(Date Posted:07/11/2007 14:28:20)
Hi again all,
Well, many weeks of practice, joining in sessions and enjoying Guinness have passed since I last wrote here.
Confession time, I still haven't started playing the Bass/Chords and to be honest, I'm not quite sure when and where to use them, so I've concentrated on my right hand, expanding my repertoire and improving the quality!
(It is sooooo much easier playing solo at home than keeping up in a session.... but soooo much more fun!!)
The musicians I've joined in with have advised me that, as I play mainly Irish, I shouldn't worry about the Bass/Chords, I just wondered what your opinions were, whether I should make the effort and if so how?
Many Thanks
Skipy
** One of the best sounds in the world "Can I buy the all the Musicians a drink?" **
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Theo Gibb
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2# |
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From: Great_britain
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(Date Posted:07/11/2007 15:52:41)
Hi Skipy
Yes it is definitely worth making the effort!
A harder question is what to play with the left hand. Many players never get past a sort of heavy thumping oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, which drive me up the wall when I hear it. If it is done very lightly it can be ok, but it needs some variety to keep it interesting for both player and audience.
You do not need the left hand to put rhythm into your playing. Just think of how much rhythm/drive/lift a good fiddle player can get into a dance tune and aim for that.
So what should you do? Well the best ever playing advice I received was from Andy Cutting. He said " Put the rhythm into your right hand playing, then you can do something more interesting with the left hand"
And the more interesting things can include:
drones (you have C and D on both directions)
bass runs (you have all of the scale of G on an 8 bass except for F#)
off-beat/syncopated bass lines
bass only (no chords) bass lines
just for starters.
As an entry point into this adventure with the bass end try and work out how to play the G scale on the bass buttons and then try a simple tune on the bass only!
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Fee
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3# |
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28/03/2004
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(Date Posted:07/11/2007 16:50:57)
Reply to : Theo Gibb
Many players never get past a sort of heavy thumping oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, which drive me up the wall when I hear it.
It drives me mad too, but it's what I do, and I'm hoping Saul Rose can help to stop me doing it this weekend!
Re: the question, I should think it'll be easier to learn to play with both hands from the start than leave it for ages and try to pick it up later, should you feel the urge. Look in it as an investment  .
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Theo Gibb
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4# |
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Posts:758
From: Great_britain
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(Date Posted:07/11/2007 22:02:37)
Reply to : Fee
Re: the question, I should think it'll be easier to learn to play with both hands from the start than leave it for ages and try to pick it up later, should you feel the urge. Look in it as an investment.
And while you're doing it try to use all four fingers of your left hand. You might need to take off your wristwatch and push your hand further through the strap.
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Matthew B
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(Date Posted:07/11/2007 23:44:18)
Reply to : skipyskiphire
It's extremely entertaining to try some "cross rowing" (row crossing) with the left hand as well. There are lots of extra chords hidden on the left, and they become more accessible if you use all four fingers. Bass/bass combinations and "wrong" (i.e. non-adjacent) bass/chord combinations can be very interesting. If you have some stops on the left and can drop low notes and thirds the possibilities are even greater, and there are some additional possibilities: chord/chord combinations and bass/bass/bass combinations that work pretty well.
Two things helped me a lot when I started thinking about this myself. First, listening to Chris Parkinson's recording of Mr Isaac's Maggott, which has got some very fancy left-hand stuff in it, and which is slow enough and clear enough for me to follow by ear. Second posting a question here about left hand chords. A number of replies came in, neatly summarized by George "Tony Hall does this very well without any need for a chart which to me is the traditional way to do it. Are we getting in danger of having two schools of thought - the traditional 'if it sounds right do it' and the semi classical/ theoretical who need everything worked out or preset."
In the end I followed George's advice, and I still don't know what any of the chords are actually called, but I like the way they sound.
The big challenge for me is that once I started doing this, I actually had to learn, and remember, a left-hand part of the tune as well as a right-hand part of the tune. No more HONK-blat! autopilot.
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Txbear
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(Date Posted:08/11/2007 02:34:15)
Reply to : Matthew B
Reply to : skipyskiphireIt's extremely entertaining to try some "cross rowing" (row crossing) with the left hand as well. There are lots of extra chords hidden on the left, and they become more accessible if you use all four fingers. Bass/bass combinations and "wrong" (i.e. non-adjacent) bass/chord combinations can be very interesting. If you have some stops on the left and can drop low notes and thirds the possibilities are even greater, and there are some additional possibilities: chord/chord combinations and bass/bass/bass combinations that work pretty well.Two things helped me a lot when I started thinking about this myself. First, listening to Chris Parkinson's recording of Mr Isaac's Maggott, which has got some very fancy left-hand stuff in it, and which is slow enough and clear enough for me to follow by ear. Second posting a question here about left h
Since I am a one row player (Cajun) the bass world is much simpler, we only have two buttons and four notes, but there are still quite a few complexities to consider. In a solo accordion situation, the bass is universally used, primarily to establish the dance rythmn and to fill out the sound of the solo instrument. When and accordion is part of a band however, things can change a lot. The bass is often dropped while other instruments establish the rythmn (guitar, drums, triangle, or washboard). Often the bass is played as background rythmn or as accompaniment to a singer or a fiddle solo. When playing in second and third position, many times the bass tones are completely wrong for the key of the song, this lends a discordant sound that can actually be quite interesting. Particular ways of using the bass can be part of a player's "signature" sound. I'm sure that is true of just about every tradition.
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skipyskiphire
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7# |
Rank:none
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Posts:9
From: Great_britain
Registered:
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(Date Posted:08/11/2007 03:07:15)
As an entry point into this adventure with the bass end.............
Oh my............ What have I started here? drones, bass runs, off-beat/syncopated bass lines...... Errmm!!
I can see why those Musicains said "dont worry!" Seriously though, many thanks to you all for all this excellent advice but after reading all this, I must admit, I'm spinning! I can see this box playing taking years to conquer.
Theo, I think I'll start with your advice by playing a scale and simple tune on the Bass only and then write again, along with talking to the Box player in my local session. I do try to watch his fingers on both hands but it doesn't help with him having 23 buttons+three rows in D/G whereas my Morgane is 21 buttons B/C.
Oh, by the way Theo, No problem regarding removing the wristwatch......... I sold that to buy the box!!
Many Thanks again all, keep it coming
Skipy
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