A Tune A Week

Right after McGreevy’s on John Williams. He did some interesting things with chords that made it tricky to pick out the melody in a couple of places, so I’m looking forward to playing this one with somebody else to see how they think it goes.

I’ve known this one for a goodly while in D; now I’ve learned it in C. Turns out it’s pretty easy if I’m careful not to run out of air, but the different bellows changes give it a bit of a different sound. Stand back, I’m branching out.

Also from the Jackie Daly album, tastily placed after Rising Sun. This one’s a bit tricky. It’s using parts of the A scale I’m not used to, like the high G# on the right side. I’m accustomed to having my right hand sit in one place, not dance all around like some kind of crazed spider.

I don’t think it’s what I thought before - it doesn’t hurt in the right place. I finally asked the doctor about it; on the diagnosis form, he checked the box beside “Synovitis/tendonitis/other,” which translated from Doc-ese means, “Who knows, but at least it ain’t broken.”

Right after Keeffe’s on the Jackie Daly record. I haven’t listened hard enough to be sure, but I’m betting he plays this one on the C row too. I am. It’s very strange to have D and B on the draw now; I’ve been ignoring those for a year, so I’m not used to it at all.

From Jackie Daly’s recording, Traditional Accordion and Concertina Music from Sliabh Luachra. It’s one of those I could hum along with from hearing it so many times, but had never actually learned to play until now. He plays it in C, along the row from what I can tell based on which notes are especially legato on the recording. I originally started learning across the rows on my “standard” scale, but then decided to go with the C row for kicks. There are some quick bellows changes either way. I wonder if other people in Nashville know this one, and play it in C. . . guess I’ll find out.

A nice E minor tune that Arcady plays after Toss the Feathers. If I tried to play this with my usual D scale, there would be too many notes in the same direction, and the keys would be too close together; so I’m moving the high B and D to the C row. That means some tricky bits with the bellows in the B part, so I may have to re-evaluate this once I start picking up speed. We’ll see. Em is a tricky key on this instrument.

From Jackie Daly. I’ve actually known this one for a while, and I’m just brushing up on it and sneaking it in for this month-long spell when I didn’t actually learn any new tunes… Heh. I’m honest, I swear.

Did I mention that my definition of “one per week” might not coincide with yours?

I finally got the entirety of this one at the McGuinness session the other day. (Thanks, Gretchen!) I’ve been hearing it there for months. In fact I wasn’t sure it was an Irish tune as such until I saw that Martin Hayes and Mary MacNamara had both recorded it, which quieted the reluctant hide-bound traditionalist voice in my head enough that I’m willing to count it for this project.

A week off to let my wrist recover. Sigh… I think it’s an inflammation of the extensor carpi radialis tendons where they pass over the wrist bone (number II in this handy image from a U. Oklahoma lab exercise). But I haven’t had anyone look at it, so that’s pure speculation at this point. Fortunately it goes away if I coddle my wrist for a while.

I heard this on Farewell and Remember Me, from Boys of the Lough. I knew the tune in high school, but couldn’t play it, if you know what I mean…