Beginners' Melodeon Tunes and Techniques CD - Dave Mallinson

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."

•   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