Skip to content

Tag: accordian

Sir Sidney Smith’s March – A Tutorial

This is a fantastic tune, and melodeon.net’s tune of the month for December 2023. Quite tricky, so here I break it down to its individual bits, and take you through how to play it.

I’m playing it on a D/G Hohner Pokerwork, so it should work on any 2 row 8 bass box. On my melodeon, it’s a 3rd button start, the basses have the thirds taped off, and the B bass note is an octave lower than most boxes. Doesn’t matter for this tune of course.

Comments closed

Polperro Bay

Ollie King’s tune, which is tune of the month for July 2023 over at melodeon.net. Quite hard to figure out a way to play this without having the full range of low notes, so I’ve gone for playing it (mostly) in the upper octave.

Played on a D/G Castagnari Giasco I in D; I believe the original is written in G.

Comments closed

The Matelot

A nice straightforward jig for Melodeon.net’s tune of the month for January 2023. Here played in Bb on a Bb/Eb Hohner Preciosa.

Comments closed

Manus Lunny’s Terracotta Plower Pop

Also known as Para Handy’s, since it was used as the theme for the 1990’s remake of Tales of Para Handy on scottish TV. Written by accordion genius Phil Cunningham.

Played, rather tangentially, for melodeon.net’s theme of the month for October 2022, tunes whose names start with P.

Played on a standard, albeit dry tuned, Hohner Pokerwork in D/G.

Comments closed

La Marianne

A re-run of this melodeon.net tune of the month from 2011. 11 years on, I wonder if I play it any differently? This time I’m on a G/C Albrecht Liliput – a gorgeous little box that excels at this sort of stuff.

Traditional french apparently, discovered (rather than written as I previously thought) by Fred Paris.

Comments closed

Jiggery Pokerwork

A quick go at this John Spiers tune, played on a Hohner Pokerwork (of course). Great tune, and an alltime classic I think. Pleasantly surprised to find I can play it 🙂

Melodeon.net theme of the month for February 2022, ‘Tunes that start with J’ – we’re working our way through the alphabet!

Comments closed

Jamais Deux sans Toi

Always liked this tune; this month’s melodeon.net theme of ‘tunes with names that start with J’ gives me the perfect excuse. Written by Stephane Delicq, of course, and I learned this of Massimo Craveri’s fantastic video whose videos are about as perfect a demo of the tune as we could possibly hope for. Inaccuracies are mine, and not his. Haven’t spent long learning this tune yet (30 mins!) so I’m not fluent yet, but here’s where I’ve got to so far.

Played on a Van der Aa Compact III in G/C, but this will fit on a standard 2 row 8 bass like pretty much all of Stephane’s music.

Comments closed

Anna Foxe

Here’s a tune written by Josephine Marsh; lovely tune, usually played a bit quicker than my approach – I’m going for a slow march here. Am playing it in the upper octave in G on a D/G Castagnari Mory, though I have a few things on my bass to make things a little easier than it would be on a usual 8 bass box.

Melodeon.net tune of the month for Feb 2022.

Comments closed

Sunshine

A quick run through Gregory Jolivet’s splendid schottische, ‘Sunshine’ – melodeon.net’s tune of the month for June 2021. A no frills straight down the line version in D on a D/G Castagnari Giasco I.

Comments closed