Questions about button boxes

[cw67q]

All of the Above, Steve


"It is easier to play the type of tune you are more familiar with".

rather than

"this class of tune (polka) is easier (than reels or jigs)."

Sure, if you are an absolute beginer with no experience on any instrument and new to trad then some polkas probably are easier than reels or jigs (well than reels anyway). But whichever you play it is going to be a while before it sounds any good.
[i]Edit And only easier because many non-SL musicians set the bar lower for polkas than for other forms of tunes (IMHO)[/i]

OTOH if you have been playing trad for a long time on another instrument and mostly playing jigs and reels then it makes sense to start with those tunes on the new instrument rather than a type of tune that you don't normally play much. You'll have a much better feel for how your normal repertiore of tune should sound, and where you are falling short. it'll still be a while before you are any good, hopefully not as long as in the case above though, and partly because your perception of where "good" begins will be somewhat different from a total beginer.

I only play a handful of polkas and slides myself, and I bet an SL style player would laugh at how I played them. I don't see the point in starting off with those types of tune which I'm less comfortable with because they are percieved as somehow easier.

I don't have a good feel for polkas (not saying I'm all that great at reels mind, but I'm more comfortable with them), why would I start playing them before reels?

i've just read over this, and I think I'm even less clear than before

Cheers - chris

[StevieJ]

Fair enough Chris, though as someone who plays both polkas and reels for set dancing (and therefore takes polkas seriously), I know which I would call easier for beginners. I mentioned polkas to Jim because he was asking for a realistic timeframe. After I'd been playing box a few months I started playing polkas and waltzes with my dance band, then jigs a bit later, and lastly - quite a bit later - reels.

I remember the effort of getting through the first set of reels on stage at full tilt. Afterwards I felt as if I'd run a marathon. I suppose I was still fighting the bellows... While I agree that if Jim or anyone else doesn't play polkas, there's not much point in learning them on the box. But I wouldn't recommend that anyone start with reels. There's too much preliminary stuff you need to figure out before you can tackle them - and that's true of reels on any instrument imo.

[cw67q]

Hi Steve,

Yes I only play polkas with any regularity at ceili.

I think I've started a set of polkas precisely once at a session over the last year or so. The only other time I've played polkas at a session in that time interval was when Eddie Marley (an older glasgwegian fiddler) popped in. He doesn't play many polkas either but has a particularly nie set comprised of the Girl with the Blue Dress on/ the Sword of St Columba/ the Knocknabour. I've always called this set "the Girl that St Columba Knocked up", which never goes down well
(edit: my name never goes down well. The set of tunes is great)

I used to play this set of tunes regularly with Eddie years back, but I have nowadays trouble reaclling the first 2 tunes until I hear the opening notes, need to sit down and try to recall them. The last one is in one of the ceili sets but with the long high notes in the last part rearranged.

Very few people play many polkas at sessions around here, although they are typically the tunes taught to beginers. The sets that do turn up regularly at some sessions are very predictable and whilst fine tunes in themselves never strike me as being done with much conviction.

Away from sessions, polkas are always a hit at ceilis, particularly with non-musicians, maybe you are probably right about them being easier to get a handle on if you are new to trad music. I can't play without smiling when "the Britches Full of Stitches" turns up in the middle of one of the ceili sets. In itself it is such a non-tune, but it does give a great lift ina ceili. Plus loads of the dancers are usually musicains, and I'm sure they are all thinking "Oh, my goodness! What in the world?, they're playing 'the britches'"

Cheers - chris

ha ha ha "oh my goodness" yeah right. That is what I types

[StevieJ]

"The Girl that St Columba Knocked up", which never goes down well

I can remember the shock on the faces of some older, very Catholic members of an audience (Melbourne, early 1980s) when one of my bandmates (who had himself trained as a priest but didn't take holy orders) announced a tune as "The Ashtray on the Altar".

Back to the present day: when did I say anything about polkas in connection with people being new to trad music? You are reading things that aren't there... Jim isn't new to trad and I had been at this Irish music caper for almost 30 years when I took up the box.

Cheers
Steve

[cw67q]

Sorry Steve, didn't mean to imply that you had said something that you hadn't. (And more specifically I didn't intend to imply waht you took out of my message, that wasn't how I had understood you). I just got sucked into tangential issues.

Actually I think the simpler examples of polkas do make quite good choices for people that are completely new to trad, although I think jigs acn be fine too.

What I tend to disagree with is polkas as first choice for someone taking up a second intrument within trad.
Good idea if polkas are a big part of their normal repertiore. But I don't think they are _necessarily_ a better choice than jigs or reels in this case e.g. if you rarely play polkas on your established instrument, but do play jigs and reals then it makes more sense to go with these latter tunes on the 2nd intrument. (In my impossible to undervalue opinion that is).

Looks like I've managed to make myself less clear with every post. Not the first time this has happened either

Best wishes - Chris