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Singing Along

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hais1273

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Best wishes for the New Year to everybody, bit late I know but better late as they say...

Would any one like to offer me any advice on accompanying myself while I squawk out a few folkie type songs., Peat Fire Flame, Bonney Ship the Diamond, Lizzie Lindsay, that sort of thing.
 
I'm sorry to say I don't know any of these songs, but I would say start with your regular bass pattern and hit chords in your right hand, matching or replacing your left hand chords. Do fills or triads in the spaces between melody lines if you can. Use a tuner to check your intonation while matching your voice to a melody note, practice singing over the melody to get in tune if you have to.
 
My route into this is to get pretty comfortable playing the tune with bass end accompaniment, then to use the lightest right hand register I have and sing along. That seems to make it quite easy, and possibly easier than just playing left hand end. Anything else I can add from then on is a bonus! Obviously bits of instrumental between verses etc are an easy addition.

(I don't want to drift this thread but I wrote a couple of extra verses for "Bonny Ship" to make it more acceptable to current views! Available if anyone is interested.)
 
my 2 cents is to basically NEVER hit a note on the right hand at the
same time as the singer hits a note

you have to use interruptus and self control.. hit your note slightly AFTER
so you allow the vocalist to soar

unless your right hand is holding a chord gently as the singer glides along

it is a complete difference in brain process, as we typically are playing the
melody with right hand and are second nature that way, but supporting Vocals
requires that we do not COMPETE for the melody line at all

and secondly, always try and use an inversion so your TOP note is NOT the melody note
and actually keep the melody note out of your right hand chording as much as you can
 
Ventura,
"...but supporting Vocals
requires that we do not COMPETE for the melody line at all."
An excellent principle much observed in music before the 1960s.
Then, somehow, eventually it became every player for themselves and, frequently, the instrumentalists virtually all but drowned out the vocalists , with the percussionists often leading the charge !?
 
I certainly agree that accompaniment should not compete for the melody line. I think it's important to remember we're talking about accompanying your own singing here, and that gives a unity of vocal and accompaniment that's different from accompanying another person. The OP is looking for suggestions about starting to self-accompany on accordion. It's good to have perfection in mind, but it's also good to get started in some way!

When John Kirkpatrick is accompanying himself I hear a lot of the tune in the accordion part as well, and if it's good enough for John....


Nobody is interested but I'm going to add my extra verses for "The Bonny Ship the Diamond" anyway!
"We killed so many whales my boys,
We didn't think it wrong,
But now we'll leave the Davis Strait
And whales to their song.

We drove them near extinction boys,
Thank God we stopped in time,
And now to kill a whale me boys,
We think it is a crime.

So it's cheer up lads
Let your hearts never fail
The bonny ship the Diamond
Will never hunt the whale!"
 
To those who may not know, the tunes given as an example by hais1273 at the top of this thread are all Scottish and were sung by the folk group 'The Corries' , among many others. They were highly regarded in their field and their own accompanying might give some clues about the subject. They're all on YouTube.
'The Peat Fire Flame' celebrates the warm, homely glow of burning peat in the home for heating and cooking purposes.
'The Bonny Ship the Diamond' refers to the once busy whaling industry based in Scotland.
Leezie Lindsay, a scottification of a girls name, Elizabeth Lindsay is a song by the poet Robert Burns. The singer is trying to entice
'Leezie' to accompany him to the Scottish Highlands. For no good reason I've always imagined the singer to be a Lowlands shepherd about
to move the the Highlands where the glens were being cleared of people and replaced by sheep. The cleared people were scattered to the
four corners of the world finishing up in America, Canada etc.
 
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Best wishes for the New Year to everybody, bit late I know but better late as they say...

Would any one like to offer me any advice on accompanying myself while I squawk out a few folkie type songs., Peat Fire Flame, Bonney Ship the Diamond, Lizzie Lindsay, that sort of thing.
you need a powerful voice if the accordion is loud.
 
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