Review of Progress

It's about 3 or 4 weeks since I last reviewed where I had got to, so time to review progress. Which is not as much as I had hoped, it is always the case with learning anything, you do hit plateaux. 

I remember when my son was learning to read, at one point he could read well over a hundred individual words, but didn't seem to be able to string them together. He loved books, was always looking at them, and talking about them, asking about any words he didn't recognise. However, it was "What is this word, David?" "Can you read the next one?" all the way through the book. This seemed to go on for ages. Then one day I was tidying the room, David was sitting on the sofa, with a book on his lap, as usual. He picked it up, and read it aloud, cover to cover, no prompting. It seems like you have to go through an awful lot of learning to be able to put all the things together and do something new. 

So, I don't beat myself up if I haven't made the progress I'd like, I remind myself that this 'invisible learning' is going on, and is a necessary part of the process. It is also true that where I can't see progress from day to day, someone else might be able to see it if they were only looking at my progress every month, say. I did intend to video myself early on, as a reminder to how much progress I had made, but it just didn't happen.

The 'folkie' and nursery tunes have been fairly easy to get the melody for, they are easy to practice, I just rattle them off, one after the other, once through only. I probably should run through several times, but I get bored with nursery rhymes.

I do understand the music theory a bit better, I wouldn't be so daft as to say that I 'understand music', but some things are starting to make a bit of sense. One of my colleagues in the music department spent some time explaining the 'circle of fifths' in a different way, and it really did make sense (I show her how to use the computers, she explains music, works well really). I've also been following Howard Goodall's TV programme on music.

I also asked on Melodeon.net about sessions locally. My plan is to lurk in the corner and watch what other people are doing, learn some tunes, and maybe at some time in the future join in with some easy bits. I went to my first session last Sunday night. It was snowing heavily, so many regulars cried off. At first I found myself in the pub with just my husband, and two other people, one of whom was only there as the husband of the woman, Sue, who was organising it. Other people did arrive later, and the group were very welcoming, but there were no melodeons, and they were largely playing Irish tunes - none of which I recognised - except the tune which Simple Minds used for 'Belfast Child' about the Enniskillen bombing. Clearly I need to work on my repetoire. The only thing I tried to play, when virtually everyone had gone, was Bear Dance, and I completely messed it up.

Short term I need to have just one or two tunes that I can completely rely on getting right every time, whether I am performing in front of others, or not. Probably Bear Dance. I've already decided that I need to not just run once through a tune to remind myself of the sequence of notes, which I've got into the habit of doing in a rather lazy way. I've got to stick to a vey limited set of tunes, and play the whole tune, A and B music, as many times as they need to be played in session - then I won't launch into the B music when I should be playing the A music.

I am also trying to make progress with the left hand, but it's very slow. 

Today, walking through the main school hall at work, there was a group of 6th formers sitting around drinking coffee. One of my A level students was playing 'Clocks' on the grand piano - so I talked to him about how he gets right and left hand coordinated. He says he learns each hand completely separately, and doesn't attempt to put them together until he is completely fluent on each hand. He then slows right down and puts them together, slowly building up the speed. He says it can easily take a month to get it so that he can play a tune to his satisfaction. I think maybe I need to try that. It might not be the recognised way of doing it, but I think I need to at least see if it helps me. Work out the left hand end and learn it separately to the right, then put them together.

Still continuing to love squeezing.

Learning to play with 'others'

Continuing to learn new right hand tunes - stuck on the bass end - a way of playing with 'others'

RIGHT HAND END
Having largely dumped the Christmas tunes - except for the occasional quick run through - I've started to add more tunes. Which, for me, usually means learning the tune first - via YouTube or getting the ABC and putting it into a converter (see my links). I've added a few 'folkie' or 'nursery' tunes that I already know as well - Drunken Sailor, Scarborough Fair, Polly put the Kettle on, Bobby Shaftoe, etc. Also ones that I don't know, not having come from a folkie background - Buttered Peas, Bear Dance, Dirty Old Town, Buffalo Gals, Dorset 4 Handed Reel, Princess Royal, etc. I'm still working on Theme Vannitaise (there's just a couple of bars that I can't get to work right). Some of them I just sit down and learn - Bear Dance and Scarborough Fair were easy enough, others I just play from the 'dots' - and find that after a while I know enough of the bars to be able to start learning some of the rest. 

GRUMPY END

I had decided that after Christmas I would start seriously on the 'Left Hand End' - the scary end. And I do work on it every day - a bit. Not surprisingly I find that my hands always want to do the same thing at both ends - Twinkle Twinkle is easy-ish, but when my left hand is following a very different pattern to the right hand it becomes much harder. So I just work on small sections - for example the first couple of bars of Buttered Peas, repeated endlessly, starting slowly and building up speed. After a few run throughs of this there start to be noises from elsewhere in the house - my husband sighing quietly, the dog groaning from his bed, "will you SHUT UP!!" from the room where my son is on-line gaming. The whole thing is made harder by me being tone deaf and having no idea about music theory. I've started to read music books at bedtime to try to better understand things like bars and beats. 

MUSIC THEORY - BEATS
Sorry, I know what the theory is, and I like to listen to music, so my brain must be able to process the information, but I really can't hear 'beats'. I'm not talking about the tremelo 'wet tuning' beats when I play one long note on my pokerwork - I'm talking about the beats in a bar. I have tried listening, but I can't tell the difference in beats between a 4/4 tune and a 3/4 tune. I can cope with beats when it's simple, like "Twinkle Twinkle" - 4 beats to the bar - I can SEE that when I look at the music. Each note is one beat - apart from the couple of longer ones. But show me something with a 4/4 time, but has 8 little dots... No, actually, I can sort of work that one out. It's when it gets more complicated - it hasn't got to be dozens of dots, or complex time signatures - even this sort of thing (Dirty Old Town - Ewan McColl) is difficult to work out. 

I know from theory where the beats should be - but can I 'hear' them? No.

Obviously, I'll just have to work on it - one day it will seem simple.

NOTEFLIGHT
I came across Noteflight a couple of years ago when one of my students was putting his own compositions into his blog. A free membership allows you to put up to 10 tunes in - with a limited number of instruments. You can set the time signature and the key, and you can change the speed - which is very useful for me. For more tunes and more features you have to subscribe.

I've put a few tunes in that I'm currently working on. I slow them down a bit - to 80 or 100 crotchets per minute instead of 120 then I bung in a couple of empty bars at the beginning, and then try to play along with the computer.

Good heavens it's difficult. Things that I thought I'd got pat become unplayable when 'someone else' is playing at the same time. I find I've got some sections at a completely different speed (the harder sections!) I can't remember the sequence of notes when I'm concentrating on keeping up - even slowed down. I'm pushing in when I should be drawing out - and vice versa. It's very like the only time I got to play with others, at the Melodeon Playday. While I was OK playing alone, or with the massed melodeons playing "Donkey Riding" - I completely lost my head when I tried to play along in the pub. I panicked and just played rubbish. So, I'm now working on a few tunes at a time, I will speed them up as I get more proficient, and then substitute new tunes.

But - still LOVING it.

And I've signed up for Melodeons and More in March - although I've got some rather odd options, having left it too late when sending off my application. One row Cajun in C? Oh well, I'll try something new - who knows where it will take me?

Into the New Year

I've tried to do some practice every day - twice if possible, as I think that breaking up your learning is more effective. So I'd rather do two (or even three!) shorter sessions, than one longer one. The only day I didn't get to practice was when I was staying in a Travelodge in Loughborough, and it was torrential rain outside - I couldn't even go and practice in the car, as that was some distance away in an NCP car park.

During December I played quite a lot of tunes from Paul Hardy's Christmas Tune book, but in the end I concentrated on four tunes, and tried to learn them: Good King Wenceslas; Ding Dong Merrily (Branle de l'officiel); In the Deep Midwinter; Sussex Carol. They were chosen either because I like them, or because they were themed on Mel.net, or, in the case of Wenceslas, I found that I'd learned large chunks of it, 'by accident', anyway.

I now sort of 'know' about 15 tunes, although I can find myself getting completely confused at times. I've decided to drop the Christmas ones, to pick them up again when I need them in December, and substitute some more folky tunes - including 'Buttered Peas' and 'Buffalo Gals'. I'll also be working to really learn the ones that I 'know', so that I won't have to think about them.  

I've also started to try and get to grips with the 'grumpy end' - the bass. Oh, wow, that is hard! Trying to do different things with different fingers at each end - not easy. A little bit each session at the moment, and don't feel guilty when I trip over my fingers, or make horrendous noises. It will come.

I sometimes feel that almost everyone playing the melodeon plays just folk tunes, or ones that have been specifically written for the melodeon. I do wonder about the 'melodeon etiquette' of playing pop tunes, etc. There are examples where accordions are used in modern popular music, although they are rare - Jona Lewie played accordion in 'Seaside Shuffle' and there are Finnish Metal Bands with accordion players.  I love Ed Rennie's version of 'Flowers in the Rain', but these examples seem very rare to me. (ADDED: my son has just reminded me of this version of Mamma Mia  - not sure what I think of that!)

Don't get me wrong. I want to play folk tunes. However, I do wonder if there is a reason why there seems to be so little cross over with pop/rock? Is it that many of the tunes can't be played on the diatonic keyboards? I'd be interested to know, as there is so much modern 'folk', which perhaps could be played (and is often very available in guitar books). As an example, I've been playing 'Fields of Gold', which appears in a simple guitar book that we've bought now that my husband and son are having another go at learning the guitar that we bought 30 years ago. It seems to me to have many similarities to more traditional folk songs - or perhaps in my ignorance, it doesn't.

 

Learning some tunes

After the 'melodeon playgroup' I switched tactics a bit. Prior to that I had just played a wide range of tunes from Paul Hardy's Christmas tunebook by trying to follow the dots. I largely played anything that I could recognise the tune for. However, since the 'playgroup' I've been trying to focus on a smaller range of tunes, and try quite hard to learn them.

I thought that I'd just learn one or two tunes, then once I had those sorted I'd learn some more, but I've carried on practising some other tunes, from a reduced list. I've started to find that I begin to be able to play a couple of bars from the tune from memory, so I add it to my list of things I am learning. I'm still largely leaving the bass end of things alone because except with 'Twinkle Twinkle', I find that trying to work out the bass makes me completely forget the other end. I'm planning to make a more concerted effort with the bass end over the Christmas break - hopefully, by then I will have a few tunes fairly well learned.

Tunes I can 'mostly' make my way through without any major problems: "Twinkle, Twinkle"; "Donkey riding"; "Speed the Plough"; "Skye Boat Song"; "Winster Gallop". I might have to slow down a bit on some sections while I remember where I have to go next. However, I don't really feel that I have completely learned them yet.

Tunes I can remember some bits from: "Polly put the Kettle on"; "Ding Dong Merrily on High"; "Kafoozalum"; "In the deep mid-winter"; "Cock of the North"

What's still on the list: "Shoe the Donkey"; "Keel row"; "British Grenadiers"; "Portsmouth". I can remember very short sections of these - a bar or so.

I know that I need to spend more time looking at the couple of tutor books (and Ed Rennie's DVD) that I have, but I tend to pick up the box when I've got a couple of minutes spare, which results in me trying to remember the tunes I do know.

The Melodeon Playgroup

This weekend I've been to the Fleece Inn at Bretforton near to Evesham. Strigolino, of Melodeon.net, organised a beginners to intermediate "Playday" to give people confidence in playing in public. There was only one experienced player, to keep us all on track, give advice, and show us the inner workings of a melodeon - that was Lester, from whom I bought my melodeon, less than 4 weeks ago.

It was enormous fun. Yesterday we met in the barn at the pub, introduced ourselves, then had a 'massed melodeons' playing of "Donkey riding". I tried to play fairly quietly, as I was quite worried about making horrible honking noises with my melodeon, and I kept finding my fingers going to the wrong places, although at home I can play this through without too much difficulty.

At 12 we had lunch, talked, practiced various bits of music. Then at 1 Lester showed us how the melodeon works, giving us advice about basic maintenance we can do ourselves. From 2:30 to 4:00 we did solo pieces. I managed to get through "Skye Boat Song" with some mistakes, and a number of things that I knew that I was doing wrong (air button!), but felt very pleased to have gone out in 'public' and played, less than 4 weeks after starting to play the melodeon.

My husband, who had decided at the last minute to accompany me, came back from visiting the Gloucester and Warwickshire railway in a torrential downpour, and we went to check in to the hotel. By 6 pm we were back at the Fleece Inn, and in the Barn listening to people playing. 

We had a meal booked in the pub for 7 pm, after which one of the other attendees at the 'playgroup' suggested that as the musicians for the evening session were about to turn up we might want to keep our seats.

In the fairly small room there were people playing: 5 or 6 melodeons, three fiddles, a bodhran, two guitars and a concertina, as well as a percussionist with various instruments including a cajon - which he was sitting on most of the time. This was in addition to all the people who were standing around listening.

After a night at the hotel to the north of Evesham we headed back to the Fleece - finding the road blocked by a flood - it had apparently continued to rain throughout the night. As we were deciding what to do about it another car drove through it in the other direction - it seemed no deeper than a ford, so we chanced it, and got through.

We had gone back to see the Belle D'Vain clog morris side who were supposed to be dancing out, but they only had 5 dancers able to get there. They need 6 or 8, so the dance turned into another music session in the pub.

I've added a couple of videos to give the flavour, although I'm afraid the sound poor. It's not just the fact that the camera was pretty basic, but also the fact that it's hard to record a room full of instruments without it being heavily biased towards the nearest instrument.

The Fleece Inn Bretforton November 24 2012:

VIDEO 1
VIDEO 2

The Fleece Inn Bretforton November 25 2012:
 
VIDEO 3
VIDEO 4

Small steps

I'm continuing to practice. A bit when I get in from work, then again another short session later on. At weekends I try to get three sessions in, if it is at all possible. They don't need to be long sessions, but as a teacher, my understanding of learning is that it works better little and often - especially with physical skills and muscle memory.

I'm working a lot on the carols, just because they are tunes that I recognise, so I can at least have a go at getting them to sound as they should do.  I at least recognise when I've played a duff note.

Very occasionally, for just a fraction of a second, I find my fingers thinking that they know where to go next - sometimes they are right.

Christmas is coming

One of my difficulties is that I don't know what tunes should sound like. When I look in a tune book and see "South Australia", "Cock of the North", "Buffalo Gals", then I don't associate them with any tunes. Being of limited musical skill I don't know how these should sound, and so can't play them. I can find the right notes, but while I can see what length the notes should be, I can't yet translate that to my playing. I need to know what the tune sounds like to be able to make a reasonable stab at it.

This means I spend a lot of time looking up tunes on Youtube, or tracking down a MIDI file to be able to find out if I know the tune or not. Actually, I do know most of the ones that I look up, I can remember singing "South Australia" back in "first year" at secondary school. Of course I know "Cock of the North", as soon as I found out that it is also known as "Aunty Mary", I knew what it is - although I don't remember ever hearing the slightly risque lyrics that go with "Aunty Mary". 

On the other hand, while I am not religious, I do know many tunes to carols, and can recognise what they should sound like. I've also discovered Paul Hardy's song books - including the Christmas version. This gives me a large number of tunes that I can practice with to get the buttons and their associated notes stuck in my head. Many of them are also quite slow (think: "Once in Royal David's City", "Silent Night", "In the deep midwinter"). This means that that my fingers don't have to fall over each other, and I can build up speed slowly. I know from having learned to type that it is a matter of muscle memory. As I am typing this I am not thinking about what letter comes next - it is automatic. That is what I need to do with the melodeon - it has to become automatic.

As Christmas is only 6 weeks away, now is the perfect time to be practicing playing carols.