Description

Description

This CD accompanies the book of the same name.

This fine collection of traditional music introduces dance tunes from various regions of Britain, Ireland and North America They are all excellent tunes, well-known and popular, but not over-played, hackneyed or obscure. Most of the tunes can be heard on recordings by notable bands and personalities, they are all currently in use by traditional musicians and are regularly played at concerts, dances and pub sessions. All of the tunes introduce some aspect of melodeon playing, and they are all presented in their normal keys. Learn 75 traditional tunes from England, Scotland, Wales, Shetland, Orkney, Ireland, France, Flanders, Canada and America. Morris and Playford tunes. Reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, slides, mazurkas, waltzes, barn dances, marches, rants, slip jigs and triple hornpipes. The tunes are perfect for pub sessions, country dances, ceilidhs, barn dances and hoedowns.

“Welcome to my melodeon book. It’s full to bursting with useful ideas, hints, tricks, tips, techniques and great tunes to improve your playing style, speed up the learning process and to give you a better understanding of the instrument. It’s been a massive project, but it’s been well worth it, I’ve learned such a lot by writing it. When I got my first instrument there wasn’t a single D/G tutor book on the market, and even now, fifty years on, you’ll be lucky to find a dozen, so acquire every book you can. If you are new to the instrument, use this book in conjunction with simpler tutors. The lessons start at rock bottom, but the degree of difficulty rises steeply. Above the music, in addition to the fingering instructions, there are icons with names you might find corny and mildly amusing. However, they are essential to describe the fingering patterns, and a useful handle to help you apply them to other tunes.

You might think this book is a bit too complicated to be called “Beginners”. Yes, that may be so, but if you want to become proficient, you must practise, and without guidance you can easily find yourself practising unsound techniques. It’s no use waiting until you’ve formed bad habits before you think you are ready to tackle these lessons. Once you’ve learned a tune thoroughly, it can be very difficult to change the way you play it, after discovering a superior fingering pattern. Presented in this book is knowledge that has slowly trickled in during half a century of study. It’s my hope and desire that it will inspire players, boost their progress, propel their playing to excellence, and spur them on to perform with far greater skill, dexterity and aplomb, than I have been able to achieve.

Instant Melodeon, Absolute Beginners and Tunes and Techniques are three melodeon tuition books designed to be used simultaneously, not in any particular sequence.”

Track Listing

1. Scale 1

2. Scale 2

3. Scale 3

4. Scale 4

5. Scale 5

6. Scale 6

7. Scale 7

8. Scale 8

9. Country Gardens Mini

10. Country Gardens

11. Little Brown Jug

12. Polly Wolly Doodle

13. Market Rasen Quickstep

14. Not for Joe

15. The Leeds Polka

16. Percy Brown’s Polka

17. Albert Farmer’s

18. The Morisco

19. Moston Rushcart

20. My Love My Love

21. One More Ribber

22. The Rogue’s March

23. Captain Lanoe’s

24. Whose Jig?

25. The Squirrel in the Tree

26. Burning Bridges

27. The Lollipop Man Mini

28. The Lollipop Man

29. The Rose Tree

30. Lord of the Dance

31. Mount Hills Mini

32. Mount Hills

33. Dark Girl

34. Up and Away

35. Fred Pidgeon’s Polka

36. I’ll Go Enlist for a Sailor

37. Jack Robinson

38. Owen’s Jig

39. Hill of Glenorchy Mini

40. Hills of Glenorchy

41. Paddy Carey

42. Tripping to the Well Mini

43. Tripping to the Well

44. The West Kerry Polka

45. Many a Wild Night

46. The Scartaglen Slide

47. Moyglass Fair

48. Joe Cooley’s Jig

49. The Blackthorn Stick

50. Up Leitrim

51. The Streets of Laredo

52. The Cumberland Waltz

53. Séamus McManus’s

54. Red Haired Mary

55. Fairlop Park

56. Sir Philip McHugh

57. Dusty Miller

58. Dusty Miller, less bass

59. Rusty Gulley

60. Rusty Gulley, less bass

61. Old Lancashire

62. Old Lancashire, less bass

63. Rig-a-Jig

64. The Spirit of the Dance

65. The Farmers’ Jamboree

66. Woodland Flowers

67. Postman’s Knock Mini

68. Postman’s Knock

69. The Little Burnt Potato

70. Bodmin Riding March

71. Moonshine

72. Colored Aristocracy Mini

73. Colored Aristocracy

74. Yarmouth Hornpipe Mini

75. The Yarmouth Hornpipe

76. Valentine

77. The Auvergne Mazurka

78. Old Donegal Mazurka

79. Much Wenlock

80. Jenny’s Bawbee

81. Marching Thro’ Georgia

82. MacNamara’s Band

83. If There Weren’t Any

84. The Stack of Oats

85. The Shannon Waves

86. Glise de Sherbrooke Mini

87. Glise de Sherbrooke

88. Durham Ranges Mini

89. Durham Rangers

90. The Hesleyside Reel

91. Mona’s Delight

92. The Old Polka

93. The Portheinon Whim

94. Sheehan’s Reel

95. Da Mirrie Boys

96. Three Jolly Sheepskins