Today I’ve met a girl who plays piano accordion, but she’s quite new to irish music and doesn’t know exactly how to execute the common ornaments on it. I mean, she plays AMAZING, but she doesn’t know how can she play rolls, etc…
There is a webpage where is it explained? Or maybe someone can give me some information.. I’d be really grateful.
Thanks in advance,
Bothrops
Not aware of any web page. Karen Tweed has a CR-ROM tutor out, I think, but it might be too basic for needs of your friend.
The best advice you could give her would be to listen to good piano accordion players in Irish music and pick up on what they are doing. Well-known names are Alan Kelly, Karen Tweed and Jimmy Keane. It’s better to find embellishments that work on the instrument than to try to render others that really only make sense on other instruments. Anyway, good rhythm and swing are about 5000 times more - no, make that infinitely more - important than ornaments of any description.
There was a sad thread over at thesession.org not long ago. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been sad… A certain fellow was adamant that he could play “fiddle rolls” on the English concertina and posted sound clips to prove his point. Unfortunately he only succeeded in making himself appear utterly ridiculous (more through his attitude than his playing, though the latter was pretty awful). The point I am making is that there is no point in trying to execute what you think are rolls (or any other ornament) when you don’t know what they need to sound like and when your instrument isn’t really suited to them anyway.
Thanks for your answer, StevieJ.
She has indeed a very good sense of rhythm and swing, but she told me that she would like to sound ‘‘irish’’, and I don’t know how can I help her.
I play tin whistle and I’m learning to play flute, and when I play ornaments, she tries to imitate them by ear, but as you said, it’s not the same in every instrument.
So, for now, I’ll tell her to continue playing like she does, as far as she is keeping a good rhythm and swing.
Regards,
Martin
If the friend in question doesn’t know how to play rolls and other ornamentation on the PA, Karen Tweed´s tutor would be a very good place to start.