Christmas Concertina - New Tunebook For Anglo

[gcoover]

Thought you all might appreciate this sneak preview of a new book of Christmas tunes especially arranged for 30-button Anglo concertina, which will be available shortly through Amazon in the US, UK and Europe and hopefully through The Button Box as well.

 

110 pages, 50 tunes, utilizing the same tablature system as "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style".

 

In addition to old standards like "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing", it also includes folk classics likes "Jacob's Well" and "Shepherds Arise".

 

The melody lines of all tunes are shown in standard musical notation, so can be played by any concertina, or any other musical instrument.

 

2013-11-30: Mentioned elsewhere, but appropriate here as well, I'm adding one tune a day from the book to YouTube (angloconc channel) in the spirit of those wonderful old Advent Calendars.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Gary

Edited November 30, 2013 by gcoover

[Dan Worrall]

Well done, Gary, and thanks for your effort in creating this. That is a niche that needed filling. And so nicely done...the chords are nicely chosen.

 

One question though. Where is Mele Kalikimaka, the Hawaiian Christmas song (usually sung by der Bingle)? Given your new domicile, I should think it would be a natural. Just the thing for sitting back with a yuletide Mai Tai on the lanai!

 

Very best wishes for success with the book, and congratulations. Santa will find it on my wish list.

 

Dan

[cboody]

Nice work! I'm not an anglo player, but I can recognize all the careful hard work (to say nothing of the proof reading) that goes into something like this. I've several books out, and it is a real chore. Yours has a limited audience which makes it even more a labor of love. Thanks for your efforts and good luck with the book. I hope lots of folks buy it.

[cboody]

Well done, Gary, and thanks for your effort in creating this. That is a niche that needed filling. And so nicely done...the chords are nicely chosen.

 

One question though. Where is Mele Kalikimaka, the Hawaiian Christmas song (usually sung by der Bingle)? Given your new domicile, I should think it would be a natural. Just the thing for sitting back with a yuletide Mai Tai on the lanai!

 

Very best wishes for success with the book, and congratulations. Santa will find it on my wish list.

 

Dan

Great idea, but copyright issues….

[gcoover]

Yes, chasing down copyrights and permissions can be quite the task, which is why this Christmas book is only oldies but goodies. There are lots of great newer tunes that I would have loved to include, and would love to hear played on Anglo, but there were already so many good old ones out there it was really hard to pare down the list.

 

I really wanted to include Brian Peters' arrangement of the Dark Island TV theme (real name: "Dr. MacKay's Farewell to Creagorry) in "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style", but the original copyright holder wanted a ridiculous amount of money, especially for something like a tiny-little-micro-sub-niche Anglo concertina book. I did have the distinct pleasure of telling them to forget it, and Brian very graciously gave permission to use his beautiful melody "Sweet Sorrow" instead, so it actually turned out for the better!

 

Gary

[Wolf Molkentin]

Though I don't play the Anglo I'm glad to find the dots of just the two songs (the second and the third excerpted) I'd liked to go for and am not that familiar with from my "European" childhood...

 

Thank you for that - and keep up the good work!

 

In fact I love playing some Christmas carols on the concertina - might be the THEME OF THE MONTH December?

[owlgal]

Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?

[Marcus]

Awesome Gary! Looking forward to having a go at those 3 tunes. I'm up for a copy for sure!

[gcoover]

Well done, Gary, and thanks for your effort in creating this. That is a niche that needed filling. And so nicely done...the chords are nicely chosen.

 

One question though. Where is Mele Kalikimaka, the Hawaiian Christmas song (usually sung by der Bingle)? Given your new domicile, I should think it would be a natural. Just the thing for sitting back with a yuletide Mai Tai on the lanai!

 

Very best wishes for success with the book, and congratulations. Santa will find it on my wish list.

 

Dan

 

All I can say, is for those of us in tropical climes, Christmas songs are easily adaptable.....just substitute the word "sand" for "snow", "balmy" for "freezing", "Mai Tai" for "eggnog", "surfboard" for "sleigh"...you get the idea!

 

There's a great really rare LP (oops, dating myself here) that is bright green plastic and shaped like a Christmas tree that has, in addition to the best punk rock version of Silent Night EVER, the Malibooz singing "Santa's Gone Surfing". Maybe some intrepid concertina players out there will tackle these newer tunes and at least post them on YouTube?!? The challenge is ON.

 

Gary

 

[marshall]

Well done again. I must put this on my Christmas list. Chas

[Rod Thompson]

Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?

I think the 1a-10 part is described here

 

http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/fly_around_assets/Concertina_tab_explaination.pdf

 

but the layout is a bit different.

[maki]

It's up for sale on Amazon-

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Concertina-Gary-R-Coover/dp/0615909663/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385476209&sr=1-2&keywords=gary+coover

[badwellmac]

Just placed my order,

 

Will receive on Thursday !!

 

have been working on the first 3 tunes,

 

delightful to play !!

 

well done Gary

 

regards

 

karl

[Don Taylor]

 

Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?

I think the 1a-10 part is described here

 

http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/fly_around_assets/Concertina_tab_explaination.pdf

 

but the layout is a bit different.

 

I think that this is what Owlgal is looking for:

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15290

[gcoover]

Thanks for the kind comments, all! The book is indeed now available on Amazon US, UK and Europe, and The Button Box will have copies shortly.

 

I have really enjoyed working up these wonderful old tunes, and hope you all have at least half as much fun learning and playing them.

 

Mentioned elsewhere, but worth mentioning here, is the "Concertina Video Advent Calendar" - one tune a day from the book will be uploaded to YouTube (angloconc) between now and Christmas. So far, the three tunes from the excerpt have been posted - The First Nowell, In the Bleak Midwinter, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. More to come. Requests possibly accommodated. Enjoy!

Gary

[owlgal]

 

 

Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?

I think the 1a-10 part is described here

 

http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/fly_around_assets/Concertina_tab_explaination.pdf

 

but the layout is a bit different.

 

I think that this is what Owlgal is looking for:

http://www.concertina.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=15290

 

 

Thanks!

[mthatcher61]

Ordered mine yesterday Gary. It is due to arrive on Monday. Thank you for filling a much needed niche.

[gcoover]

 

Oooh this looks great. Which tutor books uses this tablature system?

I think the 1a-10 part is described here

 

http://jodykruskal.com/tune_of_the_month/fly_around_assets/Concertina_tab_explaination.pdf

 

but the layout is a bit different.

 

 

Yes, Jody uses the same Anglo button numbering system, which is also what the first German concertina tutors used in the early 1870's when the third row began appearing on top of the two more "normal" rows. It's my favorite numbering system since it easily shows what can be played on a 20-button instrument, yet also gives 30-button players a heads-up that some of the notes are up in the accidentals/alternates row.

 

Jody has since ditched all those annoying P's and D's and clutter of extra staves, and now writes music very similar to what's in "Anglo Concertina in the Harmonic Style". He shows the melody button numbers in bold type, which I really like, but haven't figured out how to do yet!

 

There are lots of different Anglo tablature systems out there, and I think I've tried every one at some point, but for me, this one is by far the easiest to learn and play from, and works especially well even if just writing out tunes in pencil. I also like the way the overhead line (or lack thereof) can help indicate potential phrasing. Simple is good - no need to make learning the Anglo any more complex or difficult than it already is!

 

Gary