I don't consider it the worst idea to instill a sense of metronome in a 7-year old. Once timing is ingrained, you have a good basis for deliberately straying from a meter, and it will come across in that way rather than feeling like your timing is sloppy all over the place. When you are playing for dancers, there is no leeway to mold the tempo around the aural complexity of musical phrases. Also it takes more work to play a piece solidly at 100% speed than it takes to play it mostly at 120% while glossing over the dirty corners. Striking the right balance between fun and aggravation for putting a pupil firmly on a footing that will make them return to the instrument for the rest of their life is, of course, the ultimate goal. There are no guaranteed recipes for that, and it may require a teacher to be good in other respects than what is required when only working with master students.
Ho ho ho! (Christmas gigs)
- Thread starter Rosie C
- Start date
My 2 cents. -- I am really the average guy trying to learn music styles . improvisation, etc. the only "official" lessons I took was from Gaus music (Walter Gaus) for 2 yrs. in 1950- 1952. This was the "heyday of the accordion", especially if you lived in Euclid, Ohio at that time when Frankie Yankovic was king of the polka.
As you have probably seen, in my previous posts, I didn't like that -- Walter was tapping on the music stand, so I would "keep the beat" -- play each song/excercise 15 times each day. It was like he was teaching me to be a "robot" . I never fit that type of lesson. Now I realize what I really like is "rubato". That's how I play now and love it. I have never played with anyone else or in a group band. I don't think I would like it since I like to "do my own thing". With the accordion, especially the Roland or Korg digitals, I can be like a "one" man band".
Please realize, I have great respect for concert bands/symphony players, where you have to play the music exactly as it is written -- what a mess that would be if all the players were not together, in unison, for their part. To play in a group is much more difficult than what I do.
Note that a proper rubato on the accordion is pretty hard since it implies a steady beat in the left hand with free lines in the right hand. The rhythm hand can slow down and speed up again and of course join a fermata, but halting delivery of single notes because your right hand gets clogged up is a lot more annoying for the audience than it appears to the player: after all, chances are that the player is slowing down because of being busy, and being busy takes the attention away from how the performance appears to the audience.
Rubato means adapting to the music's sway, not adapting to the music's difficulty. When in doubt, record and listen. While not making you unbiased, it will allow you to better judge the effect on the listener. When both melody and accompaniment go "rubato", you lose the strength of an accordion's "one man band" projection and the rubato has no meter it can contrast itself against.
That would be significantly above my playing ability! My understanding is that rubato is a localised variation of tempo for artistic reasons, and I tend to do it at the end of verses for emphasis. An example that comes to mind is Buddy Holly's "Rave On" - at the end of each verse he slows just a few bpm slower than the overall song tempo. Then he starts the chorus a few bpm faster, and if you run the song against a metronome, there's no overall change to the tempo - he's like a robot, by the second line of the chorus he's back with the metronome again - a literal interpretation of "rubato" (robbing), the time is taken then given back.
The usual ritardando tends to occur only on the last verse to indicate coming to a conclusion not just harmonically.
Not unusual for studio recordings where the singer is recording when everybody else has already made their track.
The Wikipedia entry for Rubato has a lot to yap about the respective roles of accompaniment and melody in rubato. It mentions Chopin as a player who worked a comparatively free right hand over a comparatively rigid left hand. When multiple instruments are in play, this separation of roles (rather than a general change of tempo where nothing is really stolen and needs to be given back) is very typical for rubato. It doesn't mean that the accompaniment does not need to accommodate the soloist to some degree, but the impression definitely is that the soloist is taking the freedoms and the accompaniment continues to provide the reference frame.
Polyphonic instruments have their own challenges with that. Drum solos also tend to go in that direction, with the bass drum essentially being in autonomous mode while one or two hands are working comparatively freely, occasionally returning to the principal beat at the end/begin of phrases.
If they invited you back, thats a GOOD THING. Also, just a question, but what are you tuned at with your Concerto? Is it A=440hz? If that is so, the group may be tuned to a different pitch and that is what **might** be causing you to hear the difference.
You got this Rosie!
I've been thinking about this and what felt wrong. I think it may be as simple as I need to switch off the 'musette'. But I'll check the tuning as well.
Looking good!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!
Thanks both, and wise words from @KeysFla. It went well! For a break in our first set I played Silent Night and O Tannenbaum. I was plugged into our band's PA, which was daisy-chained to the venue's house PA. There was an 'ooh' from the audience when I hit a C bass note and it filled the room like a church organ. The audience were singing along too.
The second pair of tunes - "Mistletoe & Wine" and "When a Child is Born" were OK but not quite as good. By this point in the evening mead had been consumed and the audience were quite noisy and we'd likely changed the PA levels returning from the interval. I couldn't hear my accordion very well, which was a first!
I'm playing again today - baton down at 11am, but I'll be at the back this time, trying not to detract from the brass band.
Disaster! I played the first carol, all good. I was indeed at the back right next to the tuba, which had a gorgeous sound. I drew back the bellows for the start of the next tune and an E note started sounding continuously - a treble pallet disconnected.
For that kind of thing, some sort of first aid course or similar that makes one comfortable with emergency measures might make a helpful difference. I've had my own share of hot fixes...
Ventura
Been here for ages!
i looked at the stage photo again, your band does use music stands,
though some of you now use smaller tablets on stands ?
the large one with the perforated aluminum music holder would do,
or bring a similar sized type with the solid aluminum plate if you have one
(we call them Hamilton type stands over here)
the purpose, aside from holding your music is in a pinch, you
can angle them to bounce some of your sound back at you
during moments like that, and angle your accordion a bit more
directly toward the stand as well
Oh no!!!! For this reason I have thought to bring an emergency backup instrument, although I never do. Hope you survived ok Rosie!
Taping off works better with normal scotch tape on the base of the reed blocks because the reed block will keep the tape from being blown open.
Some of those older pallets are waxed in. I suspect that hot glue from a standard glue gun would actually work pretty well.
EDIT: as a hot fix, probably a really bad idea since wax residues would melt and be incompatible with the glue (and might drop in places where they don't belong). That would likely work only after thoroughly removing all wax residues, possibly better if there aren't any to start with (namely with a new pallet).
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Ventura
Been here for ages!
meanwhile, just the other day i had my own problem on a Christmas gig..
was completely up-staged when a delightful and enthusiastic
and talented group of ridiculously cute Brownies blew into the
venue, all bejeweled with bells and baubles, singing and caroling
and hugging the people in the audience
i simply could not compete with them so i just played along !
was completely up-staged when a delightful and enthusiastic
and talented group of ridiculously cute Brownies blew into the
venue, all bejeweled with bells and baubles, singing and caroling
and hugging the people in the audience
i simply could not compete with them so i just played along !
When I was doing paid gigs on double bass, I used to pack a bass guitar in the car 'just in case'. But I've not currently got anything that could have stood in today.
That's an interesting idea - simple & effective. We did have a monitor speaker, but my headset mic is a condenser so feeds back very easily. I need to sort *something* out. When I played double bass I used in-ear-monitors which worked great. I should be able to use them now, but I've been a little nervous since taking up vocal duties of the risk of feedback.
Yes, the whole band use tablets now. The big music stand holds two - one with music for the keyboard player, one with the same lead sheets that the vocalists are using. Our bass player uses whichever he feels like.
