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Two of my Brazilian heroes in a duet

  • Thread starter Thread starter maugein96
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maugein96

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Several years ago I wanted to improve my Brazilian guitar playing and worked through a book by Nelson Faria. I cannot manage his fingerstyle, but learned a hell of a lot about Brazilian guitar along the way. 

Its likely none of you will have heard of Nelson Faria, but maybe youll know Chico Chagas?

Here they are both together, and seems I still have a long way to go. Mind you Ive got Chicos left hand down already, and just need to work out the rest! 



Here is Chico in another setting with the accordion as the focal point:-



A bit heavy for my listening preference, but Im getting used to his left hand stuff now!
 
maugein96 said:
Several years ago I wanted to improve my Brazilian guitar playing and worked through a book by Nelson Faria. I cannot manage his fingerstyle, but learned a hell of a lot about Brazilian guitar along the way. 

It's likely none of you will have heard of Nelson Faria, but maybe you'll know Chico Chagas?

Here they are both together....


John,
As usual, another worthwhile contribution!
Thanks :)
 
John,As usual, another worthwhile contribution!
Thanks :)

Hi Dingo,

Chico has lost a fair bit of weight in recent years, and I never recognised him in the clip at first.

He spent a few years in Europe and his music was spiced with more jazz when he went back to Brazil.

Ive fixed Chico up with bass lessons from this guy:-



Trick with Brazilian bass playing appears to be to keep the little finger off the buttons.
 
Very good, John  :)
Thanks for the new clip.
It looks as if Simão and Tostão went to the same accordion bass teacher  :)
 
Dingo40 pid=67392 dateline=1569804023 said:
Very good, John  :)
Thanks for the new clip.
It looks as if Simão and Tostão went to the same accordion bass teacher  :)

Dingo,

Most pro/semi pro Brazilian players Ive seen on You Tube are capable of playing melodies on the Stradella, but they never seem to used their little fingers. 

Chico Chagas does a few mini lessons on the mysteries of Brazilian bass button combinations on You Tube. 



The lessons are hosted on Nelson Farias channel, [font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]UM CAFÉ LÁ EM CASA[/font]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]Other accordion lessons are there as demonstrated here:-[/font]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif][/font]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]The channel is obviously mainly guitar orientated, but contains some gems such as this:-[/font]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif][/font]

Sorry, copied and pasted channel name and knocked all the font size to hell. 
 
Thanks John... That last clip is a true gem... Especially as im devoting this winter to learning the blues/boogie woogie bass patterns.. Real fun and thankfully on a 3x3.bass you can easily do away with the pinkie... You know anything i need to know please post.
I had a vid of C Chagas playing a superb arrangement of Somewhere over the rainbow, real sweet and not over cooked but sadly cant seem to find at the moment... Maybe itll appear latering
 
losthobos said:
Thanks John... That last clip is a true gem... Especially as im devoting this winter to learning the blues/boogie woogie bass patterns.. Real fun and thankfully on a 3x3.bass you can easily do away with the pinkie... You know anything i need to know please post.
I had a vid of C Chagas playing a superb arrangement of Somewhere over the rainbow, real sweet and not over cooked but sadly cant seem to find at the moment... Maybe itll appear latering

Hi Terry,

Had a look and couldn't find it. If I do come across it I'll post it on here. 

I suppose I never really made a successful transition from guitar to accordion, and I only discovered Chico Chagas playing Bossa and Samba along with Nelson Faria. Chico is a brilliant player, but I find his stuff a little bit "heavy" at times. 

Jazz is just a bit too technical for me to try and work out, and consequently I also struggle a bit with some Brazilian music. Guitar wise their finger style playing in its pure form would require years of practice, and I can't abide having long fingernails, but I picked up a lot of interesting new chords and progressions that sound passable on electric (to me). When you tell people these days you can only play guitar with a pick, you get some weird looks, but maybe not so weird as when you tell them you play a CBA accordion! 

I haven't played accordion now for quite a while (again) and have been off the forum for extended periods (again). We're currently hoping to move house, and I cannot switch off enough to get into playing music of any kind. Hopefully once we get settled into a new place I'll be able to pick up where I left off.
 
Thank you Maugein96! Great info, and Ive enjoyed the videos. I've watched that "bass lessons guy" you linked playing an excelsior940 and excelsior740 in some other vids, and he rocks that bass, and I rewatched over and over. It really impressed me, and its great to see! What people can do with the bass is amazing. Somewhere on youtube I remember seeing a guy play flight of the bumble bee with the bass and treble in unison (Stradella) too, it also blew my mind. Humbles you real fast!!
 
nagant27 pid=67407 dateline=1569856963 said:
Thank you Maugein96!  Great info, and Ive enjoyed the videos.  Ive watched that bass lessons guy you linked playing an excelsior940 and excelsior740 in some other vids, and he rocks that bass, and I rewatched over and over.  It really impressed me, and its great to see!  What people can do with the bass is amazing.  Somewhere on youtube I remember seeing a guy play flight of the bumble bee with the bass and treble in unison (Stradella) too, it also blew my mind.  Humbles you real fast!!

Hi,

It could have been James Lesueur in this clip, although he doesnt quite do that here. 

One of the few who was able to branch out of the traditional fare and make a success out of it. 

He played musette in his younger days, then sort of disappeared off the popular music scene. 

He obviously put his time to good use, as aptly demonstrated here. 

Such right hand virtuosity with very sparing use of the thumb was relatively common in both France and Italy, but required learning to play before any semblance of stiffness set in to the wrist and fingers. James just made it, as he waited until he was 4 years old before he began to play. 



His accordion is a Carpentier, made in Verdun, France.
 
John,
Re James Lesueur, amazing virtuosity! 
Thanks for the link!
Who couldn’t love the accordion? :)
 
Dingo40 pid=67421 dateline=1569912599 said:
John,
Re James Lesueur, amazing virtuosity! 
Thanks for the link!
Who couldn’t love the accordion? :)

Watch the faces of some of the oldies in this clip, who wish he would stop showing off and just play something they could dance to. 



When the accordion was taken to this level a lot of older types just stopped listening. 

For those of us who are into the accordion its great, but I do believe his audience would have preferred something like this (starts about 0.24).



As much as I appreciate James ability to be versatile, I would have to say that of the three clips I only really like the second one, New valse.  

Personally, I find overt displays of virtuosity on any instrument fascinating for the first 30 seconds or so, and the track in the third clip was the sort of stuff that expedited the guillotining of the accordion in France. Verchuren, Aimable, and countless others played that sort of material for years and turned it into a fine art. The generations of the day loved it and paid a lot of money to hear it. 

However, the younger generations likened it to the Onion Johnny stereotype of France, and were determined to rid themselves of it. It is still popular today, particularly in the north of France, but check the ages of the audience. Claude Caron is probably the most popular current exponent of the style. 

It is, after all, entertainment featuring the accordion, and long may it continue. 

Vive les Chtis!

 
Point taken, John.
I guess it’s horses for courses, and a wise performer knows their audience! :)
 
Dingo40 said:
Point taken, John.
I guess it’s horses for courses, and a wise performer knows their audience! :)

Hi Dingo,

The issue with a lot of accordion music, as you'll know, is that it is often indelibly linked to romantic bygone days. People in our generation obviously don't have an issue with that, and I get the feeling that these days classical music is probably playing a large part in keeping the accordion going with the younger set, certainly in some parts of Europe. 

They say that the old classics never die, but for people like me who was never a devotee of the classics, I don't get the same "kick" out of listening to the stuff James played in that first clip. His musicianship and technique are obviously amazing, but I would rather listen to music I might just have a chance of being able to play some day. 

Here in Scotland we still have an accordion culture centred around two basic styles. The folk players probably have an easier time of things with (slightly) more scope to improvise, but the country dance style is very exacting, and any player who dares to stray from the norm is generally treated with contempt. It is the audiences rather than the players who appear to control the repertoire, and I've never been able to play any musical instrument in strict tempo. If I'm not swinging the music or jazzing it up I just cannot play at all. 

Some Scottish players are excellent and have very diverse repertoires, but the very core of their existence is still what is classed as "traditional" Scottish folk and dance music. If they cannot play either of those styles they may as well throw their accordions on the fire.  

When I went to buy my first accordion in Scotland I was told that I would need to be able to play all of the typical Scottish dance tempos and I told the guy I wasn't interested. After he restrained himself from calling me a headcase he promptly advised me that trying to play any other style in Scotland would be a waste of time and effort, until I could play Scottish tunes at the demand of the audience. I was then asked why I didn't want a Scottish tuned PA, as I would "need" one to play with a teacher. 

I eventually bought a French CBA, and taught myself to play as best as I could. I never made much of a job of it, but was just as content I hadn't been rounded up with the rest of the sheep for shearing. 

Nothing against Scottish accordion at all, but I didn't like getting it rammed down my throat. 

As you say, horses for courses, and all that.
 
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