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Has anyone here had a go at Brighton Camp (The Girl I Left Behind) on C-system? I'm really struggling with that one, possibly because I spent so very long getting to (near) grips with it on the piano accordion.
Can't help you with CBA, but I have also just learned it on PA, for an event teaching it to 70 chinese children on a cultural exchange. It was rather chaotic as you can imagine. I think they preferred the simpler, but more "fun", Shepherd's Hey which was the Grand Finale.
I haven't ever tried it except messing about, but was there any particular section that was causing trouble? One of the quirks of the CBA is how you ask five people how to play a certain bit, you get five different answers, and one of them works for you... (I'm not suggesting I'd be the one with the answer)
:shock: Good point, Matt... I keep coming across recommendations to play on the bottom three rows only, but I just want to find the easiest/fastest way.
The bits I'm finding hard are the runs in the A part - I'm attaching a PDF of the version we play.
I've got neither accordion nor teacher to hand, and it's not elegant, but:
CBAG
1312
???
That would all be on the first three rows, but not out of principle, just because it is. The mrs would be up on the fourth row I'm sure, perhaps more ergonomic and elegant. Now six people will come along and suggest something better.
Altho' I've been at my cba for just 6mths I really do find it hard to understand why so many people say stick to the 3 rows.
I think it might have come from the French love of "rigour." For example, are they the only ones to have no markings on the R-hand?
As they say, if you can do hard, you can do easy - don't believe it myself.
Using all 5 rows you have a run like this:
G F#
row 2 1
E D C B A G
row 2 3 4 3 4 5
Emin arpeggio on rows 3 and 5 5
Run up
F# G F# G A B C D
row 4 5 4 5 4 3 4 5 etc
That's not to dismiss Matt's suggestion - I too use the thumb - index -- thumb for similar runs, just arguing for using the options where they exist
I also find it useful to use the thumb for example where a tune drops down from g to d (or f to c etc) as it leaves the hand in a good position to go on with the rest of the tune.
Dunlustin - fab! That did the trick. The advantage of the 5-row is also its hindrance, i.e. having the choice of playing 2/3 of the notes in the upper or lower rows. Combining that with different fingering options creates too many choices sometimes. Anyway, you've helped me break through that. Now I just need to practise it another 100 times or so to get the speed...
Anyanka
As George illustrates, there's always choices.
I imagine that may be the biggest obstacle coming from a PA where there may be a choice of finger but there's little choice of fingering.
I came to the cba via the 40key Anglo concertina, a 3-row melodeon (row-crossing) and a B/C/C# accordion. In each of those choice is almost always there. So when learning a tune on cba, I start from the principle that my 1st choice could well not be the best.
A word of caution: with hindsight, I could have made more of the push/pull aspect of the 3-row melodeon so that the 1st choice could be the best after all!
If it was simple, we wouldn't do it!
and I would add to that '' if the fingering is difficult there may well be a better way of doing it'' so always spend time experimenting. This applies to continental and BRitish Chromatic systems but also to some degree to piano boxes, particularly where large and rapid movements up and down the keyboard are required.
In time the various ways found by experimentation become intuitive and will automatically be used as required on the particular bit of a particular tune
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