putting 'lift' into dance music

[rancoman]

HA! A comedian as well as a box player!

Do we need to explain, for the benefit of our international membership, that 'The Rattlin' Bog' is a well known Scottish dance tune, a bog is a swamp or low-lying wet area of land, and 'rattlin' means extremely good? Also that 'bog' is a Scottish slang name for toilet? Maybe, maybe not.....

Anyway, it gave me a good laugh, AND I'll use the tune for my next video to demonstrate some of the things we have been talking about in here - tempo, lift, grace notes etc. It's a good tune to show all three.

Sorry about the delay in getting a video made - I'm just SO busy at the moment with other things that I'm too tired at night to do it. Must try harder.....

 

[george garside]

I think the tune rattlin' bog is based on the Irish song 'the bog down in the valley' but obviously played as a reel rather than a gentle song!. Either way its a great tune

george

 

[TomBR]

Well, since I was making a little video of a Student VM Im putting up for sale this morning, what else could I play!
A bit daunting this video lark, particularly after six months of nothing but CBA, but anyway. Interesting to see that my playing in the video comes out flatter than I thought I was doing. Ho hum.
O, wad some Power the giftie gie us, Tae see oursels as others see us!

[/url]

 

[rancoman]

Well done, Tom! Hard work getting a video up, innit?

I finally got a bit of time to do a second one, covering some possible different emphases on simple 3/4 time, a easy way to look at tunes for beginners, and some of the ways to use grace notes.


Hope it makes sense to anyone watching, and feel free to comment.

 

[george garside]

Highly recommended! If that didn't get your feet tapping they must be made of lead! For those not used to playing dance music listen carefully for the gaps as well as the notes as arguably the way the gaps are played is more important!

george :tup:

 

[rancoman]

This might be one of the most helpful posts I ever make. It's about mistakes.

We ALL make mistakes, EVERY time we pick up the box to play. I was rolling about laughing at Tom's comment above at having ten tries at making his great little video of 'Rattling Bog' to 'get it right' Been there, done that. We all have, and we all still make mistakes, because we're not machines, we are human.

I've now put up two videos, and both have mistakes in them. I sat down and played, and spoke (which is every bit as hard as playing!) and just recorded it, mistakes and all, because it wasn't for a broadcast or a record. If it had been, I would maybe have taken ten tries to get it right, you would all have watched it, and thought 'What a great player', but it's not real life.

One of the best ever Scottish Dance Band leaders was Alex McArthur, now sadly gone. He was famous for slip-ups, and often he could hardly play for laughing at them. I have a tape of a broadcast he made many years ago for Radio Scotland, where he jokes about holding the record for the highest number of mistakes in a broadcast - THAT'S the way to look at it.

I've sat on a stage in a band, completely forgotten what the next tune is halfway through an eightsome reel, and made up something as I go along to keep the dance going, with the rest of the band nearly falling off their seats laughing as I struggle to get back on course without the dancers noticing.

I have a tape somewhere of my own band playing at a concert, which was actually broadcast live on radio, where I played a little introduction for a singer, who had sung with us for years, in the key he ALWAYS sang that song in, and for some reason his mind blanked and started off in a different key. Over the first verse of the song, he tried about five keys to find the one WE were on, and we tried several to see if we could stumble on the one HE was using. Sheer brilliance - I listen to it often, and I STILL roll about laughing - and the audience were helpless with laughter too! Did we care? Not a bit!

Some of us will be brilliant players (don't you just HATE them?), some will be competent, some will just deedle along for their own pleasure - my advice is simple - ENJOY your own playing, because you do it for pleasure. Try to get better, of course, but don't let the hunt for perfection spoil one SECOND of your playing. Don't stop and start again to try to get it right - keep playing to the end of the tune - and laugh at yourself - like the oldies do!

 

[Pipemajor]

Making mistakes and still carrying on. Been there and done that.
I can remember one time when I was leading a British Legion Remembrance Service parade as a solo piper with a Scots Guards Sergeant marching alongside me. He set the pace which was far faster than I would have chosen. On the long march back to the Legion headquarters I'd just finished playing the inevitable "Back o' Benachie and Black Bear" which is always requested, when my mind went blank and I just couldn't think of another tune to follow on, so I just made one up on the hoof till my mind got back into gear and was able to carry on.
Perhaps we should have a new thread of "My most memorable mistake or embarrassing moment. (obviously playing wise!!)

 

[TomBR]

..... I was rolling about laughing at Toms comment above at having ten tries at making his great little video of Rattling Bog to get it right Been there, done that. We all have, and we all still make mistakes, because were not machines, we are human.

Great post rancoman, and I totally agree with the spirit and content as well as enjoying reading it. I will just say that my wee Rattling Bog video was the first and only take!
Cheers, Tom

 

[rancoman]

It's all gone quiet.... Are we boring people with this thread, or are there dozens of folk watching it and just too shy to take part?

I watched the two links last night to the young guy playing the continental five row using his left thumb as well. Several times. Fantastic. What a skill and talent, and such a nice guy as well. Made me want to pack it in and put my Rancos on eBay - I'll never be able to do that kind of stuff.

Then, I thought about the range and type of comments on this site - from folk thinking of buying a wee inexpensive box to learn to play, right up to guys like him who can make them talk. There's a lot more of US than there are of HIM, and WE enjoy what WE do every bit as much as he does.

I'll never be a brain surgeon, or a pilot - or an accordion virtuoso - but I've had mumblemumble years of pleasure from doing what I CAN do, and helping others enjoy what THEY do, and I'm going to keep doing it. So there!

For beginners - there is NO such thing as a stupid question to ask, so don't be shy about posting. You ask a question because YOU don't know the answer, and the easiest way to get the answer is to ask in here - someone will know the answer, and then you will too! :ch

 

[bocsa]

neither nor ...just chillin in France, god awful weather, far too much sunshine and it's too hot ...makes one awfy thirsty

I've worked out how to get lift ...just raise the right arm and tip the glass gently to the mouth :b

 

[rancoman]

:lol: You poor soul - my heart bleeds for you.... As I sit here watching the rain running down the windows.....

Enjoy your break :ch

 

[bocsa]

 

[george garside]

one of my most frequently occurring cockups is to play the A part of one tune with the B part of an entirely different tune. Band members quickly cotton on and the dancers don't seem to notice!

on one occasion I exelled myself cock up wise when when leading a procession of morris dancers for about a mile. The normal drill on such occasions was to play a series of marches , changing every so often to tunes they danced to as the procession stopped for the dancing before resuming the processing. I got stuck on one tune about half a mile in and couldn't for the life of me change into another one so they got the one for processing and dancing and I was rewarded with ribald comments such as is that the only bloody tune you know etc. But it was all good fun!

I play for fun, pleasure, enjoyment or whatever you want to call it and personally cannot see the point in playing if it becomes hard work or a chore or something equaly seriarse !

george {} :b :ch

 

[rancoman]

Exactly, George - we do it for PLEASURE. Therefore, anything which gives us more pleasure is a GOOD thing - learning how to use a little grace note, a wee bass run, a new bass chord, a new tune - all of them give us pleasure. How can we increase the PLEASURE folk get from playing and convince them not to worry about a mistake or what other folk think of their playing?

You and I (and anyone who has played for a long time) will have made some ferocious cockups, on stage in front of crowds. Do we sell the accordion? Nooooooo - we laugh our heads off and try to do better next time!

Being an ear player, and restricted to mainly Scottish music, I tend to play in the common open sharp keys - G, D, A, with an occasional venture down as far as F or B flat, because most of our music is written in those keys. I used to provide the music for a few of the Highlanders' Societies, and they always had a couple of Gaelic singers - usually Mod Gold Medallists and great singers. Terrifying!

They used to come up to the stage and say quietly, in beautiful soft, lilting highland voices, something like 'I'm going to sing 'O horo mo Chaillum Dhon', in three flats. Could I have a wee intro, and I'll do three verses and three choruses.'

Eeeeeeek! So, we used cunning to stand in for skill. I would lean forward and ask what sort of tempo they wanted, and they would sing a few bars quietly with the mic off. That let me know the tune, and I would play it in the nearest sensible (to me) key to the weird one they had specified, so A flat became A and so on.

In a playing career spanning many years, I was only called out once. I played for Alasdair Gillies, well-known Scottish singer and TV star. Great character, full of laughter and a great singer, and after he had finished singing, he came over to thank the band, put his hand on my shoulder, leaned in and said quietly 'Three FLATS, laddie, no' three SHARPS.....' grinned, winked and left the stage.

See - even the good and great understand about our limitations! Get your boxes on and ENJOY!

 

[george garside]

one of the (many) things I like about the BCC# (British Chromatic) is that you get 12 keys for the price of 5! so Ab is just G played on the inside 2 rows!. (Jimmy Shand recorded 'home on the range ' in A flat )

As to the pleasure/fun thing I think byearists and folk/trad players in general play for pleasure etc whilst conservatory trained classical types ''enjoy'' being told off for getting minute detail ''wrong'' - everybody to his own I suppose.

I once let a classicaly trained piano box player 'sit in' with a band and of course he wanted the dots for the tunes we would be playing - which I supplied. In the interval I got a right royal rollicking off him for the numerous mistakes I and the rest of the band had made!!! He didn't get another invite!

george

 

[JerryPH]

As to the pleasure/fun thing I think byearists and folk/trad players in general play for pleasure etc whilst conservatory trained classical types ''enjoy'' being told off for getting minute detail ''wrong'' - everybody to his own I suppose.

I once let a classicaly trained piano box player 'sit in' with a band and of course he wanted the dots for the tunes we would be playing - which I supplied. In the interval I got a right royal rollicking off him for the numerous mistakes I and the rest of the band had made!!! He didn't get another invite!

Oh George, don't do that, do be insulting to classically trained players, thats not nice.
No one likes being told they are wrong, at least I sure did not, it is just a different kind of style, where a lot of emphasis is placed on the perfection of playing the music "properly" as per the way the person who wrote the piece wanted it played. There is no difference in the level of enjoyment in playing it that way or in the way the musician wants to play it (which is often wildly different from the way it was written). Neither is right nor wrong, it is a simple choice and preference like everything else.

As for not inviting back this guy, that was the right thing to do, but please don't lump all classically trained players in the same group just because this one was not able to keep his mouth shut when he was supposed to. Rule #1 when playing outside your room is be respectful of everyone. When playing by yourself, be what you want to yourself, but outside that room, treat others as you would wish to be treated.

You more than followed that rule by just inviting this person... too bad he could not offer the same. We're not all clods.

 

[rancoman]

If I met a classically trained player I would be so overawed I would be all thumbs!

it is just a different kind of style, where a lot of emphasis is placed on the perfection of playing the music properly as per the way the person who wrote the piece wanted it played.

Does that mean that if I played something, and someone very good at music transcribed it accurately into written music and a talented accordionist played it back correctly as per the dots, it would sound just like me playing it? Can written music be THAT accurate if its written and played correctly?

 

[bocsa]

"as per the way the person who wrote the piece wanted it played." great ...if they're still around to ask

Ranco ... the dots are only the bones ...depends on how much flesh you leave on them

 

[TomBR]

one of the (many) things I like about the BCC# (British Chromatic) is that you get 12 keys for the price of 5! so Ab is just G played on the inside 2 rows!. (Jimmy Shand recorded 'home on the range ' in A flat )

I admire your unswerving loyalty to the B/C/C# George!
The system puts me in mind of the motorcycle/sidecar combination, a wonderful hybrid that in some ways shouldn't exist, which has some unique advantages and disadvantages, but which retains a small and loyal band of devotees!
Tom

 

[george garside]

I have heard both the BCC# and the motorcycle combination described as ''diabolical contraptions'' by their detractors, most of whom have never experienced said 'contraptions. Interestingly Sir Jimmy Shand was a great motorbike enthusiast but I don't know whether he ever drove a combination.

george