Description

Description

This fine collection of traditional music introduces dance tunes from various regions of Britain, Ireland and North America They are all excellent tunes, well-known and popular, but not over-played, hackneyed or obscure. Most of the tunes can be heard on recordings by notable bands and personalities, they are all currently in use by traditional musicians and are regularly played at concerts, dances and pub sessions. All of the tunes introduce some aspect of melodeon playing, and they are all presented in their normal keys. Learn 75 traditional tunes from England, Scotland, Wales, Shetland, Orkney, Ireland, France, Flanders, Canada and America. Morris and Playford tunes. Reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slides, mazurkas, waltzes, barn dances, marches, rants, slip jigs and triple hornpipes. The tunes are perfect for pub sessions, country dances, ceilidhs, barn dances and hoedowns.

“Welcome to my melodeon book. It’s full to bursting with useful ideas, hints, tricks, tips, techniques and great tunes to improve your playing style, speed up the learning process and to give you a better understanding of the instrument. It’s been a massive project, but it’s been well worth it, I’ve learned such a lot by writing it. When I got my first instrument there wasn’t a single D/G tutor book on the market, and even now, fifty years on, you’ll be lucky to find a dozen, so acquire every book you can. If you are new to the instrument, use this book in conjunction with simpler tutors. The lessons start at rock bottom, but the degree of difficulty rises steeply. Above the music, in addition to the fingering instructions, there are icons with names you might find corny and mildly amusing. However, they are essential to describe the fingering patterns, and a useful handle to help you apply them to other tunes.

You might think this book is a bit too complicated to be called “Beginners”. Yes, that may be so, but if you want to become proficient, you must practise, and without guidance you can easily find yourself practising unsound techniques. It’s no use waiting until you’ve formed bad habits before you think you are ready to tackle these lessons. Once you’ve learned a tune thoroughly, it can be very difficult to change the way you play it, after discovering a superior fingering pattern. Presented in this book is knowledge that has slowly trickled in during half a century of study. It’s my hope and desire that it will inspire players, boost their progress, propel their playing to excellence, and spur them on to perform with far greater skill, dexterity and aplomb, than I have been able to achieve.

Instant Melodeon, Absolute Beginners and Tunes and Techniques are three melodeon tuition books designed to be used simultaneously, not in any particular sequence.”

Contents

Foreword by Saul Rose

Introduction

The D/G Melodeon

The Treble and Bass Layout

Supporting and Playing the Melodeon

Musical Notes

Musical Time

The Musical Ladder

The Circle of Firths

The Circle of Fourths

Full Diamond

Hal Diamond

Quick Cross

Snappy Bellows

Changing Hand Position Along the Row

Changing Hand Position Using Row Crossing

The Bass Buttons

Chords

Creating the Harmony Line

The Chord Symbols

Playing the Accompaniment

Overcoming the Limitations and the Missing Minors

Traditional Music

TUNES

Country Gardens

Little Brown Jug

Polly Wolly Doodle

The Market Rasen Quickstep

Not for Joe

The Leeds Polka

Percy Brownʼs Polka

Albert Farmerʼs Bonfire Tune

The Morisco

Moston Rushcart

My Love My Love

One More Ribber

The Rogueʼs March

Captain Lanoeʼs Quick March

Whose Jig?

The Squirrel in the Tree

Burning Bridges

The Lollipop Man

The Rose Tree

Lord of the Dance

Mount Hills

Dark Girl

Up and Away

Fred Pidgeonʼs Polka

Iʼll Go Enlist for a Sailor

Jack Robinson

Owenʼs Jig

The Hills of Glenorchy

Paddy Carey

Tripping to the Well

The West Kerry Polka

Many a Wild Night

The Scartaglen Slide

Moyglass Fair

Joe Cooleyʼs Jig

The Blackthorn Stick

Up Leitrim

The Streets of Laredo

The Cumberland Waltz

Séamus McManusʼs Waltz

Red Haired Mary

Fairlop Park

Sir Philip McHugh

The Dusty Miller

The Rusty Gulley

The Old Lancashire Hornpipe

Rig-a-Jig

The Spirit of the Dance

The Farmersʼ Jamboree

Woodland Flowers

Postmanʼs Knock

The Little Burnt Potato

The Bodmin Riding March

Moonshine

Colored Aristocracy

The Yarmouth Hornpipe

Valentine

The Auvergne Mazurka

The Old Donegal Mazurka

Much Wenlock Stick Dance

Jennyʼs Bawbee

Marching Through Georgia

MacNamaraʼs Band

If There Werenʼt Any Women

The Stack of Oats

The Shannon Waves

Glise de Sherbrooke

Durham Rangers

The Hesleyside Reel

Monaʼs Delight

The Old Polka

The Portheinon Whim

Sheehanʼs Reel

Da Mirrie Boys oʼ Greenland

Three Jolly Sheepskins