D/G Melodeon Book Absolute Beginners - Dave Mallinson

The aim of this book is to get students off to the best possible start on the D/G melodeon, by presenting information that might otherwise take years to accumulate.

There are many styles of traditional music where the melodeon and its siblings play a major role. Irish, English, French, Tex-Mex, French Canadian, Cajun, Morris and Zydeco are all typical examples. This is not intended to be a specialist book but it endeavours to give students a good grounding, helping them to easily move on to whatever music genre takes their fancy. However, the lessons within are completely based on traditional playing styles and tunes from Britain and Ireland.

In all walks of life, whether it be mathematics, designing aeroplanes or playing the violin, mankind progresses by first being taught what previous generations have learned, before moving on. Unfortunately, in the case of the melodeon, this doesn‰۪t seem to happen; melodeon students all seem to have to start at rock bottom and work things out for themselves. Although things are improving considerably there is still a long way to go; hopefully, this book will make a useful and effective contribution to rectifying this situation.åÊ

If you want to become proficient on any musical instrument, you must practise. There is no way round this. You can have the best tuition in the world, but without practice it is useless. Unfortunately, without guidance, it is very easy for students to find themselves practising unsound techniques and falling into bad habits and sloppy playing. It is the intention of this book to steer players into acquiring efficient techniques and to help them develop good habits, from day one. It isåÊassumed that readers of this tutor have no previous knowledge of the melodeon or music: all topics start with absolute basics.

There are many different ways of playing the melodeon. Even sticking rigidly to the methods advocated in this book gives plenty of scope for choice. It is not the intention of this book to lay down hard and fast rules, but to provide information for you to make up your own mind: there are always several ways of playing a tune correctly.

• Foreword by Andy Cutting
• Introduction
• The Squeezebox Family
• Music Basics for Squeezers
• Introducing the D/G Melodeon
• Holding the Melodeon
• The Air Button
• The High Octave
• The Treble Buttons
• Counting Time
• Major Keys
• Minor Keys
• Shifting Hand Position
• Introducing the Bass Buttons
• Playing the Bass in Time
• Various Rhythms
• Crossing the Rows
• The Basses
• Playing the Other Bass Buttons
• Um Cha Through Some Easy Tunes
• Smoothing the Bellows Action
• The Other Chord in the key of D
• Fundamentals and Chords
• Playing the Bass in Harmony
• Percussive Bass : No Bass
• Drones and Snappy Off-Beats
• Accidentals
• A minor and B minor
• Slides and Slip Jigs
• The Key of A
• The Variable Buttons
• TransposingåÊ
• åÊ
• Tunes
• åÊ
• Hot Cross Buns!
• Baa Baa Black Sheep
• Jingle Bells
• Little Brown Jug
• Mulberry Bush
• Oranges and Lemons
• Bobby Shaftoe
• Three Blind Mice
• Whip Jamboree
• Drunken Sailor
• Silent Night
• The Best of Society
• Fr̬re Jacques
• Egan‰۪s Polka
• What Can the Matter Be?
• Cock of the North
• Katie Bairdie
• The Keel Row
• Polly Put the Kettle On
• Skip to My Lou
• Shepherds‰۪ Hey
• Tralee Gaol
• I Have a Bonnet
• Donkey Riding
• Buffalo Girls
• Uncle Bernard‰۪s Polka
• Rakes of Mallow
• Davy Davy Knick Knack
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• Bonny Green Garters
• Rodney
• Liza Jane
• Constant Billy
• The Twenty-Ninth of May
• Sweet Jenny Jones
• My Darling Asleep
• The Steamboat
• Sonny‰۪s Mazurka
• Speed the Plough
• Soldiers‰۪ Joy
• Staten Island
• A Trip to the Cottage
• The Tenpenny Bit
• Tripping Upstairs
• The Scattery Island Slide
• Drops of Brandy
• Bill Sullivan's Polka
• Sweeney‰۪s Polka