SILENT NIGHT - Group participation!

[JerryPH]

It is only slightly easier on the smaller Hohner, but only from the points that the red Hohner FB 36 is so much smaller and lighter. It is also much more limiting in what one can play thanks to the 36 notes as opposed to the 58 notes of a full Free Bass. One also has to pay more attention to bellows as the amount of air in the smaller one is much more limited compared to the huge bellows of the big box.

On the big box, when switching back and forth from Free Bass to Stradella, the concession that one has to make/learn is to play with a slightly looser hand-strap so that the hand/forearm can slide in much further so you can reach the Free Bass. During my day at the conservatory, converter accordions were quite rare. Everyone had either a Gola, Morino or the rare Giuletti.

In terms of feel for the fingers, they are both the same. Free Bass on the Roland, however, drives me nuts as the buttons are further apart and used to give me cramps! The hand strap is is even closer to the wrist than the little Hohner as the buttons are further down to the bottom edge. Three completely different feeling Free Bass experiences even if the layout of the notes are the same for all. When I was younger, I could easily play standing all day long. Now, I think it would be both stupid and detrimental to my back to do so. When I play the big Morino, it is ONLY when sitting.

Sorry to have pulled this off topic... let's return back to Silent Night renderings from others... come one people, we know you can and want do this!

 

[jozz]

here's one for the road :ch

 

[TomBR]

heres one for the road :ch

Very good. So, a nice draaiorgel (street organ) feel to it? :lol:

One for the road - on old friend who was a much more dedicated drinker than me used to follow that drink with one for the click of the garden gate!

 

[Geronimo]

[swapping left and right hand]

Interesting idea but I doubt it would work well for Silent Night: the left hand has a really piercing sound in its treble range, sort of the antithesis to cassotto (my last orchestra use was for some Wilhelm Tell solo in a Rossini medley). Ill give it a try but youll have to wait a few days: switching hands is not something Ill be pulling off sightreading, I think.

I had to try it because the idea intrigued me. {}
I had 45 minutes today to play, and I ran through the song 2-3 times and recorded it twice... and made a video playing the song on my Free Bass accordions, using the let hand for the melody and the right for the harmony. 15 minutes on the computer again to edit the video and upload to YouTube, and... here is that version.

Jerry, you are a nuisance. I first worked on playing the original arrangement as-is, just left and right hand swapped. That requires me to use L in the right hand (or I wont reach D2) but of course thats not what you meant as your piano accordion doesnt even go there.

Now I moved the original accompaniment up three octaves and play it in L and then MMM, while doing the left parts in tenor/baritone range (namely one octave below notation) in L and then LM. And the result is incredible. Also swapping left and right hands ties my brain in knots. I am afraid I need to type that sucker off and print my own corrected version.

Such a lot more work than anticipated, and then this was supposed to be a sales pitch for the standard bass accordion I want to sell, and now I am going to showcase the free bass and the angelic MMM of the instrument I am going to keep. And it will cause me days of practice and typesetting, too. Too bad its really too good to let slip.

That being said: I think Ive heard Morino VIM instruments other than yours and I have the suspicion that your recording may not do it full justice (I cannot vouch for the small free bass instrument since I know no comparable original). What mics in what position do you use here? Any postprocessing? It sounds more like a mic suitable for PA (with some proximity effect) rather than recording. I may be mistaken. Accordion is such a picky beast for recording...

 

[Geronimo]

heres one for the road :ch

Nice one! Im too boorish to be able to pull smart renditions like that off the cuff: its either the brainless straightforward rendition or prewritten scores for me. And it takes a long time of working out a prewritten score before I start adding my own elements out the box, even if its sort of the same box that the original came in.

Too much classic violin in my youth I suppose. At some point of time you love just how much you can do just by relying on sheet music.

 

[Morne]

Great stuff from everyone so far.

Free bass challenge accepted... with a surprise appearance at the end!
Of course, only a one finger version as Ive only really started practicing free bass in the last two months.

This is recorded with a laptop, so please set your standards low.

<YOUTUBE id=nVEUav57Z1E url=></YOUTUBE>

 

[Geronimo]

This is recorded with a laptop, so please set your standards low.

The funny thing is that the small electret mics tend to deliver an actually rather good accordion rendition, just with too little bass and far too much noise. Midrange mics give you the bass and eliminate the noise at the price of having problems capturing the sound color. The noise is not that much of a problem when close enough.

<YOUTUBE id=nVEUav57Z1E url=></YOUTUBE>

Well, the surprise appearance brought a smile to my face. But thats actually its main purpose here since it does not do anything much that the right hand could not do at least as well on the accordion. Which was my problem with my first (only in the closet) attempt of switching left and right hand voices: basically the same as with less effort but worse.

Now of course the bravado is fine in its own right, but its actually a cherry on top when you can find a use that is actually also musically more compelling than what you started with...

 

[Glenn]

Heres my puny effort.
Tried to alter the chord voicings but not sure its worked.
Would have been better if I had written it down and practiced it more than a couple of times
Think I kept knocking the recording lead with my knee as there are a few crackles that I cannot explain.
Maybe I should throw out the cable and get another.

<SOUNDCLOUD id= url=></SOUNDCLOUD>

 

[jozz]

one for the click of the garden gate!

here we have one with the coat on

 

[jozz]

Tried to alter the chord voicings but not sure its worked.

suits fine, more tension buildup...

 

[losthobos]

Heres my puny effort.
Tried to alter the chord voicings but not sure its worked.

Nothing puny about that... them voicings sure have worked wonders....if you ever do write it out and can manage to get a transcription to me Id be most grateful..
:ch

 

[Morne]

Well, the surprise appearance brought a smile to my face. But thats actually its main purpose here since it does not do anything much that the right hand could not do at least as well on the accordion. Which was my problem with my first (only in the closet) attempt of switching left and right hand voices: basically the same as with less effort but worse.

You are right. It doesnt serve much purpose here, but I figured since were flipping the accordion sides, why not take it even further? Its got a nice cassotto-ish sound, which probably isnt that obvious here, but yes - it doesnt come close to what the Morino can do.

Now of course the bravado is fine in its own right, but its actually a cherry on top when you can find a use that is actually also musically more compelling than what you started with...

Bravado wouldve been earned if I could do all three parts successfully in one take. I tried to, but I kept making small mistakes. Perhaps too many context switches. Besides, that position soon becomes uncomfortable.
It wouldve been great if I could do more with it, but thats expecting too much of me. :lol:

 

[Geronimo]

Heres my puny effort.
Tried to alter the chord voicings but not sure its worked.

Worked quite consistently, just isnt the same thing. More pensive/meditative. When I looked for freely available choir arrangements, I found several in a similar vein and skipped them: somehow when I get to choose, I tend to end up with the boring old originals after all. Probably because I am too timid to justify change. The accordion also favors the simple chords, even though its not all that much work to press two chord buttons instead of one, C+Em or Am+C or so.

Think I kept knocking the recording lead with my knee as there are a few crackles that I cannot explain.
Maybe I should throw out the cable and get another.

The bellows can make crinkling sounds as well. But frankly, the extreme way the volume goes up and down without affecting the sound quality makes me suspect a digital accordion and that wouldnt make bellows sounds.

That would also be consistent with knocking the recording lead with my knee unless you have built-in mics.

 

[Geronimo]

When I looked for freely available choir arrangements, I found several in a similar vein and skipped them: somehow when I get to choose, I tend to end up with the boring old originals after all. Probably because I am too timid to justify change.

Turns out that splitting choir arrangements along the female/male line into left/right hand on converters tends to work pretty well: here is one not-really-carol I did years ago (and with worse recording tools than I have now at my hand):
[media]
Its really the unmodified Praetorius version. For someone as uncreative as myself, the free bass is a real help for playing things just as-is.

 

[JerryPH]

heres one for the road :ch

Ok, for someone called JAZZ... how appropriate a version of Silent Night was just that!! Bravo!

Free bass challenge accepted... with a surprise appearance at the end!

Bravo as well, Morne! Challenge well met and won, and your surprise ending did make me smile! A for the performance, and A+ for getting me in the Christmas spirit.

Tried to alter the chord voicings but not sure its worked.

Not only did it work, but it worked really well and yet again we see the personality of someone via their music... awesome contribution, Glenn! Great interpretation, and unique bass line!

here is one not-really-carol I did years ago

BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Sorry Geronimo... minus two points for posting a non-Slient Night song in the Silent Night thread... but we will return you back those points because your rendition of Silent Night was filled with Christmas spirit AND you were the first to post!

Sheesh, I disappear for a day and we get all these great contributions! Keep up the good work everyone, there have to be several more here that might want to take a swing at it!

 

[jozz]

Ok, for someone called JAZZ... how appropriate a version of Silent Night was just that!! Bravo!

its jozz with an O but Ill take it :!:

(as in Jozef)

 

[Geronimo]

here is one not-really-carol I did years ago

BZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Sorry Geronimo... minus two points for posting a non-Slient Night song in the Silent Night thread... but we will return you back those points because your rendition of Silent Night was filled with Christmas spirit AND you were the first to post!

I knew this was a bad idea. But I wanted to tell about how a converter maps to 4-part choir arrangements, and the Silent Night choir arrangements I found are either copyrighted and/or suck, and the original arrangements werent really 4-part.

I actually found a fingerpicking style guitar arrangement that one can play entirely in the right on CBA and add a drone bass on the left. I think the original rendition used a (somewhat more boring) guitar accompaniment, so your idea of putting that in the right hand and the comparatively easy melody parts in the free bass has independent merit. Its just that the original octave relations did not sound compelling. At any rate, I am pretty sure to give at least one other version to make up for my off-topic dig out.

 

[JerryPH]

its jozz with an O but Ill take it :!:

Sorry Jozz, but it was all quite very fine, if only in that one post, you were definitely JAZZing it all up.

 

[losthobos]

Ok, for someone called JAZZ... how appropriate a version of Silent Night was just that!! Bravo!

its jozz with an O but Ill take it :!:

(as in Jozef)
I wouldnt worry Jozz....im still waiting for the Tom and Jerry double act <EMOJI seq=1f609>?</EMOJI>

 

[Keymn]

My version. Fr4x solo with violin, accordion combo sounds. Korg PA3x arranger as backing.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/edka8gvqk30tjzf/silent night.MP3?dl=0